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The electronic 'me'

By Kevin Cox - posted Tuesday, 4 December 2007


However, when first introducing online transactions, many organisations simply replicate their hard copy processes electronically. A decade ago company web pages were largely static brochures, that is until organisations grasped the dynamic nature of the medium. Electronic systems that evolve from non-electronic systems still tend to require personal identification rather than "functional" identification.

The tax office still wants to know who we are. The online store wants to know who we are. The bank wants to know who we are. This need for personal identification hinders and cripples the implementation of electronic transaction systems and is unnecessary. Unfortunately electronic systems enable more information to be collected cheaply and so rather than less identity information being kept there is a tendency for more to be collected as governments and businesses believe it is better to know more about their clients and customers so they can better control the interactions.

Governments in particular are attempting to get more personal information about people. The Anti Money Laundering and Terrorism legislation requires businesses to "know their customers". The main purpose of the Access Card is to bring together all the information about a person so that the relationship between the government and the citizen can be better controlled from the point of view of the government.

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However, these attempts are expensive, hinder the vast majority of legitimate transactions, and will not deliver the desired results. The current approach is for governments to require that organisations know who they deal with so that the government can collate information across organisations and build up evidence against those who are acting outside the rules.

There is another approach to the problem that is simpler and does not compromise privacy. It is based on the idea of a person knowing everything electronic about themselves and being able to supply it when or if necessary. Another way of putting it is for me to control and know about all electronic data about myself.

This approach is remarkably simple, inexpensive to implement and will resolve most privacy concerns. What we do is change the bottom-level transaction rules. Rather than the government requiring organisations to keep track of who I am, I keep track of who I am and all my characteristics and relationships with others and give the information if needed to the government.

In the same way that the invention of money enabled a purchaser to remain anonymous (because the person receiving money could trust the currency) so the invention of a way for me to supply information about myself and satisfy the transaction rules without identifying myself gives a generic, powerful way of conducting transactions that is more efficient and less costly. It reduces the amount of information about me scattered in various databases and paradoxically, it will supply more useful information for decision making.

How the system works

Just as I have one physical presence let us imagine that I have an electronic presence. This electronic presence can conduct transactions on my behalf under my instructions. As with my physical body there can only be one electronic "me" and it is biometrically linked to the physical me.

This electronic “me” can form relationships with other electronic presences and in particular, with electronic representations of organisations. For example, I decide to get a driver's license. I use my electronic presence to register that I want to get a driver's license with the licensing authority. It, in turn, registers that I have applied and acknowledges me by allocating a number. My electronic presence supplies the other information required for me to take a test: that I am over 18; in good health; can see; have not been banned from driving, and so on. I then take the test and prove that the physical person arriving for the test is the same person as represented by the number. If I pass the test and pay my fee, the issuing authority now says that I have a license and marks my electronic presence as having a valid license. It keeps my number and the fact that I have a validated license in its database.

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My electronic presence can now - under my instructions - tell other people that I have a valid license by getting this information from the issuing authority (which keeps the status of the license in its database). My electronic presence does not keep the authoritative data in its database - only a link to where the status can be obtained. Thus information about my license is kept in one place and one place only. When it is necessary for me to prove I have a license I can do so by using my electronic presence to provide the information that I have a valid license (but not provide my license number).

Over time I build up many similar relationships with others. At any time I can sever relationships, providing the rules of the relationship allow this. For example when I buy something from a store I might not want my relationship to last, so it could be cancelled if I wished. Other relationships like traffic offences in a police database might last for 10 years after which time the relationship might end.

Isn't this just an electronic Australia Card?

The system offers much of the desired functionality of an Australia Card but operates in an entirely different way. The individual retains control of all their relationships, knows what information is kept about them in any registered electronic database and chooses whether or not to release information to others. In other words, information about me is kept in disparate databases whose only connection is through the electronic me, my electronic identity. Under this system I keep track of my relationships, not the government.

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About the Author

Dr Kevin Cox is an entrepreneur. Previously he has taught Information Systems in Canberra and Hong Kong and worked with computers for various multinationals in Australia, the USA and Indonesia.

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All articles by Kevin Cox

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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