A year of Identity
One weekend in December I watched several people writing Christmas cards while attending a chess match with my son. Christmas cards provide an interesting glimpse into identity. Some cards are simple, with their imprinted message and a signed name. Others have a family picture on the front, with people dressed in holiday style. Other cards get a short note, highlights about the writer, and maybe a little family news. Some notes are handwritten, others are typed and printed in multiples - and some of the mass produced ones can run into pages. All of these notes tell something about the identity of the author - the hopes and joys, successes and pride. They celebrate the kids who’ve done well, the new role at work, the vacation, and other life changes. It’s a snapshot of identity created to share with family, friends, and neighbors.
While folks were working on updating year end identities, there’s been some interesting news in the world of online identity. Equifax announced the availability of an online identity solution in November. The solution uses an open technology called Information Cards (there’s a lot of information available at http://www.informationcard.net/ and www.identityblog.com) and can be used to prove age at online sites that accept the Equifax icards. This year should be interesting as online merchants (particularly alcohol sales) begin finding value in this identity solution.
While Equifax was joining Microsoft in the open identity space, Facebook announced they were gaining support (http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=177) with Facebook Connect - http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=108). Facebook is putting Connect in their toolkit, extending the API and opening up the social network to more sites. Facebook’s solution is proprietary, building on the Facebook API. It’s an interesting way to extend the social network beyond Facebook.
And over at Microsoft Dick Hardt of Sxip and Identity 2.0 “fame” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrpajcAgR1E) has joined Microsoft, presumably merging Sxip and Microsoft ideas about future identity solutions.
I’ll talk more about these solutions in future posts, but I’d like to know what you think. Given that there may be a difference between the proof of identity required by regulation, and perhaps a higher bar for proof of identity from a financial institution, what should be permitted? Should a bank accept an Equifax identity for opening accounts? Is a Facebook-based identification good enough to opening a bank account? What about for checking account balances?
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March 11th, 2009 at 1:30 am
I think that is an excellent idea. I have been thinking about such a solution for a longtime because i have faced in conveniences in situations where i had to prove the identity of a deceased person and his relationship to me to do the paper works. This is just an isolated case, i think an independent trusted entity that can manage identity and other related information and can act as a centralized repository is an excellent solution. definitely your bank should consider the viability of such a solution.
March 13th, 2009 at 2:05 am
This looks like a great advertisement for the banking industry!!
March 21st, 2009 at 2:32 pm
[...] A year of Identity [...]
March 24th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Identity is more than just about controlling access. One needs to identify the system they are using as being valid which is the reason why phishing is one of the means of spooking information from unsuspecting consumers. The identity held by your bank is private even to the person who its a referent for. The account holder can’t see what a bank thinks identifies them, which includes not just the account access information but the activity as well.
Infocards is only one of several related problems that need to be addressed before Identity has the proper treatment it needs to faciliate electronic commerce.
August 4th, 2009 at 4:02 am
Actually BOA’s privacy assist is really awesome. They just got a new service as well for canceling your cards where if you get your wallet stolen they’ll cancel your cards.
August 11th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Can the process of Creation of Information Cards itself be compromised?
PS: have you noticed what a pain this particular CAPTCHA module is?
August 17th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Bank of America’s SafePass and ShopSafe are two terrific technologies for identification and identity protection. Random SafePass text messages tell me when the system has thwarted attempts by strangers to access my accounts, and recently ShopSafe left me completely unconcerned when a merchant’s records were compromised.
But I take on the hassle of these systems for my own convenience and the common good. It seems to me that Bank of America (and other institutions) might offer price inducements to make more people use these innovations.
Also — why tie everything to one credit card number, which can be canceled, creating a hassle for everyone? Credit card numbers should be attached to a master account number that’s used only to pay bills. And why the one-year time limit on ShopSafe account numbers?
September 19th, 2009 at 5:36 am
Well, It’s really an amazing post because it gives us the meaning of relationships and way to identify them. I am gonna pass this to my parents so that we will be able to understand ourselves..
September 21st, 2009 at 4:51 am
I think it is a very good idea. because I feel very strage whe without a idetity card or somethig which ca proove my idetity I have to face some problem. Sometime it makes situation very difficult. So I it is a very good idea from my point of view