One GIF to rule them all...
One GIF to rule them all, One GIF to find them, One GIF to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
The Global Identity Foundation aims to recruit vendors in its ambitious quest to develop a global digital identity ecosystem. GIF is seeking to develop a new, global solution for digital identities, with the not-for-profit organisation building on work from the Jericho Forum, including the Jericho Forum’s Identity, Entitlement …
Good idea to work on some agreed requirements, but I am extremely dubious about having it led by corporate CISOs, rather than an open community including privacy organisations.
Corporates aren't well known for being keen on privacy, and one key aspect of privacy is being able to use different identities with different players, with no way for those players to link or correlate those identities. For example, I use a different email address for every company I do business with not just to work out which ones are selling/losing my info but to avoid them linking my accounts. I also use cash when possible (instead of credit cards) and use different credit cards with different companies. This is specifically to prevent corporates doing some things they would like to.
Even in the real world, different people know me by different names (in my case this is for historical reasons -- this is true for many people, for example women who have been married several times and may use different names in different contexts). I do not have, or need, just one identity.
Does GIF have the right structure to take these issues into account? I can't find out, because their web site is empty when I try to look at it!
So first, GIF is a global not-for-profit foundation, with matching charitable clauses with a commitment to everything being open source - it's exactly your first comment that means a new structure was needed.
And yes, if you read the original work from Jericho, and the white paper from GIF then you will see embedded the concepts of persona that meet the needs of privacy, primacy and agency.
Can't see why you are getting a blank web site - works for me!
The website is now working for me (mostly -- the layout seems to be borked but it is mostly readable).
It certainly is saying the right things -- the proof will be in the actions. I have to say I think it was a very serious mistake to go public with a board just consisting of corporate types, and without any representatives of privacy/identity civil society on the board. That sends out a very worrying message. It will take a while to build confidence and relevance.
But it is nice to have the CEO participating in the forum.
Surely this comment demands a link to the useful Wikipedia section on how GIF is pronounced.
(JFTR, I use the soft-g pronunciation myself. But teach the controversy!)
I'm amazed no-one at any point in the setup of this Global Identity Foundation said "Hey guys, wait a minute, our acronym is going to be confusingly similar to something most tech people already use". They have so many choices of words, but they came up with "GIF". They could have gone French, and been "Fondation Mondiale Identité" (or basically the same in Spanish), but noooo.
PS: I know I'm totally missing the point, but with GIFs I can get a little animated... boom boom
I am guessing that this means Identity 1 and Identity 2 failed. What makes anybody think Identity 3.0 will work? And will Identity 3.1 be compatible?
Seriously, I am wondering of the potential for abuse if there is one single identification process. All the eggs in one basket. Plus how does one PROVE that they are who they are, really?