Re:Here's how: (Score 1)

"The information about an individual should be the property of the individual, not the company (or govt. agency) that holds and collects it."

I couldn't agree more. It's not just a fancy idea you propose here, but it is a very fundamental issue for individual freedom. It is a matter of basic human freedom and dignity to be in command of your own representation, be it physical (i.e. dress code), digital or otherwise.

The current way in which organizations are collecting and storing many individuals' descriptions together in an aggregated, centralized database of some sort, is a remnant (unnecessary continuation) of our pre-internet past. Presently, it should not be as difficult or expensive to consult many individually authored, disparately stored representations of the many clients an organization has (like you and me). Each individual should be free (as in freedom) to create his/her own representation, kept at a provider of choice (or DYI), which could then be (partially) exposed (if so desired), to the many organizations that provide their service to you.

This ideal situation would ultimately shift the power from the organizations who now own your data (but don't have any incentives to care about it, as Mr. Schneier recently observed) to you and me, the people being represented. I am, like you, very concerned with the fact that the data which is supposed to represent me, is not under my own control.

  -- aadrink