Thursday 29 September 2005

I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours

Most of our financial transactions rely on trading secrets that are, as a result, not that secret. How many people, agencies and companies have your credit card number on file? Can you get it back if they abuse it? No, you can only stop it completely, then get a new number and give that out to everyone you *do* still trust. You shouldn't have to trust anyone like that - they should make requests of your account that is kept under your control.

Requests would be denied by default, except where you have explicitly noted that a request is expected. Regular requests could be set up to be accepted automatically, but when something bad happens to a regular request (eg it is six times the size it should be and starts happening every hour instead of every month) then it can be cancelled with no adverse effect on other transactions. Naturally there would be a "speed limit" on regular requestors, so they can only extract cash at a previously agreed maximum rate.

Of course, I know people would mess it up. Legitimate requests would be denied all too often, simply because Grampa forgot to tell the bank that it was expected. Still, that's better than Grampa losing his life savings just because someone finds out his credit card number.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It makes sense to me.
PPS - Lots of nonsensical things do, though.

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