Here is a post I have written some time ago, and left it on some forgotten blog.

Now I am reusing it to get our teeth chewing a bit at a nice subject :-)

Every one is concerned about privacy – right ?

Its the right thing to do. And rightfully so.

Any web site you enter gives you the privacy speech, just before you give away your details.

Every one wants you to know they do their best to protect your privacy.

But is this really working for your best interest?

Sure, you don’t want some people to know what you are up to, here and their.

You don’t want any crazy people be able to track you down.

But looking at this from the other way around – it actually means ANYONE

you are in contact with, could be exactly that bad person you didn’t want to have any deal with,

at the first place.

Why ? Because he has his privacy protected, just as you do.

Staying just their, at the other side of the mirror, another option arises.

Maybe if we have each one of us identified very accurately, we could know who we are dealing with…

Maybe if we could create groups including only people and companies that are identified dropping

all that privacy mambo jumbo, we could have our email infrastructure automatically filter any SPAM it gets…

Maybe if we know whom we are buying from at eBay, we can feel more confident of the person behind that virtual store…

Maybe if we knew who is really on the other side of the ICQ chat, we could feel our kids are safer…

Take a look at projects such as http://openid.net/ and http://www.trustplus.com/

I believe they are pointing in that right direction…

When all of us have an identity on the net,as we do when we go shopping in the

Supermarket near our home, it will bring the internet to many more people.

They will feel safer.

Cause when they go shopping in the near by mall, they can choose to buy from someone they know.

Sure, anyone you meet on the real world can have a dark side you are not aware of.

But dealing with people on the internet who have no identity, is like buying from a person

at the mall who has his face covered with a mask.

Yep, there is money to be made here. If you have any doubt, pick any of the recent research people

showing how many persons are afraid to do their purchases online.

Yes the number online shoppers is increasing, but there are yet too many who are in fear of getting scammed.

And even those of us who are living on the internet know: we are not as much safe as we would like to be.

Is having real identity going to solve all our problems ?

Nope – having people identified, does not provide us with 100% security in the real world as well.

But why should we give up this security measure on our new way of leaving – on the internet.

And when someone does not want to identify himself on the internet, that’s fine.

We simply do not have any deal with him.

When this person finishes his private business he can make use of his real identity again and then

we are back in business.

So every one could be happy.

Just as in the real world.

Right ?

Do let us know what you think…