The current push for a unique global identifier for each legal entity was sparked by the financial crisis in 2008 when firms and regulators had a hard time tracing the transactions among key players such as Lehman, Bear Stearns, AIG and the portfolios of mortgage-backed securities.

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You see, each person's body provides a different amount of opposition to electrical current, so bioimpedance can be a unique biometric identifier.

ENGADGET: Researchers use bioimpedance as a biometric, let health monitor devices know who you are

As for the current discrepancy, one might speculate that the phone's identifier hasn't yet been blocked on the HTCdev site -- something that'd likely be resolved before the phone becomes officially available through retail channels this Friday.

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