Re: Wyoming Legislative Discussion on Digital Identity & SSI

Interesting and good work.

The things that stood out to me were Dazza's analogy of "the lack of a
digital home leaves people with no space that we control between sidewalk
and the store". Also, Christopher's point about our digital identity
relative to the credit bureau or other data brokers. To me, these come
together in the frustration I feel when having to give very private
information to a data broker in order to get them to disclose what they
control as the attributes of my identity.

This frustration was not articulated in the hearing.

I participate in the Uniform Law Commission process on (CCPA-like) state
privacy initiatives and am amazed at the near total disregard for control
over one's personal data that underlies the work of those state
commissioners. The same can be said of most other so-called privacy laws
being worked on around the world. In almost every case, control is seen as
an impediment to commerce and a drag on progress and innovation.

My point is that although the work in Wyoming is much more thoughtful and
positive than ULC and other legal initiatives, the Wyoming work is
inadequate to the extent that it leaves the control issue to a later day. I
found it amusing that there was positive sentiment in favor of using the
term "self-sovereign" in the statute and yet the issue of control, is not
articulated in any way that I could understand.

Please consider at what point in the legal evolution digital identity will
tame the data brokers and will it be too little, too late.

- Adrian




On Wed, Sep 23, 2020 at 4:30 PM Christopher Allen <
ChristopherA@lifewithalacrity.com> wrote:

> Today, the Wyoming "Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology
> and Digital Innovation Technology" https://wyoleg.gov/Committees/2020/S19
> had a public meeting, with a major agenda item today on Digital Identity.
>
> I am a member of the Digital Identity sub-committee and thus was invited
> to be part of the discussion (along with invited experts Dazza Greenwood,
> Clare Sullivan and Scott David).
>
> This discussion was quite interesting, with some very knowledgeable and
> informed state legislators because of successful past Blockchain
> legislation (19 passed bills!). The video is at
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2yMs_I5Sn0 starting at about the 2h39m
> mark.
>
> We began with a discussion of an initial draft for a legal definition at
> https://wyoleg.gov/InterimCommittee/2020/S19-202009233-01DigitalIdentityDraftingGuidance.pdf,
> but the discussion went much further, including some desire by legislators
> to consider making a legal definition of Self-Sovereign Identity.
>
> If you have feedback on this discussion, you are welcome to offer public
> testimony at the next meeting (currently schedule 11/2), or I can share
> your thoughts with the members of the sub-committee at our meetings in the
> meantime, or you can share your thoughts directly with Select Committee
> co-chair & Identity Sub-Commitee chair Chris Rothfuss <
> Chris.Rothfuss@wyoleg.gov>.
>
> — Christopher Allen
>