You often hear about identity theft, and it may surprise you. How is it possible for someone to pretend to be someone else? Aren’t there any checks? Aren’t you asked to provide birth certificates to have your identity papers redone?
Before answering this question, it’s important to define what we mean by a person’s identity: identity is determined by information and by belonging to a culture.
We will deal here only with the information that makes up identity.
What information constitutes a person’s identity?
Nowadays, your identity is defined by information that is supposed to be personal to you (i.e. not the same for other people).
This information varies according to the entity using it:
- For an official civil status document, 6 criteria are used: your surname, first names, date of birth, place of birth, your father’s identity (surname, first names, date and place of birth), your mother’s identity (surname, first names, date and place of birth).
- For other organizations, you’ll need to provide proof of address.
These are all criteria of a person’s identity. The aim is to be able to differentiate between people, and the more identity criteria are added, the lower the risk of confusion.
How to verify identity
Whatever the information that makes up an identity, it is not necessary to have all the necessary documents with you, and to present them when your identity is verified. In any case, it would be impossible to verify the veracity of these documents for day-to-day checks..
This is why the person concerned receives an official identity document that he or she can show, and this document is issued by an authority that carries out the necessary checks.
The person in charge of verification uses the information on the identity document. Since information on surname, forenames, date and place of birth cannot be verified easily, because a procedure has to be initiated with the civil registry, it is necessary to add identification criteria, i.e. information that has been associated with the person when the identity document was produced, such as a photo or fingerprints, by a legitimate authority.
These criteria are easier to use (recognition of the person’s face or fingerprints) and can be done by computer.
However, the integrity of the identity document must not be altered, because if we don’t believe the identification criteria present on it, then we can’t certify that the identity indicated on the document is the right one..
The identity document is therefore an identifier which in itself identifies the person. This is also the case for identifiers used to log on to a website: users are not asked to provide proof of their identity, but only to use identification criteria such as their password or e-mail address (or telephone number) to receive a code and sometimes a fingerprint.
And this is where the weakness of identity verification lies: if a person has provided false information about their identity but has been issued with an identifier, they can then use this identifier without any further control..
In other words, you can usurp another person’s identity by combining the official documents requested (birth certificate, etc.) with forged documents (lease, rent receipt, etc.) and “real” identifiers (photo, fingerprints, etc.). If the check does not detect the attempted fraud, you will be issued with a sesame (identity document) that you can use for all procedures. Of course, this type of fraud is often much simpler when it comes to subscribing to certain services or making purchases.
The identity of our ancestors
When looking for information to establish your genealogy, you need to learn to put the right level of trust in the information you find:
- Very high confidence for official records: civil status, notary deeds, diplomas..
- Good confidence in records from official bodies (army, departmental archives, etc.).
- Low confidence for unofficial writings (letters) or oral testimonies..
Note that even official records may contain errors or different spellings (for example, it is not uncommon to find several spellings for the same surname over the centuries).
The identity of our ancestors is fragile: it is difficult to verify, and you won’t have today’s resources at your disposal. It should also be noted that cases of homonymy were more frequent in the past, as the same first names were often given to several people (uncle, cousins…), not to mention the reuse of the first name of a deceased elder for a younger child..
That’s why it’s important to always look for a source of information that confirms the information you’ve obtained.
Check if your genealogy data includes sources for your information:
