Openid

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/78...

Anyone looked deeper into this?

Surely having the same ID across multiple sites makes privacy more difficult, e.g. work can find out a lot more about you, as you will appear on multiple sites under the same login etc

I'd be more worried that it's just one username/password to hack and then you gave access to a multitude of data/accounts. Makes it more worthwhile for the bad guys to target such accounts.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Anyone looked deeper into this?

Not a chance.

Where do they think of such hair brained schemes?

Certainly raises a number of security and privacy issues. For one thing, "lose" your OpenID credentials and any of your OpenID-based sites are well and truely open to abuse, including I note your Paypal account if you happen to have one.

I also agree that use of OpenID could make tracking of your web activity much easier, though I perhaps worry less about how an employer might use such information as to how private companies might. For example, as you are now identifiable as the same individual who uses Facebook, AOL, and Paypal, you could be tracked and targetted by marketing firms for "relevant" offers....

In reply to a post by Sandgrounder:

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Anyone looked deeper into this?

Not a chance.

Where do they think of such hair brained schemes?

No more hairbrained than the email system which is about as secure as a chocolate fireguard. The whole system needs a re-think.

Global ID card by stealth

I did have a look at it a couple of years back, but then had the same thoughts as you, not my idea of being secure, but then how many people uses the same password for everything they do?