On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 02:17:02PM -0400, Eric Mill wrote: > So this is a little different from the usual fare here, but my colleague > Tom Lee at the Sunlight Foundation has been thinking about using basic > cryptographic concepts to convince governments to publish more unique > identifiers in their datasets -- even when the identifiers they have in > their *databases* is sensitive (like SSNs). > > The problem of anonymizing unique data is in some senses easier than others > here, because in some gov't contexts, making things personally identifiable > isn't the problem -- the *intent* is to publish personally identifiable, > connect-able information, like for campaign donors and lobbyists. So the > Mosaic Effect (de-anonymizing Netflix data) is less of a concern. Depends > on the problem, though. > > After talking about it on a > couple<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sunlightlabs/CdCdB_0TCgc>of > lists<https://mailman.stanford.edu/pipermail/liberationtech/2014-February/012834.html>, > Tom blogged it up: > > http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2014/03/20/a-little-math-could-make-identifiers-a-whole-lot-better/ > > Your feedback would be very welcome, either here or in public fora. Of > course, convincing government agencies to actually do this sort of thing > might be a challenge, but there's a lot of levels and branches of > government out there - you never know who might lead the way.
I need a reliable identifier to implement http://minco.me/ Now the next question is it mathematically possible to come up with a reliable and deterministic way of creating a public PII (identifier) with a distributed system? What if, instead of government agencies, we had Notary Publics sign a document with a 'secret' nonce to create the PII? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Troy Benjegerdes 'da hozer' [email protected] 7 elements earth::water::air::fire::mind::spirit::soul grid.coop Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel, nor try buy a hacker who makes money by the megahash
