HXWG last week - review of harms model

Drummond Reed commented this paper much needed

Nicky Hickman to x-check w/drummond key questions/ issues & drivers for this paper

Judith Fleenor asked what we were working on

• Phil Wolff Whitepaper + blog post - aim to look at what SSI does for systemic harms associated e.g. w/over vs under identification and aim is to provide tools for the community to prevent harm and consider in their work
• Focus on product, management and engineers who want to prevent harm ie for the ToIP community
• Not general public
• Judith Fleenor reminded us that there is the generic

HXWG update on Weds 20th - Phil Wolff Phil to do Harms TF slide

• sankarshan commented that there is an IIW special topic meeting Tuesday 9th August "Digital Identity Across Asia" Pyrou & sankarshan to do session on Harms

HXWG update at all-hands; Question regarding terms that we understand and assume sankarshan to add link to document

Expert Series - review and comment

Task Force BGBU / SSI Harms

USA / EU / Africa  Every Alternate Monday

9:00 Pacific / 12:00 Eastern / 16:00 UTC

Next call is Monday 1st August, then a break until Monday 12th September

Asia & Australasia Every Alternate Thursday

18:00 AEDT / 13:00 Indochina / 11.30 IST / 6:00 UTC

Next call is Thursday 4th August, then a break until Thursday 16th September

Harms White Paper Draft  Phil Wolff 

• use of 4/4 matrix not useful - just use headlines like ' Digital ID comes with known harms'  - remove 'known-knowns'
• See points in Philip Sheldrake https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/digital-identity-human-matters-philip-sheldrake/
  • Pyrou commented that in region WB pushing digital identity ID4D, developmental drive in region to use digital identity as a development aid - will 'solve poverty issues' - loose argument - no strong alternatives to WB model.  SSI can be a strong alternative to centralized models, but no strong activists influencing policy.
  • sankarshan many digital identifiers are framed as 'public goods' but don't have a sustainable economic model, problem creating s/w marketplaces without durability.  Most digital ID schemes are state-funded, reinforces sustainability, also in India based on facial recognition & biometrics; problem of changing embedded systems, processes and AI which reinforce these structures of power.  Worrying - the entire premise has not been challenged, no strong and viable alternative.  No consultative process.
  • Pyrou - no ability to say 'no' (Participation Principle is not observed); - embedding digital ID as a social norm, there are still Indian communities - tribal group recognised as 1st People, see commons in forest vs property - government appropriates the forests to access sustainability funding - digital recording of the - transfer of capital = transfer of power.  

Harms White Paper Draft  Phil Wolff 

• use of 4/4 matrix not useful - just use headlines like ' Digital ID comes with known harms'  - remove 'known-knowns'
• See points in Philip Sheldrake https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/digital-identity-human-matters-philip-sheldrake/
• Qualitative differences between SSI & other ID tech?
• No calibration or measurement of harm from implementation of SSI
• Our definition of harm might be different from other definitions of harm e.g. variance from self-sovereignty
• Are here unintended consequences of doing things as we normally do them for IAM e.g. WEIRD models of identity in west vs other parts of the world
• risks of cultural imperialism through tech

Judith Fleenor commented that we needed to ensure that the white paper that enabled members to 'get stuff done', other ideas about the socio-cultural issues are a 'thing to think about'

Technology is not agnostic, it is political.  

Because of corruption - central authorities / governments are not 

Man is moral and SSI is a kind of moral technology - we are not neutral the status quo is insufficient - this is a better way. 

sankarshan Still need the basis even if this is socratic then build on the steps, still needs to be rights-based and addresses concerns

Dangers of 'othering the problem' - being more direct 

comms of the paper would be a series of blog posts a) harms embedded and scaling of harms; b) concept of legal identity vs digital identity c) other ways of using SSI to express human identity

Phil Wolff why should I care; b) characterising the harms; c) theory of how to frame harms d) turning concern to action, e) budget e.g. for harms assessment 

Judith Fleenor considered edge communities can create new harms to current power base (ie those that are currently benefiting) - zero sum game

There is now a terms wiki and we should use a # for SSI Harms  =  #harmtf  (see conventions)

Here is the document to start working with for ingestion Working Document HXWG Terms