1
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So I want to talk about identity.

2
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That's sort of an
interesting enough topic to me.

3
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And the reason was, 
because when I was asked to do this,

4
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I'd just read, in one of the papers,
I can't remember,

5
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something from someone at Facebook
saying, well,

6
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we need to make everybody
use their real names

7
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and then that's basically
all the problems solved.

8
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And that's so wrong,

9
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that's such a fundamentally,
reactionary view of identity,

10
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and it's going to get us
into all sorts of trouble.

11
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And so what I thought I'd do


12
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is I'd explain four
sort of problems about it,

13
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and then I'll suggest a solution,

14
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which hopefully you 
might find interesting.

15
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So just to frame the problem,

16
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what does authenticity mean?

17
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That's me, that's
a camera phone picture of me

18
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looking at a painting.

19
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[What's the Problem?
Just use "real names"]

20
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[for an "authentic" web]

21
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That's a painting that was painted 
by a very famous forger,

22
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and because I'm not very good 
at presentations,

23
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I already can't remember the name
that I wrote on my card.

24
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And he was incarcerated 
in, I think, Wakefield Prison

25
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for forging masterpieces by,
I think, French Impressionists.

26
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And he's so good at it,
that when he was in prison,

27
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everybody in prison,
the governor and whatever,

28
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wants him to paint masterpieces
to put on the walls,

29
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because they were so good.

30
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And so that's a masterpiece,


31
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which is a fake of a masterpiece,

32
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and bonded into the canvas is a chip
which identifies that as a real fake,

33
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if you see what I mean.
[Laughter]

34
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So when we're talking about authenticity,

35
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it's a little more fractal than it appears
and that's a good example to show it.

36
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I tried to pick four problems 
that will frame the issue properly.

37
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So the first problem, I thought,

38
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[Chip and PIN]
Chip and PIN, right?

39
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[Banking legacies
Bringing down the system from within]

40
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[Offline solutions
do not work online]

41
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Everyone's got 
a chip and PIN card,

42
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I'm guessing everyone's got
a chip and PIN card, right?

43
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So why is that a good example?

44
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That's the example of how 
legacy thinking about identity

45
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subverts the security
of a well-constructed system.

46
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That chip and PIN card 
that's in your pocket

47
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has a little chip on it
that cost millions of pounds to develop,

48
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is extremely secure,

49
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you can put scanning
electron microscopes on it,

50
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you can try and grind it down,
blah blah blah.

51
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Those chips have never been broken,
whatever you read in the paper.

52
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And for a joke,
we take that super-secure chip

53
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and we bond it to a trivially 
counterfeitable magnetic stripe

54
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and for very lazy criminals,
we still emboss the card.

55
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So if you're a criminal in a hurry, 
and you need to copy someone's card,

56
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you can just stick a piece of paper on it
and rub a pencil over it

57
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just to sort of speed things up.

58
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And even more amusingly,
and on my debit card too,

59
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we print the name and the SALT code 
and everything else on the front too.

60
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Why?

61
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There is no earthly reason why your name
is printed on a chip and PIN card.

62
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And if you think about it,

63
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it's even more insidious and perverse
that it seems at first.

64
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Because the only people that benefit

65
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from having the name 
on the card are criminals.

66
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You know what your name is, right?

67
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[Laughter]

68
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And when you go into a shop 
and buy something,

69
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they don't care.

70
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It's a PIN, he doesn't care 
what the name is.

71
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The only place where you ever have
to write your name on the back

72
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is in America at the moment.

73
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Whenever I go to America,

74
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and I have to pay with a mag stripe
on the back of the card,

75
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I always sign it Carlos Tethers anyway,

76
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just as a security mechanism,

77
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because I just figure 
if a transaction ever gets disputed,

78
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and it comes back and 
it says Dave Birch,

79
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I know it must have been a criminal,

80
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because I would never sign it Dave Birch.

81
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So if you drop your card in the street,

82
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it means a criminal 
can pick it up and read it.

83
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They know the name,
from the name they can find the address

84
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and then they can go off 
and buy stuff online.

85
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Why do we put the name on the card?

86
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Because we think identity 
is something to do with names,

87
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and because we're rooted
in the idea of the identity card,

88
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which obsesses us.


