We urgently need a better solution to the problem of online identity, and it should be one area where the companies involved recognise that working together will benefit them all, even if it does mean having to give way to your rivals or conform to standards that you didn't write.

BBC: Microsoft wants to change passwords for something better

Congress created that law in 2004 to toughen penalties for the growing problem of identity theft.

NPR: Immigrant Rights Groups Challenge ID Theft Arrests

But whatever the chosen technology, we urgently need to do something about the problem of online identity, and not just so that we can bank safely or buy even more consumer goods.

BBC: Microsoft wants to change passwords for something better

The problem is that the sense of meaningful ethnic identity is evaporating, along with the passion that used to fuel Irish-American pilgrimages to the homeland, and so North American visits to Ireland are falling, falling.

FORBES: 70 Million Irish Please Come Home (Briefly): But Don't Mind Our In-Fighting

No doubt there will be some benefits: fraud, in particular the persistent and increasingly annoying problem of identity theft, might be substantially reduced if biometric-identification systems, introduced in the form of passports, visas and identity cards, become widespread.

ECONOMIST: BIOMETRICS

Victims of tax-related identity theft say the problem can be disastrous.

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Citigroup says it has no reason to believe that this information has been used inappropriately, nor has it received any reports of unauthorized activity, but wants to make customers aware of the problem and provide them with suggestions on how to protect their identity.

FORBES

One reason I am anxious to make a big speech about men, boys and male identity is to nail the lie that feminism is somehow the cause of the problem.

BBC: Diane Abbott

In a part of the world that has been fought over unendingly for half a century, identity often becomes a problem.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia