Standard user model
Encyclopedia
A standard user model is a standard data model
of a service end user. In theory, it permits a wide range of adaptive infrastructure, especially software, to adapt to a single human
user's characteristics, e.g. preferred language
, quality of eyesight including large print or color blindness
adaptation, sound volume.
In practice, however, it is often merely an excuse to collect a great deal of personal data and violate privacy
. Few applications make full use of data gathered in standard user models, and some suggest it is always economically infeasible to do so. Thus, information gathered regarding a disability
may be used to deny someone compensation for an injury caused by their failure to see or do something, as opposed to being used to make that failure less likely by adapting the infrastructure or software to their use. The fields of adaptive software and personal differences analysis, themselves part of the field of systems design engineering, concern themselves with the degree to which infrastructure can be flexible.
In 2003 the most common examples of standard user models are driver's license
s, passport
s, Medicalert
data, insurance
applications, credit
applications and credit history
. With the exception of medical applications, these are typically used to offer or deny or price service, and not to improve the quality of aid offered.
An example of a more adaptation-oriented standard user model is the Windows Live ID
which is used to adapt the MSN Messenger and Microsoft-allied web sites to user desires. However Microsoft
has been criticized for security and privacy management problems in the past, and its model is unlikely to be adapted for direct use by governments or other mandatory purposes.
National identity card
s are in use in many nations but these typically do not contain more identifying information than a passport. That is changing due to the War on Terrorism
and increasing use of biometrics
, which expands the standard user model for identity cards beyond border crossing
s and airport security
and secure building requirements, and may soon include profiling of individuals' political views
or their religion
encoded in the vast storage capacity of such new cards.
This gives rise to concerns about privacy
and the potential for a carceral state
to emerge wherever such cards are required to let citizens access infrastructure that previously they used anonymously. In theory, monitoring of every page read on the World Wide Web
, every note written by email
, every line of instant messaging
, and even every telephone
conversation and telephone number
or street address could be recorded as part of a standard user model.
This might be useful to the user, but it also might be devastating if it ended up in the hands of someone who used it for identity theft
and in particular for frameup
s. There is no reliable way to prevent all such abuses in any scheme, particularly if common criminal identifiers such as fingerprint
or DNA
are included in the standard model - a single security failure could lead to an entire population's biometric data falling into the hands of individuals or agencies willing to use it to frame anyone whose political opinions or friends they did not like. Simply by sequencing more DNA or printing fingerprints of life size on a page, and spreading signs of the individual whose identity was stolen at a crime scene, literally anyone could be framed up for any crime at all.
As with digital photography
and digital audio
techniques, the signs of the forgery would become impossible to tell from the signs of the actual individual framed, and fingerprint and DNA evidence would become unreliable in principle, just as photos and audiotapes and even videotapes (given sufficient motivation to create a forgery) are now.
Standard user models for hospital
and military
use appear very likely to expand, however, and may come to be used more widely in the future, regardless of the privacy risks of such centralized databases.
Standard data model
A standard data model or industry standard data model is a data model that is widely applied in some industry, and shared amongst competitors to some degree...
of a service end user. In theory, it permits a wide range of adaptive infrastructure, especially software, to adapt to a single human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
user's characteristics, e.g. preferred language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
, quality of eyesight including large print or color blindness
Color blindness
Color blindness or color vision deficiency is the inability or decreased ability to see color, or perceive color differences, under lighting conditions when color vision is not normally impaired...
adaptation, sound volume.
In practice, however, it is often merely an excuse to collect a great deal of personal data and violate privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
. Few applications make full use of data gathered in standard user models, and some suggest it is always economically infeasible to do so. Thus, information gathered regarding a disability
Disability
A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
may be used to deny someone compensation for an injury caused by their failure to see or do something, as opposed to being used to make that failure less likely by adapting the infrastructure or software to their use. The fields of adaptive software and personal differences analysis, themselves part of the field of systems design engineering, concern themselves with the degree to which infrastructure can be flexible.
In 2003 the most common examples of standard user models are driver's license
Driver's license
A driver's license/licence , or driving licence is an official document which states that a person may operate a motorized vehicle, such as a motorcycle, car, truck or a bus, on a public roadway. Most U.S...
s, passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
s, Medicalert
MedicAlert
The MedicAlert Foundation, a non-profit company founded in 1956 and headquartered in Turlock, California, maintains a database of members' medical information that is made available to medical authorities in the event of an emergency. Members supply critical medical data to the organization and...
data, insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
applications, credit
Credit (finance)
Credit is the trust which allows one party to provide resources to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately , but instead arranges either to repay or return those resources at a later date. The resources provided may be financial Credit is the trust...
applications and credit history
Credit history
Credit history or credit report is, in many countries, a record of an individual's or company's past borrowing and repaying, including information about late payments and bankruptcy...
