Dear Dr. Crispy Creme, :p I think it has to be a combination of both prosecution and prevention. The problem with prosecution in the current context is that is treated as a property crime. As a property crime, it does not have the same priority as a personal crime. Many times, identity theft isn't prosecuted because financial institutions usually take the hit. This results in a perception among criminals that they can get away with it. Most of the time they do. It has become so easy to steal an identity, it's turned into something akin to script kiddies breaking into unsecured systems. The real problem is that people waste hundred of hours trying to repair their credit records. These victims keep getting bills from accounts they never opened... years after their identity was stolen. It makes it more difficult for victims to obtain home loans, car loans, etc. The solution is to vigorously prosecute identity thieves. Personally I would like to see it made into a measure 11 crime, but again, we run into the problem of scarce resources, jail space and law enforcement resources. However, most identity thieves are also involved in other illegal activities. It's rare when you find someone who simply steals an identity for profit. Most likely it is to support a drug habit. Making identity theft and aggravating circumstance (if it already isn't) would probably work well. Tom or Geo, what's your take on this? In terms of prevention: I'd personally like to see biometric information encoded onto a chip on your drivers license. (sort of like the chips starting to show up on some credit cards.) However, you are right, people will always find ways around the system. Do you know if people's irises remain the same from child birth? If so, a combination of iris and fingerprint information stored with an electronic version of a birth certificate could be helpful. The state would have to devise a method where it would be write once for the biometric information for a single identity. My question is, how would a uniform identity system involving the use of biometric or other authentication system run afoul of civil liberties? We're already tracked through our SS numbers, how would this be any different?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Sep 26 2002 - 23:50:23 PDT