Look, I think the idea behind Digital Me is great. I am all in favor of it, and am rooting for Novell to make this idea central to the next version of the Internet universe.
My financial interest, actually, is in a biometric company that I think is already allied with Novell via Compaq, and whose bio-ID products will complement a Digital Me universe. The 'authentication' side of this universe is just as privacy-friendly as Novell promises to be.
However, having said that, I don't believe for a minute that industries can be trusted to self-regulate. Government regulation is why we have cleaner air and water, and safer food and drugs. Try to imagine life without pollution controls (see the devastation that happened in Russia) or drug screening (remember Thalidomide babies elsewhere?).
While you may have trouble trusting the government, I have trouble trusting corporations not to find any way possible to turn a dollar on Internet users. And that certainly includes collating and selling information on us without our knowledge or consent -- which is already being done. Making that kind of behavior illegal strengthens the privacy-friendly Internet we both agree on. It can also help stop Novell from being tempted to self-destruct by betraying the confidences it will establish with Digital Me.
Just try to be practical . . . we are going to need the public's trust in order for this new system to work. And a lot of the public isn't going to buy corporate promises. Corporate promises are what we have now, and a lot of them are empty promises. As a result, you should expect to see federal legislation.
I would post the same comment whether it was Novell, Microsoft, or Joe's Garage. I'm not interested, though, in any off-topic extended debate on this subject. |
