[LINK] 'Snail mail' could go online

Roger Clarke Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Thu Aug 18 21:20:02 AEST 2011


>On 18/08/2011, at 9:36 AM, Antony Barry wrote:
>>  http://www.smh.com.au/technology/-1iy8k.html

At 19:09 +1000 18/8/11, Antony Barry wrote:
>And I meant to add that it would provide a nice unique identifier 
>for everybody who deals with government!


Here's the thread on the privacy list today:

>At 12:05 +1000 18/8/11, K. Peachey wrote:
>>As raised on reddit, this seems to be a very capable way of
>>introducing a national id scheme (aka Australian Card) without calling
>>it as such since each user would need a unique identifier for the
>>system, for example names wouldn't work that well because of ease of
>>duplicates (eg: two john.smiths@) where as id number would seem the
>>logical route for this.
>>http://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/jlbh4/do_you_want_your_own_electronic_pigeon_hole/

At Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:24:20 +1000, Roger replied:
>
>Australia Post will be salivating over this.
>
>But then they were probably responsible for Malcolm's 'brainwave'.
>
>AP have been trying for some time to get the Danish solution up.
>
>And this would place AP in a wonderful position to leverage their 
>connection with every person in the country.
>
>So now those of us associated with the demise of the Australia Card 
>will be able to be blamed for something else as well - the 
>*privatisation* of the national id scheme.  It's not easy being a 
>privacy advocate  (:-)}


[Explanation:  It's been said more than once that we were 
strategically naive to defeat the Australia Card.  That line of 
thinking says that the scheme was such a crock that it would have 
collapsed shambolically, and thereby no-one would have attempted it 
again for at least 40-50 years.  Whereas what's actually happened is 
a long series of attempts by all sorts of flag-bearers-of-convenience 
whose 'advisers' have encouraged to think that they thought of the 
idea - currently Nicola Rocksin and Joe Hockey.  *Surely* Malcolm's 
smart enough to realise when he's being used.

[Aside:  The Minister for the Australia Card got a new job the other day.
I wonder if anyone knows who I mean.]


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University



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