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Re: SOI: identity protection and DOS
On Tue, 20 Nov 2001, Michael Thomas wrote:
> ...In the particular example given, if my
> national identity smart card gave away all sorts
> of private information to any merchant who asked,
> why should I have any belief that that information
> will remain private?
Do you expect that your credit-card numbers will remain private, even
though you give them to any merchant you deal with? Sure you do! You
may not bet your life on it, but you do bet your credit rating on it.
Remember, also, that a particular certificate isn't necessarily used to
authenticate you to *anyone who asks*. It may be used only for quite
restricted purposes, e.g. to get you through a corporate firewall. The
expectation of privacy is quite legitimately rather higher in that case.
Henry Spencer
henry@spsystems.net
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