Tell me, who are you?

Besides being a line from one of Rock n' Roll's greatest anthems, this is, apprently, a pressing question for the Naperville Public Library System.

According to the Chicago Tribune the Naperville Public Library System is planning to install fingerprint scanners to ensure the identity of users of its computer terminals. According to the report, the fingerprint is not stored, but rather used to generate a unique, biometric PIN for each patron. The report further elaborates that in some public libraries have been using such a system as a voluntary substitution for library cards.

While this story itself is nothing to become alarmed about, it raises an interesting issue: in a world where identity, especially in electronic form, is so fluid and prone to deception, how does the library ensure its patrons are who they say? Indeed, it is a pity that such an topic should ever have come up, but it leads to an issue I have previously discussed here and here.

With everyone poping up on the 'grid' of corporate and government databases in some form or fashion, it is time that there were safeguards in place to protect personal data. the need to prevent theft of such data, and to minimize the risk of theft of such data, as there is no such thing as a perfect solution, should be a critical part of any forward thinking national strategy developed by business and/or politicians.

While a solution may not be instantly clear, the scope of the problem is. There needs to be some sort of real, tangible effort to protect the identity and personal information of individuals. The need for this is clear given the rash of recent incidents (most recently here, as well as here, here, and here) involving the theft or impropper acquisition of personal information.

The answer is not to end the use and compilation of such databases, as this is neither entirely necessary nor at all practical. But there must be a basic standard of privacy that all people can assume. To insure this is the case, there ought to be more stringent access requirements to further limit the access to such data, more severe consequences for allowing such thefts to occur, and stiffer penalties for those who steal the informaiton in question.

There should also be something in the way of a multinational or at least single government effort to collaborate with experts in the field and compuuter security experts to create a viable, practical solution to this growing problem. This is not something that can be ignored or patched, but rather must be completely resolved in the near term. The more information that escapes into unsecure or impropper hands, the more peril we all face in trying to live normal lives.