If you have my drivers license, ssn & CC#, and you use that information to defraud a vendor, that is a crime and you should be punished - I shouldn't be, especially by some credit agency that then proceeds to tell the world that I defaulted on my $45,000 purchase at Farid's Rugs in Warsaw. Why doesn't the law say, for example, that credit agencies have 30 days to fix their fuck-ups, instead of giving me a little window to do it for them? There are a number of ways of authenticating - a purchase above a certain amount should trigger a call where I have to verify some pre-shared information. Whatever, the thing is that "identity theft" is a marketing phrase used by people who throw credit around like tinsel and should just be called "credit fraud." How much we want to let ourselves suffer for yet another cretinous industry's business model (minimal checking, pre-approved cards sent to pets, etc) is unfortunately a recurring problem lately!
Any company can make whatever security-convenience trade-offs it wants (and of course the fuckwit language is an exaggeration). If being strict costs you more custom than the fraud you might prevent, don't be strict. But what I find so repellent is this fiction of "Identitiy theft," which apparently means blaming third parties when companies give their goods to the wrong person.
No one is interested, because this problem is only marginally IT related. The beginning and the end of the issue is that merchants and credit card companies are authorizing ten $450 gift certificates at a time from Wal-Mart, and would rather not have to pay either for their mistakes or for the hassle of authenticating their customers at the point of sale. So they make a dramatic fuss about compromised databases and then use that as a springboard for overturning centuries of common law. If Wal-Mart lets Ivan Russky walk out the door with ten refrigerators because Ivan told them he was me, that is frankly not my problem. We have become so accustomed to corporate talking-point bullshit that we tolerate phrases like "identity theft," when what we mean is "theft from corporate fuckwits who are too lazy to make sure they are giving the merchandise to the right person."
Google has been trying to get a free municipal wireless system up in San Francisco, in partnership with Earthlink. They have largely been blocked by a county supervisor named Tom Ammiano and a few others who are clinging to a decade-old plan to put a fiber optic network in the sewer lines. It is hard for people not from San Francisco to understand how cretinous and absurd the local politics are, but this is the issue- a faction of the local gov does not want to let the mayor look good by rolling this out. Google has made a clever play whereby when the imbeciles (there is also a significant faction of anti-radio-waves people) introduce their plan it will resemble this gag and hopefully remind people of the joke. A good article on the subject is available here: http://www.sfweekly.com/2007-03-28/news/making-rad io-waves/
12/14/2005
REP. BECERRA'S RESOLUTION CONGRATULATING THE GALAXY PASSES UNANIMOUSLY IN THE HOUSE
WASHINGTON, D.C. - H.Res.574, expressing the sense of Congress regarding the Los Angeles Galaxy on their victory in the 2005...
If the internets tubes people succeed in passing this law it will be a GOOD THING. It will be a huge spur to the move toward open networks with open standards and it will allow jurisdictional competition as well as design and usability competition. There is no reason why hundreds of sites couldn't offer people their own page- there will be anime sites, high-school sports sites, porn sites, French poetry sites, and the friends lists will be populated by people across all of them, using a unique ID that links back to their provider. Myspace has been oppressively lame for ages and if by some miracle their business is gutted they shouldn't be mourned. Given the hysteria over these sites and the deep ignorance of politicians they are more likely to give us a victory over Fox and friends than we could ever achieve on our own.
Of course, minors may still have to click a box that says, "If I live in GA, TX, or NC I am over 18 and/or promise not to look at any of the naughty sites." Good luck with that, distinguished congresspeople.
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If you have my drivers license, ssn & CC#, and you use that information to defraud a vendor, that is a crime and you should be punished - I shouldn't be, especially by some credit agency that then proceeds to tell the world that I defaulted on my $45,000 purchase at Farid's Rugs in Warsaw. Why doesn't the law say, for example, that credit agencies have 30 days to fix their fuck-ups, instead of giving me a little window to do it for them? There are a number of ways of authenticating - a purchase above a certain amount should trigger a call where I have to verify some pre-shared information. Whatever, the thing is that "identity theft" is a marketing phrase used by people who throw credit around like tinsel and should just be called "credit fraud." How much we want to let ourselves suffer for yet another cretinous industry's business model (minimal checking, pre-approved cards sent to pets, etc) is unfortunately a recurring problem lately!
Any company can make whatever security-convenience trade-offs it wants (and of course the fuckwit language is an exaggeration). If being strict costs you more custom than the fraud you might prevent, don't be strict. But what I find so repellent is this fiction of "Identitiy theft," which apparently means blaming third parties when companies give their goods to the wrong person.
No one is interested, because this problem is only marginally IT related. The beginning and the end of the issue is that merchants and credit card companies are authorizing ten $450 gift certificates at a time from Wal-Mart, and would rather not have to pay either for their mistakes or for the hassle of authenticating their customers at the point of sale. So they make a dramatic fuss about compromised databases and then use that as a springboard for overturning centuries of common law. If Wal-Mart lets Ivan Russky walk out the door with ten refrigerators because Ivan told them he was me, that is frankly not my problem. We have become so accustomed to corporate talking-point bullshit that we tolerate phrases like "identity theft," when what we mean is "theft from corporate fuckwits who are too lazy to make sure they are giving the merchandise to the right person."
Google has been trying to get a free municipal wireless system up in San Francisco, in partnership with Earthlink. They have largely been blocked by a county supervisor named Tom Ammiano and a few others who are clinging to a decade-old plan to put a fiber optic network in the sewer lines. It is hard for people not from San Francisco to understand how cretinous and absurd the local politics are, but this is the issue- a faction of the local gov does not want to let the mayor look good by rolling this out. Google has made a clever play whereby when the imbeciles (there is also a significant faction of anti-radio-waves people) introduce their plan it will resemble this gag and hopefully remind people of the joke. A good article on the subject is available here: http://www.sfweekly.com/2007-03-28/news/making-rad io-waves/
12/14/2005 REP. BECERRA'S RESOLUTION CONGRATULATING THE GALAXY PASSES UNANIMOUSLY IN THE HOUSE WASHINGTON, D.C. - H.Res.574, expressing the sense of Congress regarding the Los Angeles Galaxy on their victory in the 2005...
If the internets tubes people succeed in passing this law it will be a GOOD THING. It will be a huge spur to the move toward open networks with open standards and it will allow jurisdictional competition as well as design and usability competition. There is no reason why hundreds of sites couldn't offer people their own page- there will be anime sites, high-school sports sites, porn sites, French poetry sites, and the friends lists will be populated by people across all of them, using a unique ID that links back to their provider. Myspace has been oppressively lame for ages and if by some miracle their business is gutted they shouldn't be mourned. Given the hysteria over these sites and the deep ignorance of politicians they are more likely to give us a victory over Fox and friends than we could ever achieve on our own. Of course, minors may still have to click a box that says, "If I live in GA, TX, or NC I am over 18 and/or promise not to look at any of the naughty sites." Good luck with that, distinguished congresspeople.