Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

USPS To Provide Personal Identity Certification

Posted by timothy on from the in-their-efficient-cheerful-fashion dept.

Zentalon writes "The United States Postal Service has announced that it will provide In-Person Proofing (pdf) to physically authenticate individuals before a digital signature certificate is issued to that person. This has a bunch of interesting ramifications; for instance, I could create a simple spam filter that only accepts mail from individuals and organizations that have an authenticated certificate. It could also allow for more secure financial transactions. Anyone know if any other national postal services are planning the same thing?" Funny, they don't seem to always know where to deliver so-called first-class mail ...

5 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Is this the start of it? by Blaine+Hilton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is this how they are going to roll out a national database system? Saying it will help in the fight against spam and forgery? Not that I'm "totally" against such a system, but it seems like they are misrepresenting the true nature of this.

    1. Re:Is this the start of it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Is this how they are going to roll out a national database system? Saying it will help in the fight against spam and forgery?

      Look, anything that can possibly improve the situation that someone picking up my social security number and date of birth and a few other simple facts about me can end up stealing my identity is a good thing. We're increasingly reliant on computers and digital information yet we have no decent national digital signature infrastructure in place. It is a very sad state of affairs when my mother's maiden name can still be expected to be used as some kind of secure authenticator to protect my bank account information.

  2. Amazing what the USPS does do with mail. by DaRat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just a comment about the "Funny, they don't seem to always know where to deliver so-called first-class mail ..." remark.

    Have I had mail lost? Yes. Is it annoying? Yes.

    But, think about how amazing it is about what the USPS does right. It moves billions of pieces of mail every day, and almost all of it (percentage wise) gets to where it should be going in spite of the fact that not every piece of mail can be automatically routed and multiple people end up looking at it at one point or another. And, in spite of the price increases, I can still send a letter anywhere in the US for 37c and it'll usually get there within a 2-3 days.

    Sure, dealling with the post office is a pain occasionally, and they do lose some mail. But, when I think about the scope and scale of what they do right, it does boggle my mind.

    1. Re:Amazing what the USPS does do with mail. by jdcook · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Mod parent up. I love how /. editors make fun of the post office for an almost imperceptible error rate in billions of pieces of mail but cannot even post a hundred stories in a row (I'm guessing) without a dupe or other obvious error.

      --
      Q:How many libertarians does it take to stop a Panzer division? A:None. Obviously market forces will take care of it.
  3. Ramifications by the_pointman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The USPS' idea for certified proofing for digital signatures is in the right direction for securing financial transactions, helping to prevent spam (in the case of accepting emails only e-signed from registered people), but initiating such a project will bring the US closer to a National ID card.

    By attaching services such as online tax refunds or filings, the public will be /required/ to register with the USPS in order to take advantage of the online filings with the IRS. Sure, but what if people just file in paper? Without a doubt, the government will then ad a fee to paper filings to encourage taxpapers (everyone) to register with the USPS service.

    Let me see your papers, please!