About Identity Theft Protection by Safety-Zones

On this page you will learn how the losses and damages caused by identity theft can be stopped.

The purpose of Safety-Zones is to guard against the misuse of information by providing a significant advancement in the control methods of electronic security by empowering the consumer or account holder to participate in a truly meaningful way. When implemented Safety-Zones will stop most of the current and growing financial losses, estimates show over 90%, saving corporations and consumers many billions of dollars each year. It should also prevent, diminish and even end this personal trauma for millions of victims of this crime. As Safety-Zones helps consumers to participate in a safer world of debit and credit card electronic commerce a relationship of trust between consumers and businesses is developed. This new partnership built on trust will enable fuller participation in our new and marvelous electronic world.

Safety-Zones provides a significant advancement in account use and control by enabling the client, account holder or authorized account user to set parameters under which their private information (identity, financial, medical, personal, etc.) is processed. So even if personal identity information is lost or stolen it cannot be used because every transaction must be authenticated by an additional set of identity criteria provided by the account holder. It does this by