Trusting the Web

There are many different approaches to making the web a more honest place.

Published: July, 2006

My kids tell me that “trusted computing”, an initiative that many large companies are trying to get their arms around, is an oxymoron. Each one of my them, now in their twenties, has been burned somehow by a web deal gone bad. They just accept the burn as a part of digital life.

My son got a note from a Facebook user claiming to be an alumnus of his school. The note offered him a job during his winter break because the writer was launching a company. I said, “It smells funny to me.”

He said, “Ma, you worry too much.”

Luckily it turned out that it wasn’t anything worse than a scam by a door to door sales group looking for new recruits. He came home disappointed, but sobered. It could have worse.

My daughter is a Craiglist fanatic. Her rides, her furniture and her apartments all come compliments of the Craigslist community. She’s only lost one rent deposit to one unscrupulous person so far.

My third daughter went for the promise of quick cash by signing herself up for every focus group and sweepstake on the web. Well, you know the end of that story. Her computer was fried thanks to spyware and viruses.

Ultimately, all sorts of tools will come help build a trusted web.

Verification and authentication techniques makes it possible to reveal your identity, but there’s still a lot of debate on how to use them on the web. Biometric devices like thumb print and voice recognition will identify you when you choose to be identified. GPS systems might let you confirm the location of someone you’re talking to, and they are already helping parents keep tabs on their children via GPS enabled cell phones.

But underlying all of the technology, there are two basic ways to build a more trusted web and they are sure to come into great conflict. The first is to build it yourself by ranking and rating people and places based on your trust in them. eBay makes an attempt at doing this every time you rank a seller. Social networks that let you flag users you think are acting inappropriately also touch on this notion that a community can build a trusted web.

The second way is to trust a bunch of the people (typically meaning a business) who would build it for you. Intel has an initiative for building trust directly into the chip. Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Initiative focuses on a number of products and processes. So far efforts have focused heavily on anti-spam, anti-phishing and better security and privacy features in products like XP.

A thought provoking flick on YouTube let’s you walk away with a better understanding of the issue.
My kids and your kids are going to be the ones that have to figure how it will come to pass that you’ll be able to trust those you meet in cyberspace. I sure hope they realize how important it is for them to get on it.