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 Who benefits: you, and the companies that don't pay for outdated or inaccurate data anymore, but [pay you] for accessing correct data.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?"

Comments

ESR on the WTC Attack

[szcx]

Boneheaded, opportunistic comment of the day. Last week Jerry Falwell blamed the WTC attack on the ACLU, feminists, and gays. Here's what ESR has to say about it;

Raymond, the libertarian open-source guru, known for his love of firearms, suggested that if the passengers of the hijacked jets had had guns the four-plane tragedy might have been prevented: "We have learned today that trying to keep civilian weapons out of airplanes and other areas vulnerable to terrorist attack is not the answer either -- indeed, it is arguable that the lawmakers who disarmed all the non-terrorists on those four airplanes, leaving them no chance to stop the hijackers, bear part of the moral responsibility for this catastrophe."

The story about this took less than five minutes to be rejected by the editors. Apparently when your stock is circling the drain, a member of the Board of Directors saying something like that isn't something you necessarily want publicised.

Think air rage is bad now? Try arming those drunk businessmen and see what happens.

My thoughts on the above article...

[Igloo Boy]

Brrrr... Is it ever cold outside. I think I'll just stay home. I love hanging out beside my wood stove, it keeps me warm. It, however, doesn't ever get warm enough to melt my igloo.