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The Seven Laws of Identity

Posted by Zonk on from the you-are-who-you-are dept.

pHatidic writes "Something strange is a brewin' at Microsoft these days. Check out this video interview with Kim Cameron, Microsoft's Architect of Identity, about Kim's Laws of Identity." From the post: "We have undertaken a project to develop a formal understanding of the dynamics causing digital identity systems to succeed or fail in various contexts, expressed as the Laws of Identity. Taken together, these laws define a unifying identity metasystem that can offer the Internet the identity layer it so obviously requires. They also provide a way for people new to the identity discussion to understand its central issues. This lets them actively join in, rather than everyone having to restart the whole discussion from scratch."

3 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. I win! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "We have undertaken a project to develop a formal understanding of the dynamics causing..."

    Bingo!

  2. Obviously? by Atlantis-Rising · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...that can offer the Internet the identity layer it so obviously requires.

    It obviously requires an identity layer? News to me. As a card-carrying member of the tinfoil hat brigade, I prefer anonimity.

    --
    "It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
  3. Re:No, but probably by kaens · · Score: 5, Interesting
    There would be advantages to having the ability to trace back all online activities to someone - you are correct in saying that spamming, virus distribution, etc could be reduced. The problem, of course, is the "suitable authorities" issue. If implemented, something like this would have a lot of chances for abuse.

    I honestly would not trust anybody with a position of political power to have the capability of tracking back everyone's online activities - there is too much of a chance that it would eventually get used for reducing more than just the harmful activities, it could get used for reducing the amount of people in the public that have dissenting opinons.

    Also, even if the capability could be introduced, it would be cracked/spoofed/worked around somehow eventually, unless there was some sort of way to prevent computers from communicating with each other in the ways that they currently do, and some sort of way to prevent people from creating their own networks.

    Subject to the devil in details, agreed. The thing is, who do you think would have control over what the details are? As it stands not you or I.

    --
    kaens.blogspot.com