89
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And I know it crashed and burned
a couple of years ago,

90
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but if you're someone in politics 
or the home office or whatever,

91
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and you think about identity,

92
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you can only think of identity
in terms of cards with names on them.

93
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And that's very subversive
in a modern world.

94
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So the second example I thought I'd use

95
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is chatrooms.

96
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[Chatrooms and Children
Don't do as I do, do as I say]

97
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[Online privacy and offline privacy
are different]

98
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm very proud of that picture,
that's my son

99
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
playing in his band with his friends
for the first-ever gig,

100
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I believe you call it, where he got paid.

101
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[Laughter]

102
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And I love that picture.

103
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I like the picture of him
getting into medical school a lot better,

104
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[Laughter]

105
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but I like that picture for the moment.

106
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Why do I use that picture?

107
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Because that was very interesting, 
watching that experience,

108
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as an old person,

109
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was a very interesting experience to me.

110
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So him and his friends,

111
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they get together, they booked a room,
like a church hall,

112
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and they got all their friends
who had bands,

113
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and they got them together,

114
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and they do it all on Facebook,

115
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and then they sell tickets,
and the first band on the -

116
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I was going to say "menu,"
that's probably the wrong word for it,

117
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isn't it?

118
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The first band on the list of bands


119
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that appears at some 
public music performance of some kind

120
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gets the sales of the first 20 tickets,

121
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and the next band gets the next 20,

122
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and so on.

123
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They were at the bottom of the menu,

124
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they were like fifth,
I thought they had no chance.

125
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He actually got 20 quid.
Fantastic, right?

126
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But my point is, that all worked perfectly

127
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except on the web.

128
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So they're sitting on Facebook,

129
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and they're sending these messages
and arranging things

130
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and they don't know who anybody is.

131
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That's the big problem 
we're trying to solve.

132
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If only they were using the real names,

133
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Then you wouldn't be worried 
about them on the internet.

134
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And so when he says to me,

135
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oh, I want to go to a chatroom
to talk about guitars or something,

136
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I'm like, oh, well,
I don't want you to go into a chatroom

137
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to talk about guitars, because 
they might not all be your friends,

138
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and some of the people 
that are in the chatroom

139
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might be perverts and teachers
and vicars.

140
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[Laughter]

141
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I mean, they generally are,
when you look in the paper, right?

142
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So I want to know
who the people in the chatroom are.

143
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So okay, you can go in the chatroom,

144
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but only if everybody in the chatroom
is using their real names,

145
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and they submit full copies
of their police report.

146
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But of course, if anybody 
in the chatroom asked for his real name,

147
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I'd say no. 
You can't give them your real name.

148
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Because what happens
if they turn out to be perverts,

149
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and teachers and whatever,

150
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So you have this odd sort of paradox,

151
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
where I'm happy for him
to go into this space

152
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if I know who everybody else is,

153
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but I don't want anybody else
to know who he is.

154
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so you get 
this sort of logjam around identity

155
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where you want full disclosure
from everybody else,

156
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but not from yourself.

157
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And there's no progress, we get stuck.

158
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so the chatroom thing 
doesn't work properly,

159
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and it's a very bad way 
of thinking about identity.

160
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So on my RSS feed, 
I saw this thing about -

161
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I just said something bad 
about my RSS feed, didn't I?

162
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I should stop saying it like that.

163
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[Cheerleaders and Clubs
Age and attitude]

164
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[Let's not panic
The power of subgroups]

165
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
For some random reason
I can't imagine,

166
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
something about cheerleaders
turned up in my inbox.

167
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And I read this story about cheerleaders,

168
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and it's a fascinating story.

169
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This happened a couple of years ago
in the U.S.

170
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There were some cheerleaders
in a team in a high school

171
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in the U.S., and they said mean things

172
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about their cheerleading coach,

173
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as I'm sure kids do
about all of their teachers

174
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all of the time,

175
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and somehow the cheerleading coach
found out about this.

176
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
She was very upset.

177
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so she went to one of the girls,
and said,

178
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you have to give me
your Facebook password.

179
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I read this all the time,
even at some universities,

180
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and places of education,

181
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
kids are forced to hand over 
their Facebook passwords.

