Personal identity crisis
In an age of heightened security concerns, the need for establishing an irrefutable personal identity has had to switch to high tech
By Mukul Sharma, ET Bureau | Updated:
According to Abraham Lincoln’s cousin Denny Hanks, a lot of things puzzled the young future President of America. Among them was the act of signing his name.
“‘Denny,’ he sez to me many a time, ‘look at that, will you? Abraham Lincoln!That stands fur me. Don’t look a blamed bit like me!’ An’ he’d stand an’ study it a spell. ’Peared to mean a heap to Abe.”
However as far as most official things are concerned, our signatures are accepted universally as being us. Tons of money can be effortlessly moved out of bank accounts by signing our names at the end of a cheque.
Ditto applications for passports, driving licences, marriage certificates and voting cards. Yes, they also ask for mug shots but these too have to be countersigned.
Of course, in an age of heightened security concerns when signatures can be digitally replicated and likenesses photoshopped the need for establishing an irrefutable personal identity has had to switch to high tech.
Biometric IDs now include stuff like palm prints, voice recording, iris scans and DNA fingerprinting. Yet, as honest Abe would say, none of them look a “blamed bit” like the person we are to people who know us.
It’s true the authorities have also a job but short of baring one’s soul for the customs and immigration official to crosscheck against some ledger maintained by God, the only other solution seems to be what Harpo Marx is supposed to have once done.
When asked for identification by a police officer, the actor who played a mute silently pointed at himself. Obviously it meant a lot to him.
“‘Denny,’ he sez to me many a time, ‘look at that, will you? Abraham Lincoln!That stands fur me. Don’t look a blamed bit like me!’ An’ he’d stand an’ study it a spell. ’Peared to mean a heap to Abe.”
However as far as most official things are concerned, our signatures are accepted universally as being us. Tons of money can be effortlessly moved out of bank accounts by signing our names at the end of a cheque.
Ditto applications for passports, driving licences, marriage certificates and voting cards. Yes, they also ask for mug shots but these too have to be countersigned.
Of course, in an age of heightened security concerns when signatures can be digitally replicated and likenesses photoshopped the need for establishing an irrefutable personal identity has had to switch to high tech.
Biometric IDs now include stuff like palm prints, voice recording, iris scans and DNA fingerprinting. Yet, as honest Abe would say, none of them look a “blamed bit” like the person we are to people who know us.
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It’s true the authorities have also a job but short of baring one’s soul for the customs and immigration official to crosscheck against some ledger maintained by God, the only other solution seems to be what Harpo Marx is supposed to have once done.
When asked for identification by a police officer, the actor who played a mute silently pointed at himself. Obviously it meant a lot to him.
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