Google and Microsoft promote password-less web logins

[HEXUS]

Both these members of the Fast Identity Online Alliance demoed their tech at RSA 2018.

Read more.

[Saracen]

HMMM.

/tinfoil hat in place.


Yes, and msny such tech giants, and not a few stores, woild absolutely adore being able to 100% accurately biometrically identify all users .... thus validating the identity of individuals in their data warehouses.

No doubt this is coming. It's probably unstoppable at this point. But unless this becomes mandatory for websites I must use, there is no chance of me agreeing to it, And off-hand, I can't think if any websites I hwve to use.

If it's optional, I will not opt.

If it's mandadory (clearly, it won't be initially) I will stop using any and all such sites, unless I have absolutely no choice. This is also the point at which I am likely to go internet-free, and dump having my own internet link (i.e. broadband).

Is it coming? Almost certainly. Will I use it? Not unless given utterly no choice.

In the above, bear in mind I don't use ANY social media sites, closed both paypal and ebay many years ago, and don't remember the last time I bought ANYTHING online, but it certainly was years ago.

It is possible, and in many ways desirable, to live life without internet access. I know, 'cos I tried it for several months a few years ago, and after about a week, didn't miss it at all.


The great internet dream of freedom is all but dead, and it's now little more than a schill for corporate vested interest and control, and a purveyor of fake or at least dubious news. We need to shoot the monster and start again. But we won't.

Now, where'd I put my bunker key? I need to check supplies.

[Friesiansam]

HMMM.

/tinfoil hat in place.


Yes, and msny such tech giants, and not a few stores, woild absolutely adore being able to 100% accurately biometrically identify all users .... thus validating the identity of individuals in their data warehouses.

No doubt this is coming. It's probably unstoppable at this point. But unless this becomes mandatory for websites I must use, there is no chance of me agreeing to it, And off-hand, I can't think if any websites I hwve to use.

If it's optional, I will not opt.

If it's mandadory (clearly, it won't be initially) I will stop using any and all such sites, unless I have absolutely no choice. This is also the point at which I am likely to go internet-free, and dump having my own internet link (i.e. broadband).

Is it coming? Almost certainly. Will I use it? Not unless given utterly no choice.

In the above, bear in mind I don't use ANY social media sites, closed both paypal and ebay many years ago, and don't remember the last time I bought ANYTHING online, but it certainly was years ago.

It is possible, and in many ways desirable, to live life without internet access. I know, 'cos I tried it for several months a few years ago, and after about a week, didn't miss it at all.


The great internet dream of freedom is all but dead, and it's now little more than a schill for corporate vested interest and control, and a purveyor of fake or at least dubious news. We need to shoot the monster and start again. But we won't.

Now, where'd I put my bunker key? I need to check supplies.

If that is the way you feel, why are you still using the internet?

[deepblue08]

HMMM.

/tinfoil hat in place.


Yes, and msny such tech giants, and not a few stores, woild absolutely adore being able to 100% accurately biometrically identify all users .... thus validating the identity of individuals in their data warehouses.

No doubt this is coming. It's probably unstoppable at this point. But unless this becomes mandatory for websites I must use, there is no chance of me agreeing to it, And off-hand, I can't think if any websites I hwve to use.

If it's optional, I will not opt.

If it's mandadory (clearly, it won't be initially) I will stop using any and all such sites, unless I have absolutely no choice. This is also the point at which I am likely to go internet-free, and dump having my own internet link (i.e. broadband).

Is it coming? Almost certainly. Will I use it? Not unless given utterly no choice.

In the above, bear in mind I don't use ANY social media sites, closed both paypal and ebay many years ago, and don't remember the last time I bought ANYTHING online, but it certainly was years ago.

It is possible, and in many ways desirable, to live life without internet access. I know, 'cos I tried it for several months a few years ago, and after about a week, didn't miss it at all.


The great internet dream of freedom is all but dead, and it's now little more than a schill for corporate vested interest and control, and a purveyor of fake or at least dubious news. We need to shoot the monster and start again. But we won't.

Now, where'd I put my bunker key? I need to check supplies.

Must have used a full roll of tinfoil this time.

[chj]

does the fingerprint get translated into a uniquely identifiable key that's used for access or would companies actually be able to copy my exact fingerprint?

[Saracen]

If that is the way you feel, why are you still using the internet?

I like HEXUS.

And I don't use a lot else, and what I do use, I use carefully, via anon VPN.

[Luke7]

If that is the way you feel, why are you still using the internet?

I like HEXUS.

And I don't use a lot else, and what I do use, I use carefully, via anon VPN.

If someone with enough time and talent wanted to, they could still find you. Personally, I hate the argument "if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to worry about". It is dumb for many a reason; however, you seem to have gone entirely too far the other direction. You deliberately inconvenience yourself and have a less-rich experience of the internet, and for what precisely? Pseudo-privacy? A government (where ever you live) knows exactly who you are, what you do and what you earn, and could compile a list within five minutes of your favourite shops, medical conditions and where you're likely to be at 3pm on a Tuesday. A private company just wants to use the same information to show you a few catered ads while you use their service and you lose your mind. I'm far more concerned about what a government is capable of using that information (that they already have access to) for than the likes of Google and Facebook. Point is, if you want to be as off-grid as a lot of your comments suggest you do, you wouldn't use the internet in the first place, never mind install yourself as one of the most popular and infamous/notorious accounts on a fairly well known tech news site.

Oh, but ultimately, I kinda agree. I don't like it either. Stop asking me for biometric data you creeps.

