Privacy and Identity

The idea of privacy has changed dramatically in the digital age. Humans have long valued their privacy – since about the time we moved out of communal caves we have looked to have our own little corner of the world that we can call our own and in which we can be protected from the intrusions of others.

A century ago, your privacy in your home was taken for granted. Outside the home it was more a matter of physical security from outlaws or others who did not mean us well. Your identity was a matter of pride and need not be hidden in any way.

Your name, unfortunately, is not unique. Governments like to keep track of their citizens, so most of them give their tax payers (i.e. everyone) a number that is unique. In the US and many other countries this is known as the Social Security number.

Even 10 years ago, your social security number was simply the number used to identify you to the Social Security Administration and the tax man. Many private agencies like health plans used your SSA as identification as a matter of convenience.

Then a strange thing happened – suddenly the Social Security number became a valuable secret that should never be divulged to anyone. How did this come about? The problem was identity theft – Someone pretending to be you and opening credit card accounts or even emptying your bank account.

The thing that propelled identity theft and much of the concern about privacy was the rapid proliferation of electronic means of commerce over the public Internet. We can buy and sell seemingly anything, access our bank accounts instantly, send money quickly to anywhere in the world at the click of a mouse and carry out all manner of other transactions. We love the convenience – so long as nothing goes wrong.

I would venture to guess that anyone reading this has at some time in the last few years had a credit card stolen and had some stranger – pretending to be you – charge things on that card that you had nothing to do with. It has happened to me three times. Each time I have been able to report the crime to the credit card company and I have not had to pay the charges myself. But it was a hassle, sometimes requiring that I provide a notarized statement.

Notice I did not report the crime to the police and I doubt that the credit card company did either. Both parties just considered this the cost of doing business. The credit card company may or may not have been able to stop or reverse the payments on the fraudulent charges. Most likely they just wrote it off.

Over this last decade our number one concern regarding privacy has moved away from simply shielding ourselves from prying eyes to being a defense of our hard-earned money.

But even though the worry about losing our wealth is perhaps at the top of the list of privacy concerns, it is not the only privacy issue that we are contending with. Consider the recent story of a school district accused of remotely monitoring students through the webcams of their school-provided laptops.

I’ll explore more of these privacy issues in future blog posts, along with a discussion of how privacy relates to identity and the impact of both these hot topics on how Information Technologists deal with them. And I will be presenting an overview of all of this at Enterprise Data World in San Francisco on March 17. I hope to see some of you there.