Re: Principal Authority – new article on Wyoming law defining Digital Identity

On Thu, Sep 16, 2021 at 3:29 PM Adrian Gropper <agropper@healthurl.com>
wrote:

> Three questions for Chris and our group related to real-word challenges to
> SSI progress:
>
> W1 - Is the Wyoming process concerned only about the identity and
> authority of natural persons and, if so, does the need for "efficiency" in
> cases where an identity is about a role or a thing introduce confusion into
> our work products?
>

At this point the Wyoming law is purely foundational, and does not define
specific roles, rights, duties, or best practices. See the full text at
https://wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2021/SF0039 — it is quite short.

It also does not deal with entities that may have identifIERS BUT do not
have any Principal Authority. However, in addition to personal digital
identity it also defines corporate digital identity. Corporations in US
apparent do have “personhood” sufficient that they too can have a basis for
having the “buck stops here” root aspect of Principle Authority. This may
not apply in other jurisdictions.

W2 - How would the Wyoming process apply to biometrics as a component of
> identity? See https://github.com/w3c-ccg/community/issues/211 for a few
> specifics.
>

I would say that future legislation would present that since natural
persons have some Principal Authority over their blood, body parts, civil
rights, image in photographs and recordings of themselves, etc for their
physical selves, which if delegated (say a tissue sample to a hospital)
have certain duties of care, and should benefit the natural person.

Thus natural persons would also have similar rights over their digital
selves, which if delegated, have certain duties of care, and should benefit
the natural person.

W3 - When authority over identity maps into authority over a verifiable
> credential, would the Wyoming process deal with request and authorization
> protocols differently as applied to the Issuer vs the Holder of the VC?
>

The first key for me when looking at this is to see if a similar right
exists in the physical world, then it should exists in the digital world.
Like a police officer with due cause can demand your physical drivers
license, if there emerge similar “due cause” in the digital world they can
do so as well. However, like the real world the official has a duty of
care, and customs & best practices of what they can, or can’t do with that
license. It is these “Law of Custom” are what need to be defined in future
legislation & regulation.

— Christopher Allen

>