Re: The drumbeat against anonymity continues....

[ethridge@netcom.com (Allen B. Ethridge)]

Late night, off the top of my head, so no quotes, please.

Tim May wrote:
>
>
>The real "drumbeat" article is about cellular phone fraud and
>toll-free number fraud. Actaully, a couple of related articles.
>(Everyone should at least skim "RISKS.")
>
>Anonymity is cited as a problem. But this misses the point, that the
>real problem is lack of a proper payment model. As David Chaum points
>out, there are really only two basic payment approaches: transfer of
>something of value or an account-based transfer. Cash or barter are
>examples of the first, checks or credit card payments are examples of
>the second (though each has some wrinkles). Digital cash, when online
>cleared, behaves mostly like real cash.
>
>The phone companies that are complaining about fraud have inadequately
>arranged for security and need to adopt a mode that fixes this. Since
>physical money can't be fed into the slots of a handheld cell phone (or
>at least can't then be delivered to the service owner!), the solution
>has traditionally been an account-based payment system. (Accounts can
>also be better protected against fraud by having PINs, etc.)
>

The technology to reduce cellular fraud, through encryption and
authentication, is easily implementable, but for some reason neither
the operating companies nor the manufacturers want it.

In contrast, European cellular (GSM) products do implement
encryption and authentication (at least as far as laws allow).
GSM mobile phones can be equipped with a slot for a card that
identifies the subscriber.  Billing is based on the subscriber's
identity, not the phone's.

I'd say that the problem isn't just a lack of a proper payment
model, but also an unwillingness to provide adequate technology
to the problem.  Of course, the GSM approach does nothing for anonymity
or digital cash.

allen@well.sf.ca.us          It's dangerous, child, to come to conclusions
ethridge@netcom.com          when you don't have any facts.
my opinions are my own       Dr. Hemlock, The Eiger Sanction