The Pizza flash animation developed by the ACLU is making the rounds as an example of the worst digital identity nightmare imaginable. In my circles - mainly digital identity technologists and vendors - the scenario gets a wide variety of reactions ranging from incredulity, to fear, to admiration/jealousy - in the sense that the animation demos a level of interoperability much sought after, but never approached, in current implementations. What is not up for debate is that the ACLU, in its role as the most prominent guardian and amplifier of privacy concerns, is a key stakeholder in the evolution of digital identity on the Internet.
Jon Udell sees ACLU Pizza as a sign that the digital identity community needs to improve its communication skills:
The would-be architects of our digital identity future will also have to communicate their understanding in compelling ways.
He is right of course, but I also read ACLU Pizza as a call for conversation. The ID Heads and Privacy Wonks need to sit together around the same table and inform each other.
As a trial balloon, I have emailed the ACLU contacts listed on the animation in a grassroots attempt to kick start a meaningful exchange of expertise and concerns between the ACLU and the technical community developing digital identity systems - primarily by inviting them to attend Digital ID World in May in San Francisco. Stay tuned, I will blog any developments in this effort to create dialogue.
If they do chose to attend DIDW, I imagine that members of the ACLU would be surprised to learn that privacy is a paramount concern to many of the leading innovators in the digital identity space and that it is widely believed in our community that one of the most likely outcomes of advances in digital identity technology - particularly advances in identity portability - will be the empowerment of individuals.
For example, take the dashboard demoed in the Pizza flash, take it away from the Pizza place, and put it in the hands of the person ordering the pizza. This guy now has easy access to all of the relevant data (medical, culinary, financial) that should inform his pizza order - and he would still have the option of ignoring that info and ordering double meat! (with a single click to place the order, do the billing, and provide driving directions to the delivery driver...)
It is that space age level of automation, convenience, information access, data integrity and security that the digital identity community is working towards - but the technology does not have to deliver those benefits at the expense of privacy and personal choice. On the contrary, advances in digital identity technology hold great promise for improving privacy protections and empowering individuals - but to design systems that best address privacy concerns, we in the digital identity community need to sit down with all the key stakeholders and talk it out.
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