Proposed Online ID System Raises Privacy Concerns

Some privacy advocates say a U.S. Department of Commerce-proposed system for smoother identification of people on the Internet could create as many problems as it is designed to solve.

The Obama administration is proposing what it calls the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), an initiative aimed at establishing technologies to identify people and enhance privacy. The idea is to improve the ability to identify individuals as well as authenticate who they are, as a way of protecting people from identity theft and businesses from fraud.

The U.S. Department of Commerce is proposing an "identity ecosystem" that would provide better privacy protection and authentication of identity. But some privacy groups fear it may make the problems of identity theft and privacy worse than they already are.

Privacy advocates are concerned that in trying to close some vulnerabilities, new ones could get opened up, but the current system isn't a great success. "What we have certainly doesn't work very well at all," said Jim Dempsey, vice president for public policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "Properly implemented, the ID ecosystem the Commerce Department is proposing could improve both privacy and security," he said.

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