Why do consumers only care about identifiers?

Tony Fish @My Digital Footprint

I posted this yesterday, and been thinking in this world of digital identity, why do consumers only really care about identifies rather than other aspects of identity. By identifies I mean ….

Unique identifies [health number, social security number, NI, bank account number, driver licence number, passport number, phone number, IMEI number, SIM number etc etc (Kaliya describes this as an end point)] – people are worried about this mostly for unique identity fraud purposes but mix what is possible with what is sensational. If unique…. far easier to detect fraud.

Context identifies  [name, address, date of birth, home town, post code, aliments, age, likes, friends, employment, number plate]  these are semi unique, confusion is possible with a small number of data points. Consumers worry about this data set but you cannot be uniquely identified by only your name – there are a few exceptions I know, but the worry is because it is what the can see and touch.   Several points added together mean I can uniquely identify you and fraud is easy.

Generic Identifies [blood group, eye colour, nationality, demographics, social status, income, car – make/colour/model, hair colour]  These are generic descriptors  and no matter how many you have you will always be one of a group rather and not unique ( if it is unique to you then it is a unique identifier) .  However we are more worried about this group than unique and it is neither good for fraud or security.

Are we strange or do we only worry as we are told to worry?