[Saracen]

If someone with enough time and talent wanted to, they could still find you. Personally, I hate the argument "if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to worry about". It is dumb for many a reason; however, you seem to have gone entirely too far the other direction. You deliberately inconvenience yourself and have a less-rich experience of the internet, and for what precisely? Pseudo-privacy? A government (where ever you live) knows exactly who you are, what you do and what you earn, and could compile a list within five minutes of your favourite shops, medical conditions and where you're likely to be at 3pm on a Tuesday. A private company just wants to use the same information to show you a few catered ads while you use their service and you lose your mind. I'm far more concerned about what a government is capable of using that information (that they already have access to) for than the likes of Google and Facebook. Point is, if you want to be as off-grid as a lot of your comments suggest you do, you wouldn't use the internet in the first place, never mind install yourself as one of the most popular and infamous/notorious accounts on a fairly well known tech news site.

Oh, but ultimately, I kinda agree. I don't like it either. Stop asking me for biometric data you creeps.

No, they couldn't find me, but don't ask me to explain why not. (note)

Much of what you say government knows about me is true, but not because of anything to do with the internet.

If private companies want to use ANY data about me to serve me adverts, will they kindly go bleep themselves. I don't want targetted ads from ANYBODY, under absolutely any circumstances whatsoever. In fact, I don't want ads, period, but especially not targetted ads. I don't want ANY company storing data on me, other than for the purposes of supplying products and/or services I have asked for, and I don't want ANY pestering with unsolicited info on products/services I haven't specifically asked for.

If companies had the decency to ASK before storing/exploiting data, I'd have no problem ... but permission to do so will NEVER be forthcoming from me.


When you say I've gone too far, inconvenienced myself and have a "less-rich" experience of the internet, I laughed. I'd love to know what "richness" of the internet you think I'm missing out on? It's not that I'm ignorant of what's on offer. It's that the vast bulk of it I either reject utterly (like facebook, twitter, etc) or am entirely indifferent to.

If the richness appeals to you, good for you, and I hope you enjoy it. But it's no inconvenience to avoid 'richness" I don't want.


(note) When using HEXUS, I'm usually on a home broadband connection, not VPN'd, and that, certainly, is traceable. On other occasions, I'm not on that broadband, and am certainly not capable of being remote-traced. Given motivation, and sufficient local resources, govermeent bodies could no doubt trace this usage, but as I'm not doing anything to raise official interest, I'm not worried about that .... unless they start pestering me with adverts.

[peterb]

I'm far more concerned about what a government is capable of using that information (that they already have access to) for than the likes of Google and Facebook.

I’m the reverse. The Government have legitimate reasons for holding data about me, and by and large how that data is used is well regulated (in the UK).

Commercial organisations have fewer legitimate reasons for harvesting any data about me other than to make money for their shareholders by selling or exploiting MY data.

And while regulations about Data Protection have been in place, they have not been particularly well followed, which is why the General Data Protection Regulations are coming into force. Perversely that is making life harder for a lot of small organisations for whom data privacy has never been an issue.

Data collection is nothing new, but the computing power available to process that data for commercial exploitation has made it a big issue.

[Zak33]

Saracen is fully endosed by Alcan, although there have been times that we've found him in an upturned water tower, in America having breakfast with Professor Xavier, with Logan popping in with milk.

I'm not a super fan of fingerprint scanning, and that's cos I don't seemt o have very good fingerprints. Dunno why. All the ones I've used seem to think I'm either alien (possible), someone else (god help the other person) or don't have fingerprints.

Which is why I'm so rich....untraceable bank vault jobs ;-)

Must admit I'd like a more secure system than passwords and stuff for finances online. Banks use card readers/cpde scramblers etc, so maybe facial recog and a fingerprint backup is next.

Maybe a sperm sample? You can see the queue at Tesco's self service tills being a very different affair can't you?

[Output]

I'm just not convinced that getting rid of passwords entirely would be a good thing.

Multi-Factor Authentication is probably the best route for the future (and in many cases, present), depending upon the usage case, so one of the steps would likely be a password. I'm just not sure that I would be comfortable with fingerprints being one of the other steps, especially if it wouldn't be limited to only being stored on your own devices (and heavily encrypted at that).

A single-layered login using a fingerprint I'd be even less enthused about (and completely against if, as mentioned above, it wasn't limited to only being stored heavily encrypted on your own devices).

You can see the queue at Tesco's self service tills being a very different affair can't you?

"Unexpected item in bagging area."

[ik9000]

the problem relying on digitised files of your fingerprints is that, should someone hack them and get hold of them, you can't ever change your finger print. It is not suitable as a form of password. User account maybe, but not password. No system is foolproof. giving hackers something that they know can NEVER change is madness. Give me dongles, multistep authentication, multiple passwords or whatever, but not EVER biometric authentication. It just isn't worth it for me.

[Ttaskmaster]

A government (where ever you live) knows exactly who you are, what you do and what you earn, and could compile a list within five minutes of your favourite shops, medical conditions and where you're likely to be at 3pm on a Tuesday.

So if they already know this stuff, why do we still need to fill in tax returns?

[Xlucine]

So if they already know this stuff, why do we still need to fill in tax returns?

How else would they arrest people for tax evasion?

[Ttaskmaster]

How else would they arrest people for tax evasion?

Arrest anyone who doesn't pay what Govt records say they should...?
Breaking the law is one thing, but having to submit paperwork by which you forcibly confess to it as well is just so medieval...!!

[Hamtaro]

No thanks, I will stick with passwords, I think it is safer. I mean, like what if there is a exploit or a bug that people can take advantage of. You guys can use it first and once it is fully stable I might move xD