Recently, there has been a lot of talk about assigning a "visible, unchanging, universal number" to everyone, with catchphrases like "national ID" and "number system." Some companies are even seeing their stock prices rise, claiming that this will create a special boom of 1 trillion yen a year that will continue in perpetuity.
It is said that business efficiency will improve dramatically by making name matching more efficient, but I am concerned that the discussion is too rough. Personally, I am not opposed to the introduction of "unchanging numbers" to improve business efficiency. However, I believe that name matching will have side effects such as privacy violations, so it should not be "visible."
However, it seems that the general public does not quite understand the threat this name matching poses.
He said, "Even if name matching is criticized as a threat to privacy, what concrete threats does the number system pose?"
An information model explanation based on "What is privacy?" will be given on Sunday, December 12th.Horibe Symposium I have written about this in detail in the materials (to be released on the day), so please refer to those, but here I would like to explain something that can be understood intuitively.
First of all, I would like to say that not all name matching is an invasion of privacy. What is wrong is "unwanted (unintentional) name matching."
In fact, this "identification that the person himself does not want to have made" is a major theme in literature, beginning with Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables," but many people do not realize this.
Inspector Javert's Psychic Powers
"Les Misérables" has two main characters: Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert.
Jean Valjean, in his youth, was imprisoned for stealing a piece of bread out of hunger. After his release, he was touched by the forgiveness and love of a priest and reformed, becoming like a saint. However, Javert repeatedly links him to his past crimes and casts him into the abyss. This absurdity and cruelty is one of the themes of this epic novel.
On the other hand, Javert is a superhuman with an extraordinary sense of justice and abilities.
Let's write down those superhuman abilities.
(1) I will never forget it, no matter how many decades pass.
(2) They have superhuman exploration abilities.
Man is a forgetful animal, but Javert does not forget.
Humans do not usually have the ability to search for information across time and place and to make connections between two seemingly unrelated things. Only some superhumans, such as Sherlock Holmes, have this ability. Javert is one of them.
With these two superhuman abilities, Javert repeatedly casts Jean Valjean into the abyss based on "justice of law." Although he contributes to society, saves people, and acts like a saint, he mercilessly "matches" him and casts him into the abyss, even though he lives under a different name. In this way, not only he, but those around him, and in some cases the entire region, are cast into misery. How merciless.
Yes, what is happening here is the "matching" of "Jean Valjean" and "Madeleine, the Mayor," or "Jean Valjean" and "Mr. Fauchelevent," through Javert's "ability to remember" and "ability to search."
Now, as you may already know, Inspector Javert's psychic powers...
(1) I will never forget it, no matter how many decades pass.
(2) They have superhuman exploration abilities.
This is in fact the very nature of the Internet. Once information is posted on the Internet, it is copied over and over again, and it is rare for it to be completely deleted. Furthermore, Internet search engines such as Google make it possible to search for this information and find it in an extremely short time. In other words, whether we like it or not, the Internet has given ordinary people "superpowers" that surpass Javert's.
(3) Distribution and use of a "visible, immutable universal number"
Let's add this. This makes it very easy to match up "past me" with "present me," "workplace me" with "private me," etc. This is the completion of the plan to turn anyone into Javert.
Humans are forgetful creatures. This leads to forgiveness. People act on this premise. But the Internet does not forget. People who do not forget, like Inspector Javert in "Les Misérables," are called heartless, and the damage they cause is called pitiless. The careless introduction and use of identifiers, such as "universal immutable numbers," on the Internet turns anyone on the Internet into a Javert. And what emerges there is,"Heartless Society"That is why.
The threat of fragmented information
Now, let us introduce another main character. Marius, who will become the husband of Jean Valjean's "daughter" Cosette. After Marius and Cosette get married, Jean Valjean reveals that he is not actually Cosette's father, but only her parent, and that he is a former convict. As a result, Jean Valjean is abandoned by Marius. Marius also becomes suspicious of the source of Cosette's dowry, and begins to investigate. Of course, he only has fragmentary information. However, piecing it all together, he arrives at a certain "truth." It is as follows:
- The fortune belonged to Mr. Madeleine, who had previously committed minor crimes but had rehabilitated, become a very successful businessman, built hospitals and schools, visited the sick, and adopted and raised orphans, becoming the patron saint of the local area and even rising to become mayor.
- Jean Valjean, however, knew the secret of M. Madeleine's past misdeeds, and having him arrested and arrested, he took advantage of his arrest to withdraw more than half a million francs from M. Madeleine's bank account. I know this for certain, for I have heard it directly from a banker.
- Furthermore, Jean Valjean, out of personal grudge, also kills Inspector Javert with a pistol, a fact he knows for sure because he himself hears the shot.
Of course, the facts are different. Since Madeleine is Jean Valjean, Jean Valjean did not steal Madeleine's fortune, and Inspector Javert was nearly killed, but his life was saved by Jean Valjean's quick thinking. However, the fragmentary "facts" that Marius gathered only produced results that were completely different from the truth.
Again, astute readers will have already noticed. Another characteristic of the Internet is that when you research it, you will find fragmentary "facts." Truth is the sum of all facts, and when you extract parts of it, it often becomes far from the truth. The Internet is always fraught with this danger.
In "Les Misérables," these "mistakes" are revealed by Thénardier, who comes to accuse Jean Valjean of murdering a young, wealthy-looking man. Furthermore, the "murdered young man" is Marius himself, and Jean Valjean is found risking his life to rescue him. This is completely proven by the fact that the coat Marius had kept matches the piece of cloth Thénardier brought as evidence of the murder. At this point, Jean Valjean is finally able to recover all of his honor. Marius takes Cosette in his carriage and rushes to Jean Valjean's side. However, Jean Valjean is cruelly at his death, devastated at no longer being able to see Cosette...
Extreme darkness, extreme dawn[1]
The implication of this is clear at this point: the story is a story, and by chance a messenger of truth appears, bringing about the dawn, in the form of a disguised devil named Thénardier. But in reality, we cannot hope for such a convenient outcome.
If that is the case, in order to avoid creating a heartless society, we must have the means to reveal all the facts and restore reputations when necessary. This is something that the current Internet lacks.
These methods of restoring reputation and mechanisms to reduce the damage caused by name matching cannot be achieved through technological means alone, nor can they be achieved through institutional means alone, or through social means alone, such as through education. They can only be achieved by technology, institutions, and education working hand in hand in a balanced manner. Only by doing so can we obtain an environment in which everyone can use the service conveniently and with peace of mind.
In 2011, we are likely to see great progress in the "National ID System" in Japan and in the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NS-TIC) in the United States. I sincerely hope that these systems will advance technology, systems, and education measures in a well-balanced manner and bring us a new dawn.
[1] The title of the final chapter of Les Miserables is "Extreme Darkness, Extreme Dawn." In Les Miserables, the story ends with the dawn. We too must ensure that we do not leave society in "darkness."
Click here for gihyo.jp's "2011 New Year Special Edition" → gihyo.jp 2011 New Year Special Feature: Heartless Society and Number System - The Dangers of Name Matching as Seen in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables - "The Threat of Fragmentary Information", "Extreme Darkness, Extreme Dawn"
By the way, I have written a sequel to this on gihyo.jp.
Here → http://gihyo.jp/lifestyle/column/newyear/2011/national-id-prospect?skip