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Tech News Weekly: Edition 31-09

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Ehtyar:
ROFL. I must include nerdy movie trailers more often it would seem. YVW Edvard :)

Well said, as always, 4wd.

Ehtyar.

zridling:
re: 4. UK's National ID Card Unveiled

The UK government needs to understand that creating a single, all-powerful "proof" of identity is exactly the wrong thing to do. Once compromised, it is dangerous in unforeseen ways. Worse, it gives far too much power to the provider of that infrastructure (which is why the government loves it).

I'm imagining a country that wants to attract the best and brightest immigrants will liberalize their internet policies as much as possible, and corner a lot of brains in one place!

Lashiec:
I wonder why that opposition to ID cards (well, in UK's case, it's pretty understandable, giving their awful privacy protection track record). As if governments already didn't have all that information and more about citizens...

Ehtyar:
It's not about the Government having the info Lash Man, it's about the potential misuse in the hands of malcontents. By creating a single all-powerful form of ID as Zaine to aptly called it, you provide the means for all-in-one identity theft in a nice neat gift-wrapped package.

Ehtyar.

40hz:
As if governments already didn't have all that information and more about citizens...
-Lashiec (August 04, 2009, 09:22 AM)
--- End quote ---

You hit the nail right on the head with that one, Lash.

In the US, instead of having identity control in the hands of a government agency, which is (theoretically) accountable to review and subject to constitutional safeguards, we have a  mish-mash of private entities collecting and sharing our information constantly subject to no restrictions other than what they choose impose on themselves.

Digital is everywhere. And because of that, we leave a data trail almost every time we interact with the outside world. After that, it's just a matter of correlating the data.

Look how easy it is.

Gasoline purchases can give somebody an idea of how much traveling you're doing. Said you were home for the last two weeks? Then try explaining why you filled your car up 3 times during that time period. Three tanks will give you a cruising range of about 1K miles. (And besides, you also didn't answer your home telephone once during that period.) So...where did you go?  Oh...sorry...don't bother. We'll just have a look at your cellphone records...and the security tapes of all the places you used your ATM or credit cards.

Are you a potential "risk candidate"?

Use your credit card at Borders, and somebody can get a good idea of what you're reading. Buy a lot of current event titles? Subscribe to several magazines that tend to dis government policies? Use a little profiling and you can extrapolate where somebody's political sympathies lie. Does the 'subject' purchase a lot of military books? Maybe even a book on lock picking - or few of those prank and hack titles? Has he/she bought a weapon recently? Camouflage hunting gear? How about "camping" equipment? What, the subject is taking flying lessons too? Hmmm... interesting.

It goes on and on...

I have a friend who's married to an FBI agent. He said he could learn more about what somebody was up to by reviewing their bank statements, phone bills, and credit information, then he could by assigning a surveillance team to monitor them for a month.


The only reason we no longer have privacy is because most governments don't want us to have much  - if any. :tellme:

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