On Thu, 18 Dec 2003 11:12, David Forslund wrote:
> What is required to get a national ID number in Norway? �Any background
> checks? Is the ID looked up nationally on every transaction?

If you are born in Norway, you get one allocated. If you move to Norway, you 
get one allocated as soon as you get your visum. This allocation is 
permanent. It encodes date of birth and gender among other things, and a 
simple check sum.

> I would hope that there is more than locality used to detect fraud.

Sure is.

> In the US, the desire to be anonymous is built into our entire system.
> There is an underground economy. People don't want to get visible
> healthcare treatment because it might cost them their job, etc, etc., etc.

I see the problem. But globally I have hopes that countries will increasingly 
protect individual freedom and rights against corporate interests - 
Scandinavia has proven that such concerns can be overcome without negative 
impact on the industry (Astra, Volvo, Scania, Nokia, Ericsson etc are not 
doing too bad, do they?).

> My general point is that any identification process has to take into
> account these widely varying cultures.

Sure.

Horst

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