Digital Signing (Beat The Dead Horse) was Re: Free Software for m$

[der.hans]

Am 29. Sep, 2002 schwätzte Bob Holtzman so:

> On Sun, 29 Sep 2002, der.hans wrote:

> > No. Voltage Spike already hit on this problem. Photo IDs only verify who the
> > gov't thinks you are ( presuming it's not a forged document ).
>
> Offhand I can't think of any form of ID where this isn't true at some
> level.

Which is why biometric IDs are bad. Think it's a pain to cancel all of your
credit cards if someone gets your wallet? What if you had to change your
fingers or eyes because they got your biometric print?

What if your hand were in a cast? You wouldn't be able to get perms from the
m$house to use your own bathroom! :)

> > I don't care who the gov't thinks you are. Totally irrelevant. I want to
> > verify that whoever you are, the mail I'm getting that claims to be from
> > you really is from you.
>
> How do you propose to do this?

Let's take a mythical creature called 'fred'. Let's say I met 'fred' many
years ago. Let's say 'fred' isn't even close to fred's legal name. Let's
also say I don't know fred's legal name. I don't care. This person is
'fred'. He's been 'fred' as long as I've known him and I hope he continues
to be 'fred' until we're old and cruising around in our airborne golf carts
in Sun City. I will not certify this person under his legal name. I don't
know him as such, so I have no reason to certify whatever the gov't thinks
his name is. I will certify that he is indeed 'fred'.

To take away the myth a little I know two people under these circumstances.
I also know many people who use their legal middle name rather than their
first name. I also know many people who use nicknames. Many of these have
names not palatable to the Ami tongue and have chosen names we can
understand. At least one of them used his nickname and his legal name. I'd
certify both for him.

We should verify people as we know them, not as the gov't lists them. If
we're gonna use gov't ID, then we should only sign IDs that use the ssn.

Which name causes you to vomit, Geraldo Rivera or his legal name of Jerry
Rivers?

ciao,

der.hans
-- 
#  https://www.LuftHans.com/    http://www.TOLISGroup.com/
#  I've got a photographic memory,
#  but I'm lousy photographer. - der.hans