Human Identity, Human Identification and Human Security

1. Human Identity, Human Identification and Human Security Jindrich Kodl, Ph.D. Milan Lokay, Ph.D. CZECH REPUBLIC

2. ABSTRACT • Many information systems involve data about people. • This presentation seeks to overcome that deficiency, by undertaking a survey of human identity, human identification and human security. • The techniques discussed include names, codes, knowledge-based and token-based id, and biometrics.

3. KEYWORDS • Identity, • Identification, • Security, • Biometrics, • Identification Bases and Schemes, • Personal Identification Number.

4. INTRODUCTION The presentation focuses on the identification of human individuals.The following related matters illustrates this area, but are not the focal point of discussion: • the identification of products and packaging; • the identification of vehicles; • the identification of animals;

5. INTRODUCTION • forms of identification which show a category to which a person belongs, rather than specifying the individual;

6. HUMAN IDENTITY • From our point of view, identity is used to mean "the condition of being a specified person", or "the condition of being oneself ... and not another". • It clusters with the terms 'personality', 'individuality' and 'individualism', and, less fashionably, 'soul'.

7. HUMAN IDENTIFICATION • The term 'identification' means the act or process of • "establishing the identity of, [or] recognising", • "the treating of a thing as identical with another" • "the act [or process] of recognising or establishing as being a particular person", but also • "the act [or process] of making, representing to be, or regarding or treating as the same or identical".

8. HUMAN IDENTIFICATION • In the context of information systems, the purpose of identification is more concrete: it is used to link a stream of data with a person. • This presentation adopts as its operational definition: human identification is the associationof data with a particular human being

9. HUMAN IDENTIFICATION • All identification mechanisms are fraught with difficulties, and hence the vast majority of transactions involve risk. • They also cost money.

10. ORGANISATIONAL NEEDSFOR FORMALIDENTIFICATION • Identity and identification are vague and ambiguous. • They continue to be treated with considerable looseness by most legal systems. For social purposes, informal, contextual identification is sufficient. • There are also many circumstances in which informal identification, or even none at all, suffices for economic transactions

11. ORGANISATIONAL NEEDSFOR FORMALIDENTIFICATION • When, for example, organisations have to have reliable identification of the individuals they deal with then have to ensure the protection of the individual. • More commonly, the purpose is to protect the organisation.

12. ORGANISATIONAL NEEDSFOR FORMALIDENTIFICATION • The source of the issues discussed in this presenttion are the following questions: ·        when anonymity is unacceptable and identification necessary, ·        what circumstances the restriction of a person to a single identity is appropriate.

13. BASESFOR FORMAL IDENTIFICATION A variety of means is available for identifying a person, in order to associate data with them. These include: • appearance - or how the person looks; • social behaviour - or how the person interacts with others; • names - or what the person is called by other people; • codes - or what the person is called by an organisation;

14. BASESFOR FORMAL IDENTIFICATION • knowledge - or what the person knows; • tokens - or what the person has; • bio-dynamics - or what the person does; • natural physiography - or what the person is; and • imposed physical characteristics - or what the person is now.

15. NAMES Over a period of centuries, the demand of using of surnames began to be necessary. For people who did not own land, the primary sources of surnames were: • locality or territory; • offices, and later occupations and trades; • parentage, predominantly in the male; and • nicknames.

16. CODES • To cope with the vagaries of name-based identification, it is common for organisations to create coding schemes. • These are commonly based on a set of digits, but may incorporate alphabetic characters.

17. KNOWLEDGE -BASED IDENTIFICATION • Passwords are a very common application of knowledge-based identification. • Another is the Personal Identification Number (PIN) used in conjunction with Automatic Teller Machines and merchants' EFT/POS terminals.

18. BIOMETRICS • The term 'biometrics' is used to refer to any and all of a variety of identification techniques which are based on some physical and difficult-to-alienate characteristic. • They are sometimes referred to as 'positive identification', because they are claimed to provide greater confidence that the identification is accurate.

19. BIOMETRICS • Hence biometric techniques involve 'metrics' or measurements of some kind, rather than depending merely on informal or subliminal methods. • The natural physiological characteristics traditionally employed by the international passport system are fairly gross, and are seldom sufficient to reliably identify a person.

20. A TAXONOMYOF BIOMETRIC TECHNIQUES • appearance • social behaviour • bio-dynamics • natural physiography • imposed physical characteristics

21. DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICSOFA HUMAN IDENTIFIER • universality of coverage - every relevant person shouldhave an identifier • uniqueness - each relevant person should haveonly one identifier - no two people should have the same identifier

22. DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICSOFA HUMAN IDENTIFIER • permanence - the identifier should not change, nor be changeable • indispensability - the identifier should be one or more natural characteristics, which each person has and retains. If artificial, the identifier should be enforcedly available at all times

23. DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICSOFA HUMAN IDENTIFIER • collectibility - the identifier should be collectible byanyone on any occasion • storability - the identifier should be storable in manual and in automated systems • exclusivity - no other form of identification should be necessary or used

24. DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICSOFA HUMAN IDENTIFIER • precision - every identifier should be sufficiently different from every other identifier that mistakes are unlikely • simplicity - recording and transmission should be easy and not error-prone

25. DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICSOFA HUMAN IDENTIFIER • cost - measuring and storing the identifier should not be unduly costly • convenience - measuring and storing the identifier should not be unduly inconvenient or time-consuming • acceptability - its use should conform to contemporary social standards

26. CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS • During the last decade, the march of identification, data-processing and communication technologies have excited a particularly enthusiastic surge of attempts by governments to introduce general-purpose, national schemes.

27. PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES - INHERENT OBJECTIONSTO IDENTIFICATION • All forms of identification may attract opposition in different circumstances. • The greatest degree of public distrust, however, is generally associated with biometric identifiers. • Their use is in some cases invasive, and in all cases seems that way.

28. PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES - INHERENT OBJECTIONSTO IDENTIFICATION • As the sophistication of identification technologies increases, the identification schemes operated by individual corporations and government agencies require regulation, in order to achieve appropriate balance between personal, corporate and social needs.

29. RISKSIN MULTI - PURPOSE IDENTIFICATION SCHEMES • Most people are cowed by the power of large institutions, and resent at least some aspects of the surveillance society. • The imposition of social control mechanisms, including the enforced use of intrusive identification, could stimulate an increased degree of conscious non-acceptance of authority.

30. CONCLUSIONS • Identification is an important design consideration in information systems, which deal with people. • The more effective biometrics-based identification schemes all involve serious social implications, and can be expected to excite considerable public suspicion and even hostility.

31. CONCLUSIONS • The highest-integrity schemes combine physically intrusive data-collection with a potentially ubiquitous instrument of power. • As a result, the kinds of multi-purpose identification schemes, or inhabitant registration systems, which would appear capable of exciting the greatest degree of concern are those based on DNA-printing and implanted chips.