Comments on: Identity Theft is more than Fraud By Impersonation

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:38:15 +0000

Radovan,
What do you think is the problem, and what is its root cause?
Andy, libel law is not nearly as fuzzy as emotional distress. When I look at the IDTRC numbers, much of the ongoing pain is that organizations won’t fix their reports. Do you have specific instances or trends where US libel law is subject to heavy abuse?

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:15:23 +0000

It’s *my* name, but the information about it is the credit bureau’s. A solution, as we discussed here at some length, is giving me a property right in information about myself, where the original source of the information is me (that way, you don’t need to pay me a royalty to write that my eyes are brown). We discussed one variant of this with some folks from the Burton Group — http://www.emergentchaos.com/archives/2007/10/mike_neuenschwander_on_li.html
Of course, widespread contractually-enforced restrictions on the dissemination of PII (where the “P” is now a legal person set up to protect a natural person) would likely be resisted strenuously.

By: Radovan Semancik

Radovan Semancik — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:05:22 +0000

There may be several solutions to the existing problem, some more effective than others. I would agree with Bruce that the best way would be to correct the problem at its root. I've also written about it in my blog some time ago: http://storm.alert.sk/blog//identity/the-root-of-identity-theft.html But as the society is usually reluctant to implement solutions that correct problem at its root, your proposal may prove as being very efficient at healing the symptoms.

By: Andy Steingruebl

Andy Steingruebl — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:39:55 +0000

The problem with these schemes that deal with essentially libelous speech and emotional distress is that its extremely hard to develop a good standard of conduct, what constitutes harm, etc.
Dealing with ID theft as a problem with your “good name”, unrelated to direct financial damage, puts it into the horrible camp of lawsuits about emotional distress. There aren’t concrete criteria for judging this, its horribly fuzzy, and subject to massive lawsuit abusive over frivolous claims.
This isn’t to say there isn’t horrible emotional distress in these situations. Making that the focus though makes it unlikely we can effectively enforce this, that we can make the social and financial burdens appropriate, etc.
Make it about emotional distress and you get into the issues around the first amendment, hate speech, and all the nonsensical debates about that.
I’d rather have hefty burdens for people that abuse their data rights and/or cause the problems. Make their burden bad enough and perhaps things get fixed.