Human Identity, Human Identification and Human Security

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Human Identity, Human Identification and Human
Security

• Jindrich Kodl, Ph.D.
• Milan Lokay, Ph.D.
• CZECH REPUBLIC

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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.

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KEYWORDS

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

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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

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INTRODUCTION

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

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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'.

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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".

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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 association of data
  with a particular human being

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HUMAN IDENTIFICATION

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

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ORGANISATIONAL NEEDS FOR FORMAL IDENTIFICATION

• 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

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ORGANISATIONAL NEEDS FOR FORMAL IDENTIFICATION

• 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.

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ORGANISATIONAL NEEDS FOR FORMAL IDENTIFICATION

• 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.

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BASES FOR 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

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BASES FOR 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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A TAXONOMY OF BIOMETRIC TECHNIQUES

• appearance
• social behaviour
• bio-dynamics
• natural physiography
• imposed physical characteristics

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DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICS OF A HUMAN IDENTIFIER

• universality of coverage
• - every relevant person should have an
  identifier
• uniqueness
• - each relevant person should have only
  one identifier
• - no two people should have the same
  identifier

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DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICS OF A 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

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DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICS OF A HUMAN IDENTIFIER

• collectibility
• - the identifier should be collectible by
  anyone 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

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DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICS OF A 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

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DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICS OF A 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

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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.

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PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES - INHERENT OBJECTIONS TO
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.

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PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES - INHERENT OBJECTIONS TO
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.

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RISKS IN 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.

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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.

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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.