[IP] Re: "The ID Divide"

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

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From: Mary Shaw [mary.shaw@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2008 12:40 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: "The ID Divide"

Dave,

This discussion is ignoring an important population, people who are neither illegal nor privacy advocates.

One of my colleagues formerly worked with a medical clinic serving indigent clients.  He has told me that one of their problems was tracking clients -- that is, matching a client in the clinic today with his or her history at that or other clinics.

You might expect that an ID card would solve, or at least help with, this problem.  But he reports that the clients didn't retain and bring back ID cards. If I understand correctly, many clients didn't see the ID card as an item of any significance; if it had any value they'd have no hesitation to trade it away.

So a discussion of universal ID needs to consider how to persuade people that ID matters and how they can maintain physical security of the ID token..

That problem is even more intractable than the technology problems, and I think it's another reason why universal ID won't succeed.

Mary Shaw


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