While addressing larger issues of trust on the Internet, CNET's Dennis O'Reilly has this to say about the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC):
NSTIC is a noble effort that calls for creation of private trusted authorities to serve as go-betweens when consumers interact with Web services. The theory is that consumers will trust a third party with their private data, and the third party will assure the online vendor of the customer's authenticity.
The obvious question is who will pay to establish and maintain this proposed Identity Ecosystem?
via news.cnet.com
He examines pending federal legislation, but ultimately concludes that users are on their own for data protection, concluding: "After all, it's unlikely online vendors will voluntarily adopt privacy-protection practices, and we certainly can't wait for the cavalry to arrive." To read his full article, follow this link.
The final NSTIC has a ten year expectation for full implementation. That seems very long to me, given the rate of change in cyberspace. I suspect that whatever means users ultimately adopt to establish identity will have been here and gone in that length of time. The article by O'Reilly mentions expense, general government inefficiency, and privacy rights as obstacles to implementation. I agree that all of those are factors, and I believe that there are more.
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