Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Today's dumbest idea

Three escapees from the Dept. of Homeland Security have come up with today's dumbest idea. At a time when legislators and attorneys-general are falling all over each other to legislate and enforce laws about social networking sites, safeTspace claims to have a failsafe technique for ensuring that those using the sites are who they say they are. So what's this 'technique'?

In-person registration.

Yep, that's right. You go to the site's physical location and signup with a representative of safeTspace who will also take your fingerprints. And, for those under 18, a parental consent form will be available for the parent to sign. You'll then need, of course, to install a finger-print reader on every PC you might use to access the site which, in all likelihood, will be cheap and easily fooled.

Technology is never a good substitute for education and common sense.



Comments:
Fascinating! A truly 'unusual' approach to solving the problem of family identity management. Couldn't agree with you more about the need for education and common sense. And yes, there is a need for tools that can help. I share your skepticism about the viability of this approach. It'll be fascinating to see which social networking sites sign up for the service.
 
It is different, but so is the approach your company, Trufina, is taking. And you didn't even mention it! You might want to get some marketing tips...

:)
 
This is akin to HSPD-12 which is the same deal for Government employees around Physical Access Control and Logical Access control.

I can't help but think their take on it was probably realized after watching the old SNL skit with Steve Martin talking about how Christmas was 'for the children' first and as he got deeper into the meaning of Christmas it was distilled to 'the crap about the kids'.

What happens when we need to protect the kids from Government? Well, I guess that's another company waiting to be born...
 
Dave, You're right about that. I actually considered mentioning Trufina, but decided that I hadn't read your blog enough to know whether that would be appropriate. I'll keep it in mind for the future. Leslie
 
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