In the era of Big Data, our collective imagination is focused upon the massive databases being built, aggregated, bought, sold and mined on a daily basis by Big Business and Big Government. And why not? The daily news is filled…
Author: Editor at IDfra
I’m Shocked, Shocked to Find Out
Today’s news brings the startling revelation that the NSA has been harvesting millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world, and that many of them belong to Americans. The uproar over this disclosure, made…
That Pig Won’t Dance
As discussed in a previous posting, folks in the data security and privacy world refer to the general public’s willingness to sacrifice privacy and data security in exchange for relatively trivial benefits as the “dancing pig” problem. It turns out…
MetaDate – The New First Date
MetaDate™ — The New First Date™ News stories about new gadgets for authenticating that “you are you” occur daily. The latest buzz surrounds Apple Corporation’s new iPhone® line with an integrated fingerprint scanner. Great! Now you can conveniently lock up…
Life With The Dancing Pigs
Data security experts and identity management gurus use a cute metaphor to describe the widespread nonchalance with which Americans treat their privacy and data security. They say, quoting noted computer security experts Edward Felten and Gary McGraw, that: “Given a…
Metadata: Friend or Foe?
The word “metadata” has been permeating the airwaves, blogosphere and print media lately in light of recent revelations about the federal government’s monitoring of certain information related to communications by US citizens. Many observers, including Oregon Senator Wyden, strenuously object…
The False Choice Between Security and Privacy
In the wake of recent disclosures about the federal government’s activities monitoring certain information held by Verizon, Facebook and other sources, President Obama articulated his rationale justifying those activities. He stated that we have public policy choices to make about…
Introducing IDfra – Securing Privacy During the Exchange of Accurate Personal Information
Welcome to the inaugural post of the IDfra (pronounced idʹ frah) blog. As our tagline indicates, IDfra refers to a new and very different way of managing the universe and infrastructure of the information that makes up our identities. The…