Rstuart,

I am the author of "the electronic me" and my apologies for being obscure. This may be because it requires the jettisoning of common ideas about identification before it makes sense. http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6713

The good news is that in operation it is simple and easy to understand and use. Anyone will be able to create their own "electronic me" by the beginning of February at http://www.edentiti.com The applications outlined at the website may help you understand what it is about - if not why it works.

It is being introduced as a way for businesses and other organisations to "know their customers" under the new anti-money laundering legislation that came into force on the 12th December.

The system enables organisations to "know their customers" but in a privacy friendly way and without having to keep personal identification information about the person in the organisation's files.

This type of system will solve the problems outlined by Aboud and because of that we can expect there to be some pressure by consumers on organisations to use the approach. I am confident that we will have a wide spread private, secure identification system in general use within the next five years.