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Comment by po1nt | Hacker News Reader

Attaching numbers to people is unbelievably creepy. My identity is not a number. We recoil at the idea of having assigned and tattooed numbers on our bodies and I don't feel it's okay to do it, just so you could maybe avoid misidentification.

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You are the one somehow conflating an identity card with your actual identity as a self, which seems extremely strange and spurious.

The one conflating the two isn't the author, but the state. A fixation on the state sanctioned representation of someone's identity instead of the actual, living person himself is exactly what caused TFA's author troubles.

The problem seems to be that the state has no other way to really identify them differently, also as one of them doesn't exist. An actual identity identifier would have solved this from ever occurring.

You could ask every company to have a specialized department to handle investigations for these nuanced cases... or you could rely on the state/nation to give you some actual assuranced. National ID solves this. Does Apple have the budget? Yes, but then are smaller companies justified for fucking up? Wouldn't a more objective, verifiable, and automatable procedure be preferred to level the playing field?

Why did it need to go to tattooed numbers?

Also the implication that cultures and countries which have happily accepted id numbers are filled with non individualistic people is it?

> Why did it need to go to tattooed numbers

Many countries have laws about having to carry an ID on you all the time. Not as bad as a tattoo, but still not acceptable IMO.

> Also the implication that cultures and countries which have happily accepted id numbers are filled with non individualistic people is it?

Are we really gonna keep pretending there are no differences between cultures?

Very few countries require you to carry an ID. Many countries require you to own one and keep it up to date, but don't care whether you carry it outside.

Also, I find the point kind of moot for the US where a driving license is essentially an ID card, you have to carry it to drive, and you have to drive to go anywhere in most places.

In the US, permanent residents technically have to keep their green card on them at all times.

So that you could not impersonate some other identity. Same in the spirit of carrying a plastic card, just without somebody touching you by force.

Either way you are branded forever.

Is your identity a string of letters? Don't be ridiculous.

Yes, if there is a set of strings that can uniquely identify you, and you can't have it removed, nor act like somebody else, it's your identity.

Even GDPR admits it

So, your name is also this sort of identifier. But an “identifier” is not an “identity” in the way you mean it. Sometimes words are used in multiple ways.

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