Your secret B identity

摘要

Security identity management: My friend Andre Durand, of Ping Identity pointed me toward "Barbie Girls"— a Web site and an identity device! [Warning: Diabetics and those with a low tolerance for cute should turn off their speakers before viewing the site. I'm not sure how Andre stumbled upon it.] The deal is that you buy your daughter this $60 thing (which Andre described as looking like "a cross between a Bratz doll and a Cue Cat"), which sits in a docking station connected by a USB cable to your PC.Then,your little darling can go online to the site and chat (in what's called "Secret B Chat") with like-minded pre-teen girls. Well, only those who have been both approved by your little darling and who've registered with the site. As Durand so aptly put it:"Sally brings her Barbie Girl over to her friend Tiffany's house, and sets it in Tiffany's docking station — which is plugged into a USB port on Tiffany's PC. Mattel's (Windows only) software apparently reads some sort of globally unique identifier embedded in Sally's Barbie Girl, and authenticates Sally as one of Tiffany's Best Friends. Now when Sally gets home, the two can talk in Secret B Chat."