![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/idthft.jpg\")
It seems that each decade these days can
\n be associated with a particular kind of crime. The 80’s was rife with
\n muggings, in the 90’s carjacking was all the rage, and now, in the brave
\n new millennial decade of the aughts it is identity theft that is running
\n rampant across the country.<\/p>\n
Of course, some will argue that the
\n signature crime of the current decade is more appropriately corporate
\n malfeasance,
\n or
\n illegal
\n immigration,
\n or even high crimes and misdemeanors. And, it should ne noted,
\n the decade still has four years to run. But in terms of sheer numbers
\n (at current rates by the end of the decade over 20% of Americans will
\n have
\n been victims), identity theft is a clear favorite.<\/p>\n
Lately, we have been not so much wondering if it will
\n ever happen to us as much as wondering when. Perhaps most oddly,
\n rather than paranoia or trepidation (the typical Dowbrigade reaction
\n to threats) we find ourself almost looking forward to having our identity
\n stolen.<\/p>\n
After all, what is our identity, really, and what good
\n had it done us?<\/p>\n
An identity is not the same as a self. Rather, it is
\n the accumulation of attributes, traits, habits, preferences and idiosyncratic
\n behavior that allows others to identify us, and forms the immediate basis
\n of our superficial self-image. However, more often than not it
\n is used by others not to identify us, but to stereotype us, and used
\n by ourself to massage our ego, deceive ourself by combing over faults,
\n and nurture our spoiled inner child.<\/p>\n
Seen impartially, and speaking only for ourself, our
\n identity is not a particularly valuable or endearing collection of traits. One can
\n only assume
\n that
\n if a cyber-thief
\n was to steal our identity they would end up with a boatload of vanity,
\n unsightly egotism, attacks of idiocy, laziness, sloppy thinking and a
\n penchant for easy solutions. Let him have all trace of our weakness, cowardice, wimpiness, incipient sexism, supressed racism and questionable taste.<\/p>\n
Hopefully, along with our identity, the thief would
\n inherit our 25-year-old guaranteed student loan, our accumulated credit
\n card debt, our unpaid taxes, our endless dental treatment plan payments,
\n our collection of parking tickets, our recently overdrawn (bank error)
\n checking account, our MBNA account, and the regular desperate cries for
\n financial salvation from our progeny.<\/p>\n
We certainly look forward to the new owner of our identity
\n having to sort through the constant onslaught of retro snail mail from
\n credit card companies, the AARP, and most malignantly, the scorched earth
\n tactics of the Harvard University Alumni Fundrazing Drive.<\/p>\n
While they are at it, the thieves are welcome to the
\n more material accoutrements of our identity as well: the obsolete computer, jelly
\n stains on the keyboard and godknowswhat on the screen; the crappy old
\n car, now tumbling into the terminal phase in which it’s just
\n one
\n thing
\n after
\n another,
\n rust and rot and planned obsolescence eating out one part or system after
\n another; our creaky, cranky body, more or less in the same state; high
\n blood pressure, raised cholesterol, hiatal hernia, stomach saroma, failing
\n eyesight, fading hearing, falling follicles; the whole sorry package.<\/p>\n
The identity thieves are also welcome to the damning
\n paper trail chasing us around as we wandered across the planet
\n this past half-century; the sealed cases, expired probations, disciplinary
\n hearings, defaults and foreclosures, the evictions, expulsions, deportations
\n and banishments from bars, educational institutions, commercial establishments
\n and private homes, the extensive but secret files buried in basements
\n at the Cambridge Police Department, FBI, CIA, NSA, Interpol, the Mossad,
\n Department of Homeland Security, ETS, PETA and who knows where else.<\/p>\n
Take it, please! Take it all! Leave me blank, an unwritten slate,
\n pure potential, a tabla rasa. Let us shed our old identity like a snake
\n sheds a worn-out skin. Leave us floating free, egoless, anonymous. We
\n would still be uniquely us, we are sure. Identities, after all, are a
\n dime a dozen. Some people we know have several spares.<\/p>\n
So go ahead. Take our identity, please. You’d
\n be doing us a favor.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It seems that each decade these days can be associated with a particular kind of crime. The 80’s was rife with muggings, in the 90’s carjacking was all the rage, and now, in the brave new millennial decade of the … Continue reading