> The solution to all of this data privacy hysteria is to change our approach. The possession of common facts about a person should not be sufficient to masquerade as that person

I think the solution is better security. We'll only ever have basic facts to uniquely identify people. Biometrics can be hacked/copied too.

I think the problem could be mostly solved by requiring people who are getting credit to apply somewhere in person. Most credit card banks have branches everywhere (USA). The person has to have their face recorded stored along with credit line. This would have many benefits: legitimate people would think more about how serious getting a credit card is, fraudsters would be less likely to try and get fake credit, and it would be much clearer when the bank gave credit to the wrong person and has to eat the loss. Unlike the past, taking and storing pictures is now a trivial task. This is not likely to happen as the credit companies little liability under the current system.