Owning Identity

Haiku of the Day:
that coat and plumage
intersect function forms
with conjunct beauty

We are ourselves and no other, and that alone should stand in this age of endless information. To the extent that records of our being, financial, medical, or otherwise, must be stored, it is the right and responsibility of the owner - the identity to which that record belongs, not the recorder - that it be accurate, real property, perhaps the most valuable in an age of widespread credit. Exactly how is up for discussion, but our life histories need to be made ours, in the sense that intellectual property is ours, only to be used by others with our permission, and only as we permit, instead of constantly negotiating ownership; why must we compromise our recorded identities with legal contracts full of verbose limitations of another's choosing?

I propose that we take back our data, take responsibility for it, and form a cooperative for storing and distributing that data securely to only those parties we wish to have the data. This endeavor will be profitable, as it is to those who produce marketing research, credit ratings, and insurance risk analysis today using our own records. The cooperative will be more accurate than current record keeping, as the owners will know when the data is wrong and note the corrections. Lastly, it will be good for society, as we will all have everything we need to know about ourselves at easy reference; no more dependence on recollection. This is the "real" social network, where we all share the responsibility of managing who we trust with our information, instead of a legal team from a profit-driven corporation.