Re: Protocols for Insurance to Maintain Privacy
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I wrote:
I have my doubts as to whether it is possible to set up a really good anonymous insurance scheme. At some point the customer must physically be matched up with the policy. The damage may be minimized by putting a hash of the customer's DNA markers in the policy instead of the markers themselves. But, when the customer wishes to draw on the policy, his or her markers will have to be taken.
If there were a way for the representative of the insurance company to absolutely verify the DNA markers such that the customer could be absolutely certain the information didn't leave the room, a really good anonymous policy would be feasible. But, I can't think of a way to do this.
I've thought about this some more and there is a way to do this that at least works in theory. Let's say there are 30 DNA markers to be used to uniquely identify a physical person. When creating the contract, the customer creates 30 hashes based on each marker. Prior to the time the customer has a health problem, privacy is well assured assuming he or she doesn't have a blood sample taken forcibly. When the customer goes in for treatment, the insurer selects at random one of the 30 markers and verifies it. If it checks out, treatment is provided. The way to prevent people from trying to get lucky on the markers is for the customer and the insurer to make a bet before the test. This is a safe bet for the customer - he or she knows the outcome. If the odds and payoff are set correctly, it's a good deal for the insurer, too, because he or she will make money on fraud attempts. Let's take the worst case: only one of the 30 marker is different. Let's say the insurance contract consists of a health bet with a payoff of $100,000 if the ailment insured for is found. If the customer is willing to bet $3 million that any marker selected will be correct, the insurer breaks even. However, since the customer knows with certainty the outcome of the bet, he or she is safe betting (theoretically) any amount. This can be set arbitrarily high so that the insurer actually stands to make a substantial amount of money off fraud attempts. In practice some provision will have to be made for people who can't arrange the $3 million, such as taking fraud artists out to the parking lot and shooting them. And there still needs to be a way for one DNA marker to be tested for in a way which guarantees that none of the others are studied. Perhaps when the customer goes in, he or she takes samples of DNA with all thirty markers. When the insurer selects a particular marker, a blood sample is drawn, and the customer puts in DNA with the 29 other markers so that it will not be possible to study any marker other than the one intended. If each insurance contract is linked to only one type of illness, then the only information revealed is that somebody with one particular DNA marker had such and such an illness. This seems pretty secure. Monty Cantsin Editor in Chief Smile Magazine http://www.neoism.org/squares/smile_index.html http://www.neoism.org/squares/cantsin_10.htm -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBNFjP6JaWtjSmRH/5AQGwjgf/SIMSKV3prkmD3WDaiwojOhgxA+V0iLeY UAwHUKoOgIQAZ+5SKz2SsP6219jyi4i1mGbQFwXc8kydeEuia81/gAReo+63wZgB S6hlh9bUc4lp//S/ql5YISypNEKWXE6o7hE3IvdAeUrRlxEyU04fLmwW2UcejeFB rTdqFQLsTbONf1bvevJ4MplnhG/O7fRUDF3jneRxDZuib60EO8zUvbvpvDhaYM/e TMeuK5OywHOCX6EQc5eZ7ER1pIWgxR1cXwm428Qvk07z8VoTDJyy6QMLs+EzPcp6 Es94M2JezFmDAfD6nDGdLzrs8h4IJITdjWujLL4VQeJi6LwP7RB5NQ== =eHkn -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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