X-Message-Number: 4796
From:  (David Stodolsky)
Subject: Fwd: Stale accounts and lifestreams
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 95 12:14:55 +0200 (CET DST)


Forward of article <> () by 
 (RISKS Forum):
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Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 00:09:49 -0400
From:  (Martin Ewing)
Subject: Stale accounts and lifestreams (Frankowski, RISKS-17.)

Dan Frankowski's account (RISKS-17.) of problems with an old frequent
flyer account points up a new generic risk: Our electronic "shadows" accrete
all kinds of data over a lifetime.  Apart from the problem of bad guys
getting access, it is rather difficult for us to retrieve our own data.  In
addition to stale f.f. accounts, we may need to get tax records, Social
Security income data, house purchase and repair cost information, investment
cost, etc., sometimes back to day zero.

Dave Gelernter at Yale has developed a "lifestream" database model which
would capture and organize (by date, as I understand it) all your electronic
data, starting with your birth certificate.  In addition to all your
financial transaction data, there would be all your e-mail, significant
images, school homework, all the versions of all the programs you ever
wrote, etc.  We can imagine carrying this all around on an optical disk in
your wallet or on a super smart card.  (How much of it should be accessible
to other parties like the IRS or to legal subpoena is an interesting
question.  Encryption might be a good idea, if you can remember a key
throughout your whole life!)

I don't know if a comprehensive personal "lifestream" is going to be
available any time soon, but the technology is almost there.  As a concept,
it may help to sharpen our ideas about electronic risks.  It certainly
would help to find that old account number.

Martin Ewing, Yale Science & Engineering Computing Facility
<>  http://minerva.cis.yale.edu/~ewing

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David S. Stodolsky      Euromath Center     University of Copenhagen
   Tel.: +45 38 33 03 30   Fax: +45 38 33 88 80 (C)


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