This digital persona is then used by government agencies as a means of social control, and by marketers as a means of identifying prospects. It is argued that in environments in which business is conducted without ever seeing the other party, much greater care must be taken in authenticating their identity. The concept of authentication is being addressed through the technique of a high-integrity 'digital signature'. Anonymous Transactions Anonymity refers to the complete absence of identification data in a transaction . The key characteristic of an anonymous transaction is that the specific identity of one or more of the parties to the transaction cannot be extracted from the data itself, nor by combining the transaction with other data.
People desire anonymity for a variety of reasons.
Other reasons for seeking anonymity are of arguably significant social value. It is often blithely assumed that the interests of parties to a transaction cannot be protected if the transaction is conducted anonymously. This assumption is sometimes correct, but not always so. An important example of a technique that can be used to protect people's interests is 'eligibility authentication' . This is distinguished from 'user authentication' , which necessarily involves the provision of evidence of the identity of the individual.