- Joined
- Jul 10, 2010
- Posts
- 107
- Media
- 0
- Likes
- 9
- Points
- 53
- Location
- DuPage, Illinois
- Sexuality
- 100% Straight, 0% Gay
- Gender
- Male
Real ID Online? New Federal Online Identity Plan Raises
Privacy and Free Speech Concerns
Authors: Lee Tien & Seth Schoen
URL: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/07/real-id-online-new-federal-online-identity-plan
What are your opinions?
Tony Kaiser
Privacy and Free Speech Concerns
Authors: Lee Tien & Seth Schoen
URL: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/07/real-id-online-new-federal-online-identity-plan
The White House recently released a draft of a troubling plan titled "National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace" (NSTIC). In previous iterations, the project was known as the "National Strategy for Secure Online Transactions" and emphasized, reasonably, the private sector's development of technologies to secure sensitive online transactions. But the recent shift to "Trusted Identities in Cyberspace" reflects a radical and concerning expansion of the projects scope.
The draft NSTIC now calls for pervasive, authenticated digital IDs and makes scant mention of the unprecedented threat such a scheme would pose to privacy and free speech online. And while the draft NSTIC "does not advocate for the establishment of a national identification card" (p. 6), its far from clear that it wont take us dangerously far down that road. Because the draft NSTIC is vague about many basic points, the White House must proceed with caution and avoid rushing past the risks that lay ahead. Here are some of our concerns.
The draft NSTIC "envisions" that a blogger will use "a smart identity card from her home state" to "authenticate herself for . . . [a]nonymously posting blog entries." (p. 4) But how is her blog anonymous when its directly associated with a state-issued ID card?
The proposal mistakenly conflates trusting a third party to not reveal your identity with actual anonymity where third parties dont know your identity. When Thomas Paine anonymously published Common Sense in 1776, he didnt secretly register with the British Crown.
Indeed, the draft NSTIC barely recognizes the value of anonymous speech, whether in public postings or private email
What are your opinions?
Tony Kaiser