On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog, as the New Yorker cartoon famously said. But what if, while you are surfing, you want to prove your pedigree?
Equifax, the big credit agency that already knows more about your flea count than you do, wants to help.
It is developing a service that will let you create an online identity that can assert various “claims” that it will backup. To an online wine merchant, it might back you up when you say you are of legal age. If you are applying to open a new bank account, the company might vouch for your entire profile, including name, address, birthday and Social Security number.
Ron Carpinella, Equifax’s vice president for ID management, said the service may even be of use on a blog.”Think of all the people using false identities on blogs to post 15 different comments on something,” he said. “We can prevent that.”
Consumers won’t pay anything for this, as Equifax envisions the service. Rather, Web site owners will pay money for a better way to trust that what users tell them is true.
Source: NY Times (Bits Blog)
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