A New Paradigm for Individuals in the Information Age

Abstract
Today, individuals provide substantially the same identifying information to each organization with which they have a relationship. In a new paradigm, individuals provide different "pseudonyms" or alternate names to each organization. A critical advantage of systems based on such pseudonyms is that the information associated with each pseudonym can be insufficient to allow data on an individual to be linked and collected together, and thus they can prevent the formation of a dossier society reminiscent of Orwell's "1984".A system is proposed in which an individual's pseudonyms are created and stored in a computer held and trusted only by the individual. New cryptographic techniques allow an organization to securely exchange messages or payments with an individual known under a pseudonym--without the communication or payments systems providers being able to trace messages or payments. Other new techniques allow a digitally signed credential to be transformed by the individual, from the individual's pseudonym with the issuing organization, to the individual's pseudonym with a recipient organization. Credentials can be transformed only between pseudonyms of a single individual, and an individual can obtain at most one pseudonym with a particular organization, but even a conspiracy of all organizations can gain no information from the pseudonyms about their correspondence. The combination of these systems can prevent abuses by individuals, while averting the potential for a dossier society.

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