- The Social Security Scam
- Reputation versus Identity
- Multiple Personalities
- Fluidity of Identity
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Reputation versus Identity
Part of the problem with this system is that it associates your reputation with your identity. If you are going to buy a house and are looking for a mortgage, then it is not unreasonable for a potential lender to want to know about the house you are thinking of buying, your current income, earning potential, outstanding debts, and so on.
If, on the other hand, you are looking to take out a credit card with a $1,000 credit limit, the only thing they need to know is whether you can service a debt of $1,000.
Either do you have $1,000 in liquid assets, or do you have enough disposable income to service interest payments at the horrendous rates that credit card companies charge?
Unfortunately, the way the system is set up at the moment, there is no fine-grained control. Someone who uses a $1,000 credit card application to steal your identity gets enough to take out a $500,000 mortgage backed by your reputation.
A bigger problem is what to do after your identity has been stolen. Fingerprint locks are pretty cheap now, but most people still prefer to use pass codes. The reason is, if someone steals a pass code, you can change it.
If someone steals a copy of your fingerprint, it’s very difficult to grow a new finger. The current situation with identities is similar to the fingerprint lock. So much of the information associated with your virtual identity is tied to the real you that building a new one that the thief does not have access to is very hard.