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I-Want-Troy's-Hair
01-09-2011, 10:21 AM
http://visiontoamerica.org/story/obama-eyeing-internet-id-for-americans.html

STANFORD, Calif. - January 7, 2011 4:31 PM
President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said here today.

It's "the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to centralize efforts toward creating an "identity ecosystem" for the Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said.

That news, first reported by CNET, effectively pushes the department to the forefront of the issue, beating out other potential candidates including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. The move also is likely to please privacy and civil liberties groups that have raised concerns in the past over the dual roles of police and intelligence agencies.

The announcement came at an event today at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, where U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Schmidt spoke.

The Obama administration is currently drafting what it's calling the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which Locke said will be released by the president in the next few months. (An early version was publicly released last summer.)

"We are not talking about a national ID card," Locke said at the Stanford event. "We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities."

The Commerce Department will be setting up a national program office to work on this project, Locke said.

Details about the "trusted identity" project are unusually scarce. Last year's announcement referenced a possible forthcoming smart card or digital certificate that would prove that online users are who they say they are. These digital IDs would be offered to consumers by online vendors for financial transactions.

Schmidt stressed today that anonymity and pseudonymity will remain possible on the Internet. "I don't have to get a credential if I don't want to," he said. There's no chance that "a centralized database will emerge," and "we need the private sector to lead the implementation of this," he said.

Inter-agency rivalries to claim authority over cybersecurity have exited ever since many responsibilities were centralized in the Department of Homeland Security as part of its creation nine years ago. Three years ago, proposals were were circulating in Washington to transfer authority to the secretive NSA, which is part of the U.S. Defense Department.

In March 2009, Rod Beckstrom, director of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity Center, resigned through a letter that gave a rare public glimpse into the competition for budgetary dollars and cybersecurity authority. Beckstrom said at the time that the NSA "effectively controls DHS cyber efforts through detailees, technology insertions," and has proposed moving some functions to the agency's Fort Meade, Md., headquarters.

Mach1
01-09-2011, 02:25 PM
They did pass the Net Neutrality giving the fcc total control over the internet as a lame duck. And so it begins.

st33lersguy
01-09-2011, 02:52 PM
So basically everyone's privacy rights will be violated

Godfather
01-09-2011, 04:53 PM
Change we can believe in...too bad that change is turning out to be putting Bush on steroids.

Godfather
01-09-2011, 09:37 PM
Oh, and do we really need an Osama Obama moniker?? It's a terrible and un-American policy, but that kind of rhetoric is over the top.

X-Terminator
01-09-2011, 11:36 PM
Oh, and do we really need an Osama Obama moniker?? It's a terrible and un-American policy, but that kind of rhetoric is over the top.

You're right, Godfather, and I have edited the thread title. I am asking everyone in the future to tone down the rhetoric, so that we can have civil political discussions and not allow things to get out of hand.

steeldawg
01-10-2011, 05:25 AM
I hope we can get barcodes on the back of our necks soon!

stlrtruck
01-10-2011, 07:16 AM
You're right, Godfather, and I have edited the thread title. I am asking everyone in the future to tone down the rhetoric, so that we can have civil political discussions and not allow things to get out of hand.

It's politics and like religion it will raise the hair on people's arses to the Nth degree. There are many people who can discuss respectfully to the point of saying, We disagree, but from my view there are also many people who MUST BE RIGHT when discussing politics.

I'll just watch and wait. :pop2: Should be fun.

43Hitman
01-10-2011, 07:23 AM
It shouldn't matter what team you're on, this policy is HORRIBLE for Americans.

HometownGal
01-10-2011, 07:50 AM
I hope we can get barcodes on the back of our necks soon!

ROFLMAO!!!! :rofl: :lol:

Sorry Obama - this is a BAD idea all the way around. :horror:

stlrtruck
01-10-2011, 08:50 AM
It shouldn't matter what team you're on, this policy is HORRIBLE for Americans.

I agree, but unfortunately you get those people who are strictly party people and can't see the forest for the tree.

Godfather
01-10-2011, 09:28 AM
I hope we can get barcodes on the back of our necks soon!

That joke would work better with the barcode on our forehead or left hand :)

Doc_Holiday
01-10-2011, 08:36 PM
So basically everyone's privacy rights will be violated

Actually we don't have a right to privacy. We should; but it's not in the Constitution.

I also have issue with this site as to its affiliation. But then again, I distrust most of the corporate media out there.

Godfather
01-10-2011, 09:08 PM
Actually we don't have a right to privacy. We should; but it's not in the Constitution.


True, but there's also no authority in the Constitution for the government to do this.