As someone who feels very strongly that the technical innovation surrounding digital identity is best seen as a reform effort, I was delighted to come across this extremely thorough and hopefully influential study of identity and privacy published by Daniel Solove and Chris Hoofnagle.
Solove and Hoofnagle's Model Regime presents a clearly defined set of problem descriptions and proposed regulatory remedies for a whole set of privacy concerns currently plaguing digital identity - it is a good bet that their thinking will find its way into the technology that is deployed in this reform effort.
Of particular interest is the historical context they provide for the development of privacy legislation. If you have ever wondered how in the world the Social Security Number was allowed to proliferate as a universal identifier used by businesses, you'll be heartened to learn that restricting the use of SSN by businesses was proposed for inclusion in the 1974 Privacy Act - but the restriction on SSN use did not make it into the final Act. Ouch.
Abstract and full PDF of the paper available here:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=699701
Thanks DJ for the link.
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