Economics of Identity Theft

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XV

   PDF

2. Identity in Economics, and in Context

   • L. Jean Camp

   Pages 1-4

3. Modern Technological and Traditional Social Identities

   • L. Jean Camp

   Pages 5-16

4. Identity Theft

   • L. Jean Camp

   Pages 17-32

5. Who Owns You?

   • L. Jean Camp

   Pages 33-48

6. Defeating the Greatest Masquerade

   • L. Jean Camp

   Pages 49-59

7. Secrecy, Privacy, Identity

   • L. Jean Camp

   Pages 61-72

8. Security and Privacy as Market Failures

   • L. Jean Camp

   Pages 73-81

9. Trusting Code and Trusting Hardware

   • Bennet Yee

   Pages 83-85

10. Technologies of Identity

    • L. Jean Camp

    Pages 87-89

11. Anonymous Identifiers

    • L. Jean Camp

    Pages 91-99

12. Digital Signatures

    • L. Jean Camp

    Pages 101-108

13. Strengths and Weaknesses of Biometrics

    • Elaine M. Newton

    Pages 109-124

14. Reputation

    • L. Jean Camp

    Pages 125-140

15. Scenario I: Your Credentials Please

    • Paul Syverson

    Pages 141-147

16. Scenario II: Universal National Identifier

    • Allan Friedman

    Pages 149-159

17. Scenario III: Sets of attributes

    • Barbara Fax

    Pages 161-163

18. Scenario IV: Ubiquitous Identity Theft

    • Ari Schwatz

    Pages 165-172

19. Closing

    • L. Jean Camp

    Pages 173-174

20. Back Matter

    Pages 175-181

    PDF

Anyone who has ever bought a car, rented an apartment, had a job or conversation that they would rather not see in their employee review may find this book of interest. There is a collision occurring in identity management. Identity technologies are problematic, and many see light at the end of the identity theft tunnel. Yet the innovation is driven by individual tendencies to seek convenience and business imperatives to minimize risk with maximized profit. The light is an oncoming identity train wreck of maximum individual exposure, social risk and minimal privacy. The primary debate over identity technologies is happening on the issue of centralization. RealID is effectively a centralized standard with a slightly distributed back-end (e.g., fifty servers). RealID is a national ID card. Many mechanisms for federated identities, such as OpenID or the Liberty Alliance, imagine a network of identifiers shared on an as-needed or ad-hoc process. These systems accept the limits of human information processing, and thus use models that work on paper. Using models that work on paper results in systematic risk of identity theft in this information economy. There are alternatives to erosions of privacy and increasing fraud. There is an ideal where individuals have multiple devices, including computers, smart cards, and cell phones. Smart cards are credit card devices that are cryptographically secure. This may be shared and misused, or secure and privacy enhancing. Yet such a system requires coordinated investment.

• Camp
• Economics
• Good name
• Identity
• Information
• Signatur
• communication
• cryptology
• data encryption
• data structure
• identity management
• information theory
• networks
• privacy
• value

From the reviews: “This book is primarily concerned with the interplay between identity management technologies and their associated economic impact. … Overall, this book provides an interesting oversight of the economics of privacy and an overview of a range of identity management technologies in an economic context. … It is certainly worthy of perusal, provided that its significant US bias and inconsistency in what is actually meant by ‘identity theft’ are recognised from the outset.” (Stefan Fafinski, Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society, Vol. 7 (4), 2009)

• Indiana University, Bloomington, USA

  L. Jean Camp

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