[jen729w]

In 2023 I was at a talk at the National Press Club in Canberra, Australia, by the deputy head of one of our national intelligence services.

This was just after the Optus leak. Some hundreds of thousands of customers' data, down to the passport and DOB level, leaked. Again. I was going to ask him whether we, the collected IT consultants in the room, simply couldn't be trusted any more.

We've proven that we can't. I firmly believe that independent companies should no longer, by law, be able to collect my identifying information. If you must identify me, the state should provide a service. You hand off to them, they validate me, they send you a token back, I'm validated.

Sadly the microphone never made it to my corner of the room.