182
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So you've got o give them 
your Facebook password.

183
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so the kids -
she was a kid.

184
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What she should have said

185
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is my lawyer will be calling you
first thing in the morning.

186
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's an outrageous imposition

187
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
on my 4th Amendment right
to privacy,


188
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and you're going to be sued
for all the money you've got.

189
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That's what she should have said.

190
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But she's a kid,
so she hands over the password.

191
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The teacher can't log into Facebook,

192
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because the school 
has blocked access to Facebook.

193
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So the teacher can't log into Facebook
until she gets home.

194
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So the girl tells her friends,

195
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
guess what happened.

196
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So the girls just all logged into Facebook
on their phones,

197
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and deleted their profiles.

198
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so when the teacher logged in,
there was nothing there.

199
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
My point is, those identities,
they don't think about them the same way.

200
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Identity is, especially when 
you're a teenager, a fluid thing.

201
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You have lots of identities.

202
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And you can have an identity,
you don't like it,

203
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because it's subverted in some way,
or it's insecure, or it's inappropriate,

204
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you just delete it and get another one.

205
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The idea that you have an identity
that's given to you by someone,

206
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the government or whatever,

207
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and you have to stick with that identity
and use it in all places,

208
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that's absolutely wrong.

209
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Why would you want to really know
who someone was on Facebook,

210
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
unless you wanted to abuse them 
and harass them in some way?

211
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And it just doesn't work properly.

212
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And my fourth example is
there are some cases

213
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
where you really want to be -

214
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In case you're wondering, 
that's me at the G20 protest.

215
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I wasn't actually at the G20 protest,
but I had a meeting at a bank,

216
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
on the day of the G20 protest,
and I got an email from the bank

217
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
saying please don't wear a suit,
because it'll inflame the protestors.

218
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I look pretty good in a suit, frankly,

219
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
so you can see why 
it would drive them

220
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
into an anti-capitalist frenzy.

221
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[Laughter]

222
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So I thought, well, look.

223
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
If I don't want to inflame the protestors,

224
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the obvious thing to do
is go dressed as a protestor.

225
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So I went dressed completely in black,

226
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You know, with a black [inaudible],
I had black gloves on,

227
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but I've taken them off 
to sign the visitor's book.

228
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[What, Who, and Whistleblowers
Whistleblowers and credentials]

229
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[I must know what you are,
not who you are]

230
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
(Laughter)

231
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm wearing black trousers,
black boots,

232
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm dressed completely in black.

233
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I go into the bank at 10 o'clock,

234
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
go, oh hi, I'm Dave Birch,

235
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I've got a 3 o'clock with [inaudible].

236
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Sure. And they signed me in.

237
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
(Laughter)

238
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So this nonsense

239
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
about you've got to have real names
on Facebook or whatever,

240
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that gets you that kind of security.

241
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That gets you security theater,
where there's no actual security,

242
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but people are sort of playing parts
in a play about security.

243
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And as long as
everybody learns their lines,

244
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
everyone's happy.

245
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But it's not real security.

246
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Especially because I hate banks
more than the G20 protestors do,

247
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because I work for them.

248
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I know that things are actually worse
than these guys think.

249
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
(Laughter)

250
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But suppose I worked 
next to sombody in a bank

251
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
who was doing something.

252
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Suppose I was sitting 
next to a rogue trader,

253
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and I want to report it 
to the boss of the bank.

254
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So I log on to do 
a little bit of whistleblowing.

255
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I send a message,
this guy's a rogue trader.

256
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That message is meaningless


257
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
if you don't know 
that I'm a trader at the bank.

258
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
If that message just comes from anybody,

259
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it has zero information value.

260
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There's no point in sending that message.

261
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You have to know.

262
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But if I have to prove who I am,

263
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'll never send that message.

264
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's just like the nurse in the hospital
reporting the drunk surgeon.

265
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That message will only happen
if I'm anonymous.

266
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So the system has to have ways
of providing anonymity there,

267
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
otherwise we don't get 
where we want to get to.

268
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So four issues.
So what are we going to do about it?

269
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Well, what we tend to do about it

270
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is we think about Orwell space.

271
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We try to make electronic versions

272
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of the identity card 
that we got rid of in 1953.

