Absolute anonymity breeds absolute irresponsibility?

Thu Oct 11 13:52:18 PDT 2001

Quote:

"Absolute anonymity breeds absolute irresponsibility," [SUN CEO Scott 
Mcnealy] said. "We need a thumbprint Java card in the hand of 
everybody in the country." 

Unquote.

Yeech.

Here's the text and URL of the whole Reuters story:

Sun's McNealy touts Java-based ID system 
By Reuters 
October 11, 2001, 12:05 p.m. PT 

McNealy defends Liberty Alliance project
Scott McNealy, CEO, Sun Microsystems  
ORLANDO, Fla.--Scott McNealy, chairman and CEO of Sun Microsystems, 
said Thursday his long-held belief the United States needs a national 
identity system has gained a lot of traction since the Sept. 11 
attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"This is more than a sea change," McNealy said to reporters at an 
industry conference in Orlando, Fla. "I have not spoken to one person 
who hasn't flipped a switch to say, 'You're darn right, I want to 
know who's getting on a plane with me.'" 

Sun developed the Java programming language, which someday could 
provide the language needed for a smart-card identification system to 
deal with computers at airports, shopping malls, research facilities 
and other locations where McNealy said anonymity could prove 
dangerous.  

"Absolute anonymity breeds absolute irresponsibility," he said. "We 
need a thumbprint Java card in the hand of everybody in the country." 

Civil libertarians have heaped scorn on McNealy, but he dismissed 
their concerns. 

"I'm tired of the outrage. If you get on a plane, I want to know who 
you are. If you rent a crop duster, I want to know who you are," he 
said. 

McNealy said it would be the job of Congress to decide when people 
can be anonymous and when they cannot. He warned that the United 
States faces "a huge efficiency tax" for security if it does not 
adopt a simple system of identification. 

"Hiring 50 humans isn't going to solve that problem," he said. 

McNealy appeared at a symposium sponsored by Gartner, the high-tech 
consulting company. McNealy also responded to remarks made at the 
conference the previous day by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. 

Ballmer said Sun's Liberty Alliance project, an identity 
authentication and authorization service meant to speed online 
transactions, "has absolutely no probability of mattering to the 
world." 

Microsoft will compete with a similar service called Passport. 
Microsoft will go it alone on its service, while Sun is working with 
dozens of companies from eBay to General Motors. 

McNealy said the number of partners could grow into the thousands. He 
said the strength of his system was that each partner would maintain 
its own customer list and could arrange data sharing with one another 
on their own terms. 

"Hertz and United Airlines can work out their own deal instead of 
going to Microsoft and saying, 'How much do we have to pay you?'" 
McNealy said. 

Microsoft believes its customer base of 120 million will make it 
dominant in the field. Sun is betting the flexibility of its system 
will make it more appealing to merchants. 

URL:

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-7491959.html?tag=mn_hd
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