Re: AltInst: IDs and privacy

On Tue, 29 Dec 1998, Alexander 'Sasha' Chislenko wrote:

> Every time you want to buy alcohol, enter a dance club, etc.,
> you have to produce an "id" that supposed identifies you and
> certifies that you are eligible for whatever it is you are trying to get.
> But the IDs seem to contain a lot of unnecessary information.
> Why is it necessary for the alcohol merchant to know my exact
> date of birth, or my name, or the fact that I drive a car and don't
> see well without glasses?
> An ID with a picture (of some identifiable body part) and an inscription
> "this person is allowed to buy alcohol" should be sufficient for the cause,
> shouldn't it?
>
> I wonder if anybody issues such "minimal IDs", and whether they can
> be actually used.

The trouble is that everybody would have to carry around 15 pieces of
identification. Your alcohol card, your tobacco card, your driver's
license, your tax card, your criminal-record-identity, your proof
of residency, your financial-record-identity, your...

What would be far neater would be if we could just discard the whole
notion of "identity" in the first place ;->

        Karl
                <marX>

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Received on Tue Dec 29 14:45:37 1998