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Private Personal Agents vs. Microsoft's Passport
stefaanh asks: "With the recent MS Passport concerns, I remembered an 'IEEE Expert' 'JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1997 article called 'Managing your privacy in an on-line world' written by Michael McCandless. It talks about why you would hand out private information (on the Net), and proposes a personal agent that manages your info, in a way that you control, what, who and when to give out a selection of your sensitive data. Who benefits: you, and the companies that don't pay for outdated or inaccurate data anymore, but [pay you] for accessing correct data. Since I consider Passports 'security' not as serious as the potential of consumer tracking, what sits in the way for this personal agent to challenge the threat of Passport's centralized approach? Isn't the time right for such an implementation?"
The police will be able to come to your door and demand your electronic wallet. Or in an auto accident, the opposing party can demand it in discovery. Think of the black boxe in your totalled vehicle, now in the possession the insurance company. What if it contained GPS data?
Fight Spammers!
It keeps your personal data (optionally encrypted) and fills in forms for you. You can then select what data you want actually sent.
Is this what the asker referred to?
Make even shorter URLs - 8LN.org
Even if we have dedicated networks to homes, and even if those networks are deployed to everyone's home like telephones, and even if we create this cryptographically secure database, how do we prevent someone from getting information out of it, and then reselling that information to someone else?
I think that this guy has an interesting idea, but I don't think that it's necessarily a solution for the privacy problem. I do very much like the idea of flipping a switch on my home PC to invite people to advertise to me for services that I need at the current time (e.g. my washer just broke and I need a new one). But how do I then prevent the phone number, contact information, interests, etc that I just gave out to Sears (et al) from getting stored in their own database and being resold to someone else?
Did I miss something in the article that addressed this?
Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
I think you're missing something.
"They" are trying to come up with a system so you don't HAVE to type that data in over and over (good for those of us with RSI). The corporate world throws in the added benifit for themselves of keeping the data that allows them to profile and target consumers. What we need is a system that benefits us. I don't mind helping a company out but I want to choose when to do it.
You can argue that if you don't like it you don't have to do it, but what if it becomes a wide spread system? What if for some assinine system the US government started using MS passport to log into the IRS page and you HAD to file electronically? You start getting boxed into a corner. It's important that we have some say over the information profiles on us.
Never understimate the power of human stupidity -Lazarus Long
They are called financial managers. They get all the bills, they keep tabs on all expenses, they handle all dealings with the financial world. All the rich person does is spend it and read reports on the interest they've earned.
So why shouldn't the rest of us have the same thing? I hate having to update dozens of records across the country every time i change an address or lose a credit card. Switching banks caused a huge uproar in my automatic online banking.
It's like e-mail. I would have to be a complete idiot to use my ISP-given e-mail box. As soon as a switch providers, its worthless since no ISP wants to offer a nice handy eForwarding option (even for a small fee). They want to punish you for leaving. Not even that, sometimes ISPs decide on their own to change their addresses (like what Netscape did when it bought some free webmail thing, or like MediaOne did when they became part of @Home).
So what do I do? I get my own domain and give that out. When my ISP changes, I don't care. Update the record in a single place and I'm done.
Extra layers of abstraction, like this, are desperately needed in the financial sector. I would love to see some AI that could handle the same functions as a financial manager without me having to make enough interest off of my measly savings account to be able to pay his salary.
- JoeShmoe
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
I don't want to dismiss the fear, because I think it is important.
But why attack Passport? How is Passport any more centralized than Visa or Mastercard?
You don't think credit card companies track your purchases? You don't get a statement at the end of the month? In the case of American Express they send you a statement at the end of the year that even classifies your purchases, so much at restaurants, so much for travel, etc...
These reactions seem to be more anti-Microsoft kneejerk reactions than any serious discussion of the problems and solutions. I don't see much value in that tactic.