| Passwords are not about hiding data. Passwords are legally the only thing that can't be forced out of you, to make you login into a computer system against your interests. Passwords are the core foundation of keeping your internet life separate from your personal/private life. Biometric and hardware authentication make both your real life name/address/life history and your computer ID the same thing. I didn't sign up for American globalism, and I don't want my iPhone's authentication systems to force me into being accountable to Twitter/Apple/Google credit score. If the Australian government forced this stuff on me and kept it within Australia, that's different. IBM is moving to a "passwordless trend" on their server authentication, in favour of biometrics and iPhone auth. I bet my bottom dollar that will get spread everywhere in the universe, regardless of our protestations. It's not agreeable. inb4 people say "it's always been that way/they could always do that". The last shred of internet-identity liberty is going to be dead in a new york minute. Your religious identity, and your prayer life is going to get owned if you let go of passwords and ambigious identities. |
Not in the UK, since RIPA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_Investigatory_Po...
It's been used:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7102180.stm