Another swallow flew by, but who was looking ?

Since posting "Privacy gains attention over the Christmas New Year break. Does a swallow or two make a Spring?", there has been another swallow of sorts.

But not everybody has been watching or maybe it is typical Spring weather.

Privacy gains attention over the Christmas New Year break. Does a swallow or two make a Spring?

We are in an interesting period of leadership change.  In Australia, we elected a new federal government at the end of 2007.  The UK has a new PM & the USA will have a new president by the end of 2008.

Is the privacy debate changing too, reflecting a new mood?

“Government 2.0” – is it Safe to Play for the citizen?

How can government make it 'Safe to Play' for citizens when they are offered wiki or blog or social networking styles of interaction with government?

Losses of personal information, trust and privacy: This is going to change your life

We are watching a very rapid change in community attitudes on privacy.  One of the strongest contributors is the repeated and significant loss of control of personal information by private and public sector organisations around the world.

Plurality of Identities, and trouble ahead with biometrics

The idea of biometric authentication plays straight into the view that each user has one "true" identity underpinning multiple authorisations.  

 I recently noted in the thread on identities and keys that: [We need] identity frameworks (like the Microsoft developed Identity Metasystem aka Cardspace) that permit as many "identities" as there are contexts in which we assert ourselves.

We are in the midst (I hope!) of a shift to a new paradigm based on a plurality of identities. And I think I'm using the over-wrought "p word" here in its proper context. The current "singular identity" paradigm has had a deep and unhelpful influence over the way we think about all sorts of things, including smartcards, PKI, biometrics, the semantic debate over "authentication" versus "authorisation", and therefore the underlying architecture of many approaches to federation.