I attended a Unisys gig about 7 years ago (when I was still persona grata in that world) in relation to Money laundering/ regulation etc (at a very nice place they have near St Paul de Vence, I recommend it).

One of the key questions related to who would be trusted to have custody of ID information, it being recognised that payment - uniquely - requires ID , with everything else being ancillary.

One of the people there, very senior in the advertising world, had carried out a survey with >1000 respondents in relation to who were most and who least trusted with our data.

I forget the exact numbers, but as I recall, in ascending order, it went something like:

EU - 25%
UK government - 33%
Microsoft - 45%
Marks & Spencer 60%

and the Winner?

Let's hear it for

Boots the Chemist 80%

My view FWIW is that the requirement is for an Identity Foundation, funded by business, and with rock-solid safeguards in terms of access by Government (although even here we see how SWIFT caved in to the CIA etc etc)

In relation to access, another interesting (but more expected) response from the survey was that few surveyed had any problems with access to their data to rule them out of a crime, but most had grave problems with Big Brother and "fishing expeditions".


"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson