Identity Crisis: How Identification is Overused and Misunderstood [Paperback]

Jim Harper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2006

The advance of identification technology biometrics, identity cards, surveillance, databases, dossiers threatens privacy, civil liberties, and related human interests. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, demands for identification in the name of security have increased. In this insightful book, Jim Harper takes readers inside identification a process everyone uses every day but few people have ever thought about. Using stories and examples from movies, television, and classic literature, Harper dissects identification processes and technologies, showing how identification works when it works and how it fails when it fails. Harper exposes the myth that identification can protect against future terrorist attacks. He shows that a U.S. national identification card, created by Congress in the REAL ID Act, is a poor way to secure the country or its citizens. A national ID represents a transfer of power from individuals to institutions, and that transfer threatens liberty, enables identity fraud, and subjects people to unwanted surveillance. Instead of a uniform, government-controlled identification system, Harper calls for a competitive, responsive identification and credentialing industry that meets the mix of consumer demands for privacy, security, anonymity, and accountability. Identification should be a risk-reducing strategy in a social system, Harper concludes, not a rivet to pin humans to governmental or economic machinery.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"To protect against terrorism, we have to stop individuals before they act. Identity Crisis does the best job I've seen of addressing the real weaknesses in current identification systems and how they correlate directly with further impingements on our privacy and civil liberties. I would have used this book every day to help structure programs and develop policies if I'd had it at TSA." --Justin Oberman, former head of credentialing and identity programs, Transportation Security Administration

"In this thoughtful and informative book, Jim Harper argues that privacy and security can best be achieved by resisting the relentless demands for technologies of global identification, which threaten privacy without increasing security. Instead, Harper argues for technologies of authorization that allow individuals to decide how much of themselves to reveal. A valuable contribution to a polarized debate in which out-of-the-box thinking is all too rare." --Jeffrey Rosen, author of The Unwanted Gaze and The Naked Crowd

"Few people in America have done the kind of critical thinking about identity and identification that Jim Harper does in this book. An understanding of identity management and policy is essential--not only to leaders in government, but those in the commercial sector as well." --Nuala O'Connor Kelly, chief privacy leader, GE, and former chief privacy officer, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

"For years now we've been hearing about the promise--and the threat--of databases, biometrics, smart cards, and other information technology breakthroughs. Finally, someone has cut through all the jargon, the techno-babble, and the right-left rhetoric and looked at it all with common sense and a clear eye. Jim Harper has produced a thoughtful, fast-paced, enjoyable tour through this brave new world that will become the source book for the ongoing debate." --Steven Brill, CEO of Verified Identity Pass and author of After: How America Confronted the September 12 Era

"Harper's book does an excellent job of laying the groundwork and clearly defining the different types of identification and the roles that they play in everyday societal interactions. He provides interesting historical context on the evolution of identification, and writes in an engaging style." --Christian Beckner, Homeland Security Watch

About the Author

As director of information policy studies, Jim Harper focuses on the difficult problems of adapting law and policy to the unique problems of the information age. Harper is a member of the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. His work has been cited by USA Today, the Associated Press, and Reuters. He has appeared on Fox News Channel, CBS, and MSNBC, and other media. His scholarly articles have appeared in the Administrative Law Review, the Minnesota Law Review, and the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly. Harper is the editor of Privacilla.org, a Web-based think tank devoted exclusively to privacy, and he maintains online federal spending resource WashingtonWatch.com. He holds a J.D. from Hastings College of the Law.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Cato Institute (May 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930865856
• ISBN-13: 978-1930865853
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,752,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful and critically written dissection of a hot-button social topic, August 8, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Identity Crisis: How Identification is Overused and Misunderstood (Paperback)

Cato Institute director of Information Policy Studies Jim Harper presents "Identity Crisis: How Identification Is Overused and Misunderstood", is a cautionary book about how increasing identification and computer technology, as well as stepped-up government demands for identification in the wake of the September 11 attacks, are threats to citizen autonomy, privacy, and civil liberties. "Identity Crisis" maintains that resisting endless demands for identification can protect privacy without compromising national security; furthermore, Identity Crisis warns against potential abuses of government power and gives current information about controversies such as the REAL ID Act and other security-related topics. A thoughtful and critically written dissection of a hot-button social topic, "Identity Crises" should be considered "must reading" for all social activists concerned with the growing domination of government into personal lives and liberties of American citizens.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative Introduction to Identification Theory & Policy, October 5, 2006

By 

Seth Cooper "cooper76" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Identity Crisis: How Identification is Overused and Misunderstood (Paperback)

Identity Crisis is a superb primer on identification, identification theory, and identity policy. Citizens and policy-makers faced with threats from international terrorists and a dramatic rise in identity fraud need a good grounding in the uses and abuses of identification in providing security and facilitating daily transactions. This book serves precisely that purpose.

Author Jim Harper makes an important distinction between identification and authentication. Differences between the two are nothing to be trifled with. The interests of personal security and privacy hinge upon whether or to what extent either identification or authentication are used by government, private entities, and everyday citizens. Harper persuasively argues that identification is all-too-often overused, and that a process of authentication can often serve our needs most effectively.

Most people have probably never given a thought to identification theory. That certainly holds for this reviewer--until I read this book. Identification is largely a common-sense matter, but Harper brings attention to the conceptual depth attendant to this subject.

Also interesting are Harper's chapters more narrowly focused on privacy and anonymity. Important legal and constitutional matters are briefly discussed, underscoring the need for appropriate identification policies and practices. Of course, this book is accessible to a general audience and is certainly not limited in its audience to lawyers or to any other specialty.

After reading the book, one gets the sense that there is a lot more to say about identification. But a lot of ground is traversed in this work, and the result is highly commendable. Identity Crisis is an important and recommended read.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Advance Praise for Identitiy Crisis, May 25, 2006

By 

C. Cooke (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Identity Crisis: How Identification is Overused and Misunderstood (Paperback)

"To protect against terrorism, we have to stop individuals before they act. Identity Crisis does the best job I've seen of addressing the real weaknesses in current identification systems and how they correlate directly with further impingements on our privacy and civil liberties. I would have used this book every day to help structure programs and develop policies if I'd had it at TSA."
--JUSTIN OBERMAN, former head of credentialing and identity programs, Transportation Security Administration

"Few people in America have done the kind of critical thinking about identity and identification that Jim Harper does in this book. An understanding of identity management and policy is essential--not only to leaders in government, but those in the commercial sector as well."
--NUALA O'CONNOR KELLY, chief privacy leader, GE, and former chief privacy officer, U.S. Department of Homeland Security