. With the exception of medical applications, these are typically used to offer or deny or price service, and not to improve the quality of aid offered.
An example of a more adaptation-oriented standard user model is the Windows Live ID
Windows Live ID
Windows Live ID is a single sign-on web service developed and provided by Microsoft that allows users to log in to many websites using one account...
which is used to adapt the MSN Messenger and Microsoft-allied web sites to user desires. However Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
has been criticized for security and privacy management problems in the past, and its model is unlikely to be adapted for direct use by governments or other mandatory purposes.
National identity card
Identity document
An identity document is any document which may be used to verify aspects of a person's personal identity. If issued in the form of a small, mostly standard-sized card, it is usually called an identity card...
s are in use in many nations but these typically do not contain more identifying information than a passport. That is changing due to the War on Terrorism
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
and increasing use of biometrics
Biometrics
Biometrics As Jain & Ross point out, "the term biometric authentication is perhaps more appropriate than biometrics since the latter has been historically used in the field of statistics to refer to the analysis of biological data [36]" . consists of methods...
, which expands the standard user model for identity cards beyond border crossing
Border Crossing
Border Crossing may refer to:* Border Crossing , an album by saxophonist Mike Osborne.* Border Crossing , a UK hip hop collective musical group.* Border Crossing , a 2001 novel by English author Pat Barker....
s and airport security
Airport security
Airport security refers to the techniques and methods used in protecting airports and aircraft from crime.Large numbers of people pass through airports. This presents potential targets for terrorism and other forms of crime due to the number of people located in a particular location...
and secure building requirements, and may soon include profiling of individuals' political views
Political privacy
Political privacy has been a concern since voting systems emerged in ancient times. The secret ballot is the simplest and most widespread measure to ensure that political views are not known to anyone other than the voter—it is nearly universal in modern democracy, and considered a basic right of...
or their religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
encoded in the vast storage capacity of such new cards.
This gives rise to concerns about privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
and the potential for a carceral state
Carceral state
A Carceral archipelago refers to French social theorist Michel Foucault's work on surveillance systems and their technologies over modern societies and its practice of social control and discipline over its population in all areas of social life.Taken from his classic work Discipline and punish...
to emerge wherever such cards are required to let citizens access infrastructure that previously they used anonymously. In theory, monitoring of every page read on the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
, every note written by email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
, every line of instant messaging
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
, and even every telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
conversation and telephone number
Telephone number
A telephone number or phone number is a sequence of digits used to call from one telephone line to another in a public switched telephone network. When telephone numbers were invented, they were short — as few as one, two or three digits — and were given orally to a switchboard operator...
or street address could be recorded as part of a standard user model.
This might be useful to the user, but it also might be devastating if it ended up in the hands of someone who used it for identity theft
Identity theft
Identity theft is a form of stealing another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name...
and in particular for frameup
Frameup
A frame-up or setup is an American term referring to the act of framing someone, that is, providing false evidence or false testimony in order to falsely prove someone guilty of a crime....
s. There is no reliable way to prevent all such abuses in any scheme, particularly if common criminal identifiers such as fingerprint
Fingerprint
A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
or DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
are included in the standard model - a single security failure could lead to an entire population's biometric data falling into the hands of individuals or agencies willing to use it to frame anyone whose political opinions or friends they did not like. Simply by sequencing more DNA or printing fingerprints of life size on a page, and spreading signs of the individual whose identity was stolen at a crime scene, literally anyone could be framed up for any crime at all.
As with digital photography
Digital photography
Digital photography is a form of photography that uses an array of light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens, as opposed to an exposure on light sensitive film...
and digital audio
Digital audio
Digital audio is sound reproduction using pulse-code modulation and digital signals. Digital audio systems include analog-to-digital conversion , digital-to-analog conversion , digital storage, processing and transmission components...
techniques, the signs of the forgery would become impossible to tell from the signs of the actual individual framed, and fingerprint and DNA evidence would become unreliable in principle, just as photos and audiotapes and even videotapes (given sufficient motivation to create a forgery) are now.
Standard user models for hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
and military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
use appear very likely to expand, however, and may come to be used more widely in the future, regardless of the privacy risks of such centralized databases.
See also
- adaptive software
- carceral stateCarceral stateA Carceral archipelago refers to French social theorist Michel Foucault's work on surveillance systems and their technologies over modern societies and its practice of social control and discipline over its population in all areas of social life.Taken from his classic work Discipline and punish...
- adaptive hypermediaAdaptive hypermediaIn contrast to traditional e-learning/electronic learning, e-business, and e-government systems, whereby all users are offered or even directed a standard series of hyperlinks, adaptive hypermedia tailors what the user sees to the learner's goals, abilities, interests, knowledge, etc...