Forms of identity (Was RE: Open versus closed PKI systems)

[Nicholas Bohm]

At 00:43 18/05/2001 +0100, Richard Clayton wrote:

>Since this thread is about identity, it is probably worth noting how
>important it now is that the name on an airline ticket matches the name
>within the accompanying passport.... [or that there exists a marriage
>certificate to tie the two together]. If there is a mismatch they are
>not meant to board you.
>
>This must produce an interesting tension for ECommerce sites who wish to
>verify that goods are despatched to the correct person if the name on
>the passport does not match the name on the credit card being used [as
>can happen in unusual cases where people operate financially under a
>different name from that in their passport].

My wife has a credit card using her title (Mrs Nicholas Bohm), which is not
of course the same as her private or professional names as shown in her
passport.  I don't think such variations are unusual, especially if you
include all the detailed variants people use, not always by design, in
omitting an initial or being called "Jack" when their passport says "John"
and so on.  These present serious practical problems in system design.

Regards

Nicholas

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