Everything is rapidly becoming digital. E-books, music, tv shows,
movies, newspapers, medical records, work records, Facebook, Linked In, etc.
What this is all pointing to is a day in the not too distant future where
a lot of what of what we own is in fact digital
At the moment your digital assets are stored on devices with an 18-24
month lifecycle. With software as a service, plus services such as iTunes and
Amazon we now have back ups of digital assets that we can recover when our
devices die. However, many companies die
the natural death of an unsuccessful business and we have digital assets that
we can no longer access, or even worse belong to others.
Combine all this with the amazing amount of log in names and passwords
we have to remember, credit card details to keep up to date, and keeping track
of the privacy issues that each app or service we sign up for entails. We are
all going slowly nuts.
In answer to this, I dream of the day we have a single digital identity
that we can use for all our dealings with the digital world. In legal terms
this would be called a digital legal person.
I am not talking about an avatar here, I am talking about all the
digital information about you and generated by you being kept and controlled by
you. The following are some examples of
what I mean.
Personal details such as place and date of birth, birth certificate, car
licence, spouse, contact details, emergency contact details, passport details etc.
are stored and you can give access to them to appropriate parties such as
banks, or government when you need to.
Medical records all attach to your digital identity. You can’t access themselves
directly, but you can grant any doctor access as you wish. Basic information
such as blood type, pre-existing conditions, etc. would be available
immediately to health care and emergency workers.
School and university enrolment records and results could be stored and
made available to employers, or to your parents for school results.
Digital assets you buy such as e-books, magazines, software, newspapers,
images, music, movies, tv shows, pod-casts, etc. would have licence details
recorded so you can access them for life. Like any asset, you can lend them to
friends, give them away, or even pass them on in the case of death. Once you
pay the licence, you have access to that digital item for life – regardless of
device or how many devices.
Digital assets are going to get more complex in the future. To give one
example, the manufacturing industry is rapidly moving towards 3-D printing.
This means that in the future you will buy the licence to a design that you
like for a piece of furniture, a sculpture, a toy or even plates, cups and
cutlery. Some licences will be one-offs. There could be a warranty period where
you can re-make something. Or there even could be a long term, if not perpetual
licence. Imagine handing down an antique
design to your grandchildren.
When you want an item, you can take it to a 3D manufacturer and have it
made. Imagine moving interstate or internationally and simply getting your
favourite furniture and place settings remade.
This is only a glimpse of where things are going. There are even plans
afoot to do complete digital house designs that can be 3-D printed. The
implications for digital assets and the complexity of managing them are
enormous.
You should have the creation rights for digital assets you make
attached to your digital identity. Through this you can receive payment for
usage, and you can even onsell your rights to royalty or usage, but you remain
identified as the creator.
Online transactions are becoming the norm, and instead of the clumsy
credit card system we have at the moment, how about your digital identity
completes the transaction and ensures that payment is made for valid contracts.
Governments can attach all sorts of files to your digital identity. For
example, your tax returns, benefit information, record of convictions, and much
more. You wouldn’t have access except as allowed.
Tax returns could be made a lot simpler for the average person. All
your income would be recorded. You could record your expenses from any source
with your system prompting you to classify them appropriately after the
transaction. You could also keep buying and selling of real estate, shares and
other items in the records too. Your company would lodge how much tax they have
paid for you, and how much has been paid into your retirement
fund/superannuation. Your accountant could prepare your return almost
instantly, after verifying a few things.
Think of the really annoying paperwork that goes with taking out a bank
loan, buying a house or other big ticket items. What if all the forms to be
filled in could be filled in by your digital identity. Think of all the time
and effort it would save everybody. You don’t have to go hunting for all the
bits of paper required as proof as it would be with you all the time.
Imagine being able to seal a complicated deal with a literal shake of a
hand and saying yes to your digital identity.
Dealing with privacy would be an interesting issue.
At the moment what you put on line stays on line. Take social media by
way of example. Imagine signing up to a future version of Facebook. Facebook
would query your own privacy settings and agree to what can be shared publicly
or not.
You would licence that future version of Facebook to post your
comments, images, videos, etc. for the period of time you are with them. They
could then use that information for their own commercial purposes for the
period you have an account with them.
When you close your account, all your postings and prior information
are deleted.
It could be the same with apps. When I see the amount of personal
information an app is asking for to provide inane or one off services I often
cancel a transaction on principal. How about your digital identity sorts out
what matches your privacy and security settings and then allows the transaction
or not. It could also monitor usage and ensure that it complies with the
licence terms. If the licence terms change, your digital identity could monitor
this and withdraw from the service.
The key of all this is that your digital identity is in your control,
and you licence use of some of it at your control.
Now, take a deep breath and allow me to plunge into this even deeper.
We as individuals have multiple identities. We are one person to our
parents and siblings, we are a different person to our spouses/partners, and we
are yet again another person to our work places.
If we are looking at the digital world, this is going to get messy, and
it will be complex. We fall in love, we divorce, we change jobs, we work as
volunteers, we get sick, we change our minds…. In other words we are humans.
For most of us the natural grouping is the family and we share our
physical assets, so how can we pool our digital assets in the family group
instead of as individuals.
Many tech companies have made the transition to the idea that
individuals are important and licence usage on a number of devices under the
same licence. For example, you can have a kindle book on up to 5 devices at the
same time.
If we assume a digital identity then it could be possible to do things
on any device. Just like now when you can use a browser to log on to software
as a service connections – but this could extend to almost any device.
How about a future where internet connection is ubiquitous and open to
all devices. You would be charged for individual usage rather than
infrastructure. For example, you could be visiting a friend and use their
internet connection to make a call, download a video or whatever. You would be
charged, not them. You could also use the internet connection at work for
personal reasons and they don’t pay or see what you did. Maybe there could be a
small contribution to the host for the cost of the physical connection to
encourage some commerce in all of this. To deal with digital poverty there
could be public connections that have some restraints on what can be done.
When you die, your digital identity remains active for official
purposes plus inheritance of digital assets. You could sort through photos and
videos, deciding what to keep or not. You could transfer ownership of e-books,
or other digital assets. Accounts with software and other service providers
would automatically close, or be transferred, and the public record of your
life such as tweets which are often painful for the bereaved to see again are
removed.
As to how this will happen, I have absolutely no idea.
Somehow, you would be given a digital identity at birth. Your parents
would have the same rights and controls over it as they do now until you reach
your age of majority.
Somehow it would provide some public access but also be secure from
theft, alteration or damage.
Using your identity could be an instant thing like an RFID chip, or it
could take longer. Speaking of something more instant, imagine taking a photo
of a group of friends and everyone in it would be identified and sent a copy of
the image automatically.
Yes, there will be huge privacy issues. It is clear that we are moving
into a world where we are all more public, so the thoughts above are intended
as thoughts on how we can cope with the privacy issues rather than trying to go
back to a time when they didn’t occur.
Anonymity could still be possible through the use of aliases. You could
use a fictitious identity to do things you don’t really want to share with anyone.
Your real digital identity could then back up contracts by agreeing to terms
and making payments. Contracts could be upheld, but with identity preserved,
and if you break the law, officials could have access to your real identity.
I could keep writing for ages on this idea, but I think that’s enough
for one day.
I can’t wait for this future to arrive.
