Commentary: Who are you? The tattoo solution.

In the 18th century Jeremy Bentham, an English philosopher, suggested that people should tattoo their name, address, and date of birth on their wrists: “Who are you, with whom I have to deal? The answer to this important question would no longer be liable to evasion.” While Mr. Bentham’s suggestion was ignored—and today’s tattoo fashion is far from name and address—the identification of a person is an enduring problem. Documents—passports, identity cards, medical records, driver’s licenses, marriage contracts, birth certificates—many people have one or all of these.

Except when they don’t, or when the documents they have are not trusted by the person who asks, “Who are you?”

For example, in Berlin a man was arrested for killing a former Chechen separatist commander on 23 August. According to the New York Times, he had a Russian passport and, yes, arm tattoos but “investigators believe the name is fake.” An anonymous email to the Berlin police suggested the man is a former major in the St. Petersburg police department named Vladimir Alekseevich Stepanov; the Times found his name in “court and government records in Russia” and “also ran searches through millions of images on numerous photo databases and located two potential photographs of him,” but then Fontanka.ru, a Russian news website, said Mr. Stepanov was in prison and published a “current photo of Mr. Stepanov, which does not seem to resemble the suspect in custody in Berlin.” So who is he?  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/world/europe/berlin-murder-russia.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fkatrin-bennhold&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection

For another example, migrants of all ages often have few and sometimes no documents. Human Rights Watch issued a report on the treatment of unaccompanied migrant children in the French Hautes-Alpes. It conducted interviews between January and July with 61 juvenile migrants as well as others who interacted with the children and reviewed the records of evaluations of 36 children by the government, 13 juvenile court judgments, and 2 guardianship offers. The children told them that they “felt they had not been heard” during their interviews with French authorities, “a conclusion reinforced when they saw the reports prepared by the examiner.” HRW found that “many [of the children] are refused formal recognition as children after flawed age assessments” and “police have also harassed aid workers, volunteers, and activists who take part in search-and-rescue operations in the mountains.” Among other recommendations, HRW urges the government to presume that the “birth certificates and other identity documents obtained abroad” that the child has “be presumed valid in the absence of substantiated reason to believe they are not” and to treat the children as the juveniles they are. https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/09/05/subject-whim/treatment-unaccompanied-migrant-children-french-hautes-alpes

And then there is this: “A new Chinese app that lets users swap their faces with celebrities . . in a video clip racked up millions of downloads,” Reuters reported, but sparked “new concerns surrounding identity verification.”  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-tech-zao/chinese-face-swapping-app-goes-viral-sparks-privacy-concerns-idUSKCN1VN0G9

  Governments hold a monopoly on issuing documents of legal identity, and government archives around the world hold literally billions of examples. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 is “By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration.”  It does not say where and how that registration is to be maintained and made available to the person asking, “Who are you?” Tattooing is looking better all the time.

In the 18th century Jeremy Bentham, an English philosopher, suggested that people should tattoo their name, address, and date of birth on their wrists: “Who are you, with whom I have to deal? The answer to this important question would no longer be liable to evasion.” While Mr. Bentham’s suggestion was ignored—and today’s tattoo fashion is far from name and address—the identification of a person is an enduring problem. Documents—passports, identity cards, medical records, driver’s licenses, marriage contracts, birth certificates—many people have one or all of these.

Except when they don’t, or when the documents they have are not trusted by the person who asks, “Who are you?”

For example, in Berlin a man was arrested for killing a former Chechen separatist commander on 23 August. According to the New York Times, he had a Russian passport and, yes, arm tattoos but “investigators believe the name is fake.” An anonymous email to the Berlin police suggested the man is a former major in the St. Petersburg police department named Vladimir Alekseevich Stepanov; the Times found his name in “court and government records in Russia” and “also ran searches through millions of images on numerous photo databases and located two potential photographs of him,” but then Fontanka.ru, a Russian news website, said Mr. Stepanov was in prison and published a “current photo of Mr. Stepanov, which does not seem to resemble the suspect in custody in Berlin.” So who is he?  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/world/europe/berlin-murder-russia.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fkatrin-bennhold&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection

For another example, migrants of all ages often have few and sometimes no documents. Human Rights Watch issued a report on the treatment of unaccompanied migrant children in the French Hautes-Alpes. It conducted interviews between January and July with 61 juvenile migrants as well as others who interacted with the children and reviewed the records of evaluations of 36 children by the government, 13 juvenile court judgments, and 2 guardianship offers. The children told them that they “felt they had not been heard” during their interviews with French authorities, “a conclusion reinforced when they saw the reports prepared by the examiner.” HRW found that “many [of the children] are refused formal recognition as children after flawed age assessments” and “police have also harassed aid workers, volunteers, and activists who take part in search-and-rescue operations in the mountains.” Among other recommendations, HRW urges the government to presume that the “birth certificates and other identity documents obtained abroad” that the child has “be presumed valid in the absence of substantiated reason to believe they are not” and to treat the children as the juveniles they are. https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/09/05/subject-whim/treatment-unaccompanied-migrant-children-french-hautes-alpes

And then there is this: “A new Chinese app that lets users swap their faces with celebrities . . in a video clip racked up millions of downloads,” Reuters reported, but sparked “new concerns surrounding identity verification.”  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-tech-zao/chinese-face-swapping-app-goes-viral-sparks-privacy-concerns-idUSKCN1VN0G9

Governments hold a monopoly on issuing documents of legal identity, and government archives around the world hold literally billions of examples. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 is “By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration.”  It does not say where and how that registration is to be maintained and made available to the person asking, “Who are you?” Tattooing is looking better all the time.