Readers on identity and anonymity online

Michael Rogers Columnist • Profile • E-mail

Not surprisingly, there was a flood of reader response to last week’s column “Let’s See Some ID, Please." The piece described the Trusted Platform Module that is being built into many new computers. The goal of the TPM is to create what is touted to be fool-proof identification on the Internet, intended to circumvent online fraud, theft and similar illegal behavior.

Few readers were middle-of-the-road on this issue, rather splitting evenly over whether this was a great idea, or the end of freedom and democracy as we know it. Some of the former:

Brian C. Barnes: Austin, TX: Anonymity would be great, in an ideal world. Unfortunately, there are too many low life jerks who take advantage any way they can, and so we have to assume a more defensive posture. If the Internet is to be a really useful infrastructure, and not just a "back alley slum" type of place, then unfortunately, this is a necessary step.

Bill Reimann: This is good news to good people. We no longer have to gamble that software programs protect our privacy or prevent fraud. This is a perfect balance between the anonymity embedded in proprietary software and the certainties of hardware standards.

There were also plenty of readers with practical questions about how having an identity chip in their home computer would actually work:

Dave Adams, Folsom, CA: With TPM-enabled PCs, won't it be very difficult to sell your PC when you want to upgrade? How will you decouple your old PC from your identity and migrate it over to the buyer's identity?

It’s important to emphasize that all of this TPM stuff is still very much in its infancy — once the hardware is out there in sufficient quantity, then people will figure out what to do with it.  Even the very general description I gave in the column is based in part on conjecture.  

If you sold a computer with a TPM and bought a new one, there would be some way to securely transfer your identity from the old machine to the new one. Proponents say it would actually be easier than changing your password on multiple sites — you’d just need to make the transfer once and then all sites who had previously known you by the old TPM would recognize you with the new one. 

R. Smith, Lompoc, CA: I see how TPM might make the Internet a safer place to do business, but if your access to a bank or shopping website is tied to your particular machine, how is this going to work if you're halfway across the world using someone else’ s machine?

People are already thinking about how one would get secure remote access to banking or e-commerce accounts. It could be that you’ll carry some form of hardware ID with you — a card with an embedded chip, for example (although this will require some sort of reader on remote computers). Or there may be some other kind of additional ID required when you’re not at your home computer (the site might challenge you to supply your mother’s maiden name, for example). Or the bank may simply adjust to the lower security level and limit the transactions you can do from remote computers, and e-commerce sites will double-check remote orders.

The fact is that TPM or no, these questions about computer security are coming to a head.  The Federal government has recently announced that it will require all banks, by the end of 2006, to have “two factor” identification for online banking. That means no more just using a password — the bank will have to see a second form of ID online. Banks are scrambling to figure out how to do this, and one solution is very much like TPM. Your home computer already has a unique “online signature” that Websites can read, involving items like your IP address, your hardware, and what software you have installed. That may be the second form of ID that some banks look for — in which case, banking on any computer but the one in your home (and perhaps one at work) will be more difficult.

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