273
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[The Old Paradigm
Can't resolve in Orwell space]\

274
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[But Orwell is a paradigm
for government and its critics]

275
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So we think if we had a card,

276
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
call it a Facebook login,

277
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which proves who you are,

278
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and I make you carry it all the time,

279
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that solves the problem.

280
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And of course, for all those reasons
I just outlined,

281
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it doesn't, and it might actually make
some problems worse.

282
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The more times you're forced
to use your real identity,

283
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in transactional terms,

284
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the more likely that identity
is to get stolen and subverted.

285
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The goal is to stop people
from using identity

286
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in transactions which don't need identity,

287
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which is actually almost all transactions.

288
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Almost all of the transactions you do

289
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are not, who are you?

290
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They're, are you allowed 
to drive the car,

291
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are you allowed in the building,

292
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are you over 18,

293
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
etcetera, etcetera.

294
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So my suggestion- I, like James,

295
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
think that there should be 
a resurgence of interest in R & D.

296
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I think this is a solvable problem.

297
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's something we can do about.

298
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Naturally, in these circumstances,

299
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I turn to Doctor Who.

300
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Because in this,

301
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
as in so many other walks of life,

302
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Doctor Who has already shown 
us the answer.

303
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So I should say,

304
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
for some of our foreign visitors,

305
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Doctor Who is the greatest 
living scientist in England,

306
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
(Laughter)

307
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and a beacon of truth and enlightenment
to all of us.

308
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[The New Paradigm
Doctor Who and the "psychic paper"]

309
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And this is Doctor Who
with his psychic paper.

310
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You're not nerds if you say yes.

311
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Who's seen Doctor Who's psychic paper?

312
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Oh right, you were in the library
the whole time studying I guess.

313
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Is that what you're going to tell us?

314
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Doctor Who's psychic paper

315
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is when you hold up the psychic paper,

316
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the person, in their brain,

317
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
sees the thing that they need to see.

318
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So I want to show you a British passport,

319
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I hold up the psychic paper,

320
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you see a British passport.

321
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I want to get into a party,

322
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I hold up the psychic paper,

323
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I show you a party invitation.

324
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You see what you want to see.

325
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So what I'm saying is we need
to make an electronic version of that,

326
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but with one tiny, tiny change,

327
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which is that it'll only show you 
the British passport

328
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
if I've actually got one.

329
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It'll only show you the party invitation


330
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
if I actually have one.

331
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It will only show you that I'm over 18
if I actually am over 18.

332
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But nothing else.

333
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So you're the bouncer at the pub,
you need to know that I'm over 18,

334
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
instead of showing you my driving license,

335
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which shows you that I know haw to drive,

336
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
what my name is, my address, 
all these kind of things,

337
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I show you my psychic paper,

338
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and all it tells you is
am I over 18 or not.

339
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Right.

340
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Is that just a pipe dream?

341
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Of course not, or else
I wouldn't be here talking to you.

342
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So in order to build that
and make it work,

343
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm only going to name these things,
I'll not go into them,

344
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
we need a plan,

345
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[A Plan
Let's build a Psychic ID infrastructure]

346
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which is we're going to build this

347
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
as an infrastructure
for everybody to use,

348
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to solve all of these problems.

349
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We're going to make a utility,

350
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the utility has to be universal,

351
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you can use it everywhere,

352
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm just giving you little flashes
of the technology

353
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
as we go along.

354
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[Utility: Universal]

355
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[What if identity isn't
a particular product or service]

356
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[but a (regulated) utility
that works in both "first life"]

357
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[and in "second life"]

358
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That's a Japanese ATM,

359
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the fingerprint template
is stored inside the mobile phone.

360
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So when you want to draw money out,

361
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you put the mobile phone on the ATM,

362
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and touch your finger,

363
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
your fingerprint goes through 
to the phone,

364
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the phone says yes, that's whoever,

365
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and the ATM then gives you some money.

366
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So it has to be a utility
that can use it,

367
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that you can use everywhere.

368
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[Utility: Convenience]

369
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[Speed is of the essence,
and now we have contactless and NFC]

370
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[we can deliver it to make
identity work properly]

371
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[without getting in the way]

372
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It has to be absolutely convenient,

373
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that's me going into the pub.

