thoughts and observations of a privacy, security and internet researcher, activist, and policy advisor

Monday, November 24, 2008

The Digital Identity Superhero

Patrick Harding somehow managed to convince some talented friends that the digital identity community needs a superhero. Now, the first episode of the "Golden Guardian" is ready for prime-time.

I only wonder what will be the next and more interesting dangers the Golden Guardian will protect us from. The "Russian Internet Mafia" is understandable for the first chapter, but too much of a cliché and too easy to be an interesting enemy. What about Google, the OpenID Foundation, the Department of Homeland Security or maybe the "Electronic Health Records Mafia"? A superhero like this could be a great way of explaining the dangers of linkable profiles and bidirectional identity tokens, and also illustrate the magic of zero-knowledge proofs, identity rights agreements, and more.