Identity Theft
Media, Communication and Human
In/Security
Class Notes
June 29, 2007
A Definition of
Identity Theft
With identity theft, a thief takes over a
consumer’s entire identity by stealing
critical private information
Social Security number
driver’s license number
Address
credit card number
bank account number.
Only about Money?
No, also about someone’s good name
If we think about our “good name”
(reputation) as a “good” (i.e. commodity),
how can we secure it?
Ensure that it is safe from other people?
The example of Citibank places the discussion in
the “Finance” sector of society
Traditionally
The protection of people was dependant on . . .
Government (Hobbes)
But now our world is more privatized
Sometimes it operates beyond the reach (aid) of public
institutions
Thus, it may not be up to government to protect us
In the Michelle Browne case there wasn’t even a law protecting
identity against theft
Government wasn’t organized enough to foresee this problem,
could not secure humans (citizens) against this harm
One Issue
Government tries to solve the problems of
today with the tools of yesterday
It has not yet developed:
the intellectual technologies (legal, legislative)
institutional technologies (enforcement, legal), and
actual tool technologies (machines, physical plant)
to secure us
Now:
Security may be in the hands of other (private) groups
Ex1: financial institutions
Ex2: health groups (corporate plans)
Ex3: schools (elite education -- also keeps children away from
“bad influences” “out” in the “public space”)
Private education has often been viewed as a payment toward the
future. Paying to assist one’s children gain “a leg up” into the next
elite level of schools/society
Ex4: private armies
Private communities with hired security
In Japan: every company hires a private security service
In US: certain housing tracts often hire private guards, with gates
for restricted access
As for the Internet
Who polices it?
We pay for the service of protecting our machines
Encryption = a kind of trust relationship that is created with
the payment of a fee
Does policing happen publicly?
It is still a developing “industry”/institution
skills are lacking (often) among law enforcement
Matters of globality are involved
Identity theft often operates across geographic
borders -- when it does, the system of control and
security become more complex
Complex Systems
The level of sophistication and coordination
involved in the Internet are beyond the abilities of
most political systems to handle
Is the solution international agencies?
Is cooperation in policing and enforcement possible?
Is the “system” too complex for any one
government or set of governments to handle?
How is this Related to Identity?
Think about yourself
Ask: who are you?
How do you know?
There are genetic ways of showing who you are
A;sp physical (external ways of measuring
identity)
You have documentation (like a passport)
That documentation gets certified by authorities
It comes down to the decision of authorities
Example: movie the return of Martin Guerre
The Return of Martin Guerre
A story rooted in French history
The kind of story that has been told/occurred in
other cultures
Basically, how does one prove that they ARE
themselves or are NOT another person?
In the case of this story, the entire village -- and
even Martin’s family -- was divided as to what
this returning person’s true identity was
Poster and Identity
Begins with “Consciousness”:
Locke: in opposition to Descartes
Not only the awareness of existence, but it is the
actual process of thinking that results in
“consciousness”
it is awareness of the nature of my thoughts
Identity is related to specific thought processes
that make us different
Poster and Identity
Consciousness:
Erikson: came from Freudian tradition
Freud: Austrian Doctor who treating certain patients in 1900
for physical ailments for which he could find no real medical
causes
He realized that many of these illness were in their mind
He developed a system of analysis -- “psychoanalysis”
In which they talked about their deeper thoughts
As a means of isolating the possible causes of illness
He developed dream therapy -- the interpretation of dreams
Freud’s system of mind had 3 parts: Id, Ego and Superego
Freud’s Mental System
Freud’s system had 3 components:
Id: the basic (irrational) drives inside a person
Ego: the rational aspect of the inner world
Superego: the social architecture
Rules and internalized norms that often worked to
develop the Ego and keep the Id in check
Belief: a healthy person integrated these
three in ways that no one was too dominant
over the others
Erikson and Ego
Getting the discussion “outside of the head”
Looking at the interrelations between ego and
society
Seeing people as acting out in the world
Many act on their desires (what “id” is generally said to be in
Freudian psychology . . .)
Or else: act on their concept of self (what Freudian
psychology says that “ego” is)
In this case, sense of self, would be group affiliation
Question: “What does this have to do with Identity?”
Identity is a Complex Mix
The inside (the inner consciousness)
The outside (a world of other
egos/identities outside the “self”)
Concrete Example: You in Japan
When you look at identity from Poster’s
perspective, we have to create a profile that
is both internal and external
Changing Conception of Identity
The Idea of identity has changed over time
From a sense that we are all the same
To the sense that we are all unique
Distinguishable by factors that are both internal
and external
The re-envisioning of identity is based on a
recognition of difference
Race, gender, national affiliation, other factors
Technology and Identity
How does this idea that identity is unique
get influenced/touched by digital
technologies?
Question: Should it be easier or harder for
identities to be recognized?
It makes the matter of identity MORE external
(more outside of the self)
What are the impacts/outcomes of this?
Externality and Trust
The internet allows us to be more social, more
extensive, more external
This raises many issues/potential problems
regarding trust
Security -- who is the guarantor of truthfulness,
who ensures that we can trust?
With this technology it is often left to the individual
to care for themselves
There are very often few (if any) mechanisms of control or
security to help the individual
You versus S/he
Oscar: with the Internet we are increasing contact
with people we don’t know
We know about them based on the information we receive
from other sources
Holden: The problem of identity today is that the
technologies do not always provide us with the
assurance that we might have had in a non-
mediated world of an older time
For instance, the village (mura) or even the old-fashioned
business lunch where you measure your partner before
offering them the handshake (and contract)
Increasingly Mediated World
Threats to our security increase because
we rely on machines, tools, and
anonymous people to get the work of our
daily lives done
This relates as much to THEIR identity as it
does to ours
It relates to the trust and globalization of our
Giddens’ readings; it relates to issues of risk
under increasingly complex systems