Roger Clarke's 'Identities Management'

(Id)entities Management, and Nym Management, for People not just of People

Panel Notes of 27 January 2006

For an invited presentation to a Session on 'Identity Management: Privacy-Enhancing Technologies versus Privacy-Invasive Technologies', at the 7th Annual Privacy & Security Conference of the Government of British Columbia, 9-10 February 2006, Victoria BC

Available under an AEShareNet licence or a Creative Commons licence.

This document is at http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/DV/IdMngt-BC-0602.html

The slide-set is at http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/DV/IdMngt-BC-0602.ppt

Abstract

Each person has multiple identities, and needs them
It is essential to differentiate between identities and entities
There is ample scope for people to bite back and subvert the kinds of identity management schemes that organisations try to impose on people in order to serve their own ends
Rather than there being a single architecture for identity management, there's a a super-architecture, within which many competing approaches collide
Identity management has to encompass nymity, including both anonymity (because it exists, whether we like it or not) and pseudonymity
Pseudonymity offers a balance between social, economic and political freedoms, on the one hand, and accountability, on the other
But we have to deliver credible 'strong pseudonymity', that is proof against breaches by powerful governments and corporations
Among currently deployable identity management technologies, Shibboleth is showing the way, because it reflects at least some of these realities

Resources

my monograph on 'Identity Management: The Technologies, Their Business Value, Their Problems, Their Prospects' is purchaseable here
my papers on identity and authentication topics are indexed here
this paper provides an outline of the fundamentals
this is a more comprehensive paper
these are the slides for a 45-minute plenary presentation

Presenter Background

Roger Clarke is a consultant with expertise in strategic and policy aspects of eBusiness, information infrastructure, and dataveillance and privacy.

He has spent 35 years in the I.T. industry, in Sydney, London, Zürich and Canberra, as professional, manager, academic, consultant and company Director and Chair. He holds degrees, including a doctorate, in Information Systems (MIS). He spent 1984-95 as a senior academic. He has held visiting professorships at universities in Switzerland and Austria, and has current visiting professorships in Australia and Hong Kong. Biodata here.

Author Affiliations

Roger Clarke is Principal of Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, Canberra. He is also a Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre at the University of N.S.W., a Visiting Professor in the E-Commerce Programme at the University of Hong Kong, and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Australian National University.

Personalia Photographs Access Statistics

These community service pages are a joint offering of the Australian National University (which provides the infrastructure), and Roger Clarke (who provides the content).

The Australian National University
Visiting Professor, Faculty of
Engineering and Information Technology

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, ACN: 002 360 456
78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, 6288 6916

Created: 13 January 2006 - Last Amended: 27 January 2006 by Roger Clarke - Site Last Verified: 15 February 2005
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