Government launches login.gov to simplify access to public services
This appears valuable and well executed, but I worry that private businesses will be eager to outsource their authentication to this service, if they are allowed to. And once it's fully stood up, I suspect the government would be all too eager to oblige.<p>This might be convenient, but might also mark the beginning of a major new point of U.S. government control over the Internet, with all the surveillance and other civil liberties issues that this might raise, to say nothing of the issues that could arise from this degree of centralization.<p>Now seems like the time to set the expectation that this service may not ever be used by private websites. Of course, we tried that with Social Security numbers too, for all the good it did us. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/26/weekinreview/the-nation-not-for-identification-purposes-just-kidding.html?mcubz=1" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/26/weekinreview/the-nation-no...</a>