374
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
All the device on the door of the pub is,

375
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is this person over 18 
and not barred from the pub?

376
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so the idea is, 
you touch your ID card to the door,

377
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and if I am allowed in,
it shows my picture,

378
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
if I'm not allowwed in,
it shows a red cross.

379
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It doesn't disclose any other information.

380
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It has to have no special gadgets.

381
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[Utility: No Special Gadgets!]

382
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That can only mean one thing,

383
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
following on from Ross's statement,

384
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which I agree with completely.

385
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
If it means no special gadgets,

386
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it has to run on a mobile phone.

387
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That's the only choice we have,

388
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
we have to make it work on mobile phones.

389
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There are 6.6 billion
mobile phone subscriptions.

390
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
My favorite statistic of all time,

391
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
only 4 billion toothbrushes in the world.

392
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That means something,
I don't know what.

393
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
(Laughter)

394
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I rely on our futurologists to tell me.

395
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It has to be a utility which is extensible.

396
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[Utility: Extensibility]


397
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[People should be able
to build new businesses]

398
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[using the identity utility
without special permissions or licenses,]

399
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[it should be like broadband or electricity]

400
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So it has to be something

401
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that anybody could build on.

402
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Anybody should be able 
to use this infrastructure,

403
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you don't need permissions,
licenses, whatever,

404
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
anybody should be able 
to write some code to do this.

405
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You know what symmetry is,

406
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
so you don't need a picture of it.

407
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This is how we're going to do it.

408
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We're going to do it using phones,

409
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and we're going to do it using mobile proximity.

410
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm going to suggest to you

411
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the technology to implement
Doctor Who's psychic paper

412
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is already here, and if any of you

413
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
have got one of the new
Barclay's debit cards

414
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
with the contactless interface on it,

415
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you've already got that technology.

416
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
If you've ever been up to the big city,


417
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and used an Oyster card at all,

418
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
does that ring any bells to anybody?

419
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The technology already exists.

420
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The first phones that have 
the technology built in,

421
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the Google Nexus, the X2,
the Samsung Wifi 7.9,

422
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the first phones that have 
got this technology built into them

423
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are already in the shops.

424
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So the idea that the gas man
can turn up at my mom's door

425
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and he can show my mom his phone,

426
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and she can tap it with her phone,

427
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and it will come up with green
if he really is from British Gas

428
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and allowed in,

429
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and it'll come up with red if he isn't,
end of story.

430
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We have the technology to do that.

431
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And what's more,

432
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
although some of those things 
sounded a bit counter-intuitive,

433
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
like proving I'm over 18 
without proving who I am,

434
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the cryptography to do that not only exists,

435
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it's extremely well-known 
and well-understood.

436
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Digital signatures, the blinding
of public key certificates,

437
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
these technologies have been around
for a while,

438
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
we've just had no way of packaging them up.

439
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So the technology already exists.

440
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We know it works,

441
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There are a few examples
of the technology being used

442
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in experimental places.

443
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That's London Fashion Week,

444
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
where we built a system with O2,

445
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that's for the Wireless Festival
in Hyde Park,

446
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you can see the persons

447
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
walking in with their VIP band,

448
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it's just being checked

449
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
by the Nokia phone 
that's reading the band.

450
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm only putting those up to show you

451
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
these things are prosaic, 
this stuff works in these environments.

452
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They don't need to be special.

453
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So finally, I know that you can do this,

454
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Because if you saw 
the episode of Doctor Who,

455
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the Easter special of Doctor Who,

456
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[Life on Mars
Dr. Who and the "psychic paper"]

457
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
where he went to Mars in a bus,

458
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I should say again
for our foreign students,

459
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that doesn't happen every episode.

460
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This was a very special case.

461
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So in the episode where 
he goes to Mars in a London bus,

462
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I can't show you the clip,

463
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
due to the outrageous restrictions
of Queen Anne-style copyright

464
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
by the BBC,

465
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but in the episode 
where he goes to Mars in a London bus,

466
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Doctor Who is clearly shown
getting on to the bus

467
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
with the Oyster card reader

468
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
using his psychic paper.

469
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Which proves that psychic paper

470
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
has an MSE interface.

471
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Thank you very much.