Security through identification versus security of privacy

Résumé du document

In today's world we are often required to produce some form of identification. We also know about 'the European identity'. We can be a 'student' but at the same time be 'a Jew', 'a communist' and so forth. Identity is multiple. But what is 'identity' ?

Extraits

[...] Such types of identification rely on a single principle. Establishing identity means, creating a unique representation of each individual. Here, the identification (that is to say in a transaction between an individual and an organization) has at least two aspects to it: first find out who the person is (that is, establish and authenticate an identifier like, of example a customer number or a social security number) and then transact business with him or her (that is associating an act to this identifier like saying customer X bought a specific good and needs to pays its price, or the information stating X is entitled to such and such social benefits). [...]

[...] However, for the purpose of my study, I will just retain from those words that identity is not a natural phenomenon, although it can be the result of a historical process integrated by individuals, but that it is foremost created by humans, hence that it is what we make if it. I will not look into the identity of a community. Indeed, I will rather concentrated on what I will call “individual identity” . In some circumstances, individual identity may sound similar to community identity: like for example when saying is French”. Nevertheless the approach is different. [...]

[...] A non exhaustive list of common identifiers could be: credit cards and codes, passports, national identity cards, social security numbers and so on In any case their purpose it to insure that the person who accesses the restricted area or service is the one we want to whether it be an office or a computer file service, whether it be welfare benefits or access to a VIP lounge. The identifier, in a way, is a simplification of that person. As we saw earlier facial characteristics are hard to apprehend. An identifier reduces the complexity of the human being into simple data. [...]

[...] We will have a look into that in part III D.). The identification done by private actors may be dangerous for two reasons. First we may want to voluntarily disclose identifying information to a specific interlocutor and for a specific purpose. The danger is that our consent is not complete if the information for another purpose that the one we disclose it for or that the information is transmitted to another corporation (we can think about customer files corporation trade among themselves). [...]

[...] Here again, we have control over those identifiers but it is not always the case. For instance, we cannot control, even with plastic surgery, our facial appearance, and, in face-to-face contexts, the first information that one reveals is, very frequently, the appearance of one's face. Indeed, the change of facial identifier is not immediate. We cannot change faces everyday as we may say name is John” and a Sciences Po student” Furthermore, facial recognition plays an important role in identification procedures; for instance, human beings can recognize one another's faces with remarkable skill, even if they cannot as readily attach names to them, and yet they find even familiar faces pretty difficult to describe. [...]