Microsoft, Accenture Team Up On Blockchain-based Digital ID Network (reuters.com)

Accenture and Microsoft are teaming up to build a digital ID network using blockchain technology, as part of a United Nations-supported project to provide legal identification to 1.1 billion people worldwide with no official documents. From a report: The companies unveiled a prototype of the network on Monday at the UN headquarters in New York during the second summit of ID2020, a public-private consortium promoting the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goal of providing legal identity for everyone on the planet. The project aims to help individuals such as refugees prove who they are in order to gain access to basic services such as education and healthcare. Blockchain, first developed as a public ledger of all transactions in the digital currency bitcoin, is increasingly being used to securely track data in other fields.

Comments

good business, just ask IBM

[citizenr]

IBM was in this business in the 1930s in Europe.

What's next?

[Train0987]

Now everyone can have their unique ID tattooed on their wrists to make it more convenient.

Deer God

[NettiWelho]

Why on earth would you buy _anything_ at all from accidenture? I mean microsoft royally sucks but atleast their products work to a degree, usually.

With accidenture you might as well be shoveling money to a furnace.

Re:Deer God

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you ever been blown by an Accenture marketer? Until you have, you can't know.

Okay, is anyone nervous about this?

[evolutionary]

Okay, we have two companies working together who do not exactly have the more trustworthy reputation.

On one side, we have Microsoft, mass data collector who from Windows 8 started force feeding ads, private data extraction (see list here : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-...), also force feeding updates, lying about the nature of a number of their updates (categorized "critical" which includes a new ad server?!?) and their trying to force feed upgrades from Windows 7 (now trusting updates to windows 7 is also an issue).

On the other side we have Accenture. Does anyone remember that this is the new name for Author Anderson, who had a scandal with fudging financial records of a number of major corporations (https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1023409436545200).

And THESE people are creating legal verification records? Also remember Accenture does a LOT of IT recruiting now. Anybody see a new data fudge coming? A new name and hair dye may change the appearance of a tiger, but it doesn't change it's stripes or it's nature.

Re:Okay, is anyone nervous about this?

[Terwin]

Accenture was previously known as Author Anderson Consulting, which was a distinct organization from Author Anderson Financial Services(the one with the notorious problem).
Accenture changed their name because the old one was contaminated by association, not because they specifically did anything wrong.

And Accenture has been doing lots of tech hiring for at least a dozen years now. (the culture is very big on 'up or out').

No comment on how effective their products are however(they are quite happy to hire 270 women to produce a baby in 1 day if that is what the client wants).

Source: Worked for Accenture from 2004-2007(shortly after the name change)

Complete lack of trust.

[HornWumpus]

I can't think of two companies I'd trust less.

So this is truly a test: Can strong enough cryptography overcome complete lack of confidence in counterparties.

Re:Complete lack of trust.

[GLMDesigns]

of course.

Math is math. I don't know this particular project but what the "blockchain" would allow you to do is to create a history for those people who need it.

The key point of worry is control of the passphrase. Say I make an unbreakable passphrase = "Bernie and Donald sitting in a tree k i s s i n g. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Hillary in a baby carriage."

What happens if I forget it?
What happens if I give it to somebody else (stupidity, blackmail, whatever)
What happens when I die or comatose?

The alternative is that microsoft / accenture / the govt has control over the passphrase -- is that anything different than what we have now in the US, Europe, Japan and elsewhere?

Double-edged sword

[tgrigsby]

From the article:

"Without an identity you can't access education, financial services, healthcare, you name it. You are disenfranchised and marginalized from society," David Treat, a managing director in Accenture's financial services practice, said in an interview.

And with one, you can't "start a new life." You can't leave the mistakes of youth behind. You can't hide from crazed ex's. You can't slough off whatever it is that has made your life untenable or even hazardous in order to begin again.

Or maybe you can, if you have enough money... I wonder what the "New Life" service will look like and if it will come with different levels?

Bronze = new ID going forward, but your old ID is still connected to you, and your new ID references your old ID.
Silver = new ID, your old ID can no longer be used to retrieve current information about you, but your new ID can references your old ID
Gold = new ID, and there is no connection between the new and old IDs.
Platinum = new ID with a fake history, old ID shows you died, and you get to select your fake death and fake new history from a menu.

Microsoft _and_ Accenture?

[Gravis Zero]

So, over budget, behind schedule and full of bugs? They just need to add Oracle to the mix to get the trifecta of bad businesses! ;)