Privacy for yourself.
Accountability for others.
Digital freedom should protect legitimate people without creating unlimited impunity for fraud, impersonation, harassment or abuse.
Can privacy and accountability coexist?
Unnecessary exposure is a harm.
Publishing someone’s entire identity can reveal information unrelated to the interaction and create new risks.
Consequence-free harm is, too.
People need a fair way to establish what happened, who was responsible and what remedy is appropriate.
The question is what needs to be established, by whom, for which purpose—and through what safeguards.
What should accountability establish?
Marketplace scam
A seller disappears after taking payment.
Establish who controlled the selling account, preserve the transaction record and provide a fair way to investigate and seek remedy.
Impersonation
An account claims to represent someone else.
Check the claimed relationship against an independent source and give the affected person a clear dispute process.
Forged credential
A participant presents an unverified qualification.
Verify the credential with its issuer and distinguish the claim from an established fact.
Abusive account
A participant repeatedly harms others.
Preserve relevant evidence and use proportionate review and appeal processes without exposing unrelated personal details.
Rights and responsibility belong together.
Limit unnecessary exposure.
Establish relevant claims and provenance.
Use fair processes to address harmful actions.
These scenarios describe design goals. They do not claim that verification eliminates abuse or replaces due process.
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