Identity, theft and six degrees of separation

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 03 July 2011 15:02

Opinion and Analysis

Attorney-General Robert McClelland has announced the results of a survey, under the headline: "New research shows identity theft affects one in six people," but that's something of an exaggeration depending exactly on what you take 'effects' to mean.

More precisely, McClelland announce the results of a survey of 1200 Australians claiming it shows that "nearly one in six Australians have been a victim or known somebody who has been a victim of identity theft or misuse in the past six months."

If you subscribe to the philosophy of John Donne (1572-1631) - "No man is an island entire of itself; every man / is a piece of the continent, a part of the main / '¦ any man's death diminishes me, / because I am involved in mankind. / And therefore never send to know for whom / the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." - Then you might well concur.

But what does that say about the number of people who have directly suffered identity theft? Again if you believe in the idea of six degrees of separation - that everyone is on average approximately six steps away from any other person on Earth - then that one in six figure would be very easily realised.

A much more meaningful figure would have been the number of people who have had their identity stolen or suffered directly as a result of identity theft, but that would likely be nowhere near as scary as "one in six" figure that McClelland used to support new legislation just introduced into Parliament "to strengthen cyber security laws and enhance Australia's ability to combat international cyber crime." The legislation is being introduced to bring Australia into line with the requirements of the European Cybercrime Convention as part of Australia's bid for membership.

And as for "releasing the research," not exactly. McClelland tells us that "The independent online study was conducted by Di Marzio Research and surveyed 1200 people from across Australia," and that "The survey also revealed that the majority of identity theft or misuse occurred over the Internet (58 percent), or through the loss of a credit or debit card (30 percent). Stolen identify information was primarily used to purchase goods or services (55 percent) or to obtain finance, credit or a loan (26 percent)," but has given no other details.

More sinister perhaps - for the paranoid at least - was McClelland's statement that the survey of 1,200 people "will be used to help develop a new National Identity Security Strategy." That's very laudable, as long as it does not turn into a National Identity Strategy, bringing back memories of the dreaded and long dead "Australia Card" - a highly unpopular and ultimately unsuccessful initiative of the last Labor Government of Bob Hawke in the late 1980s.

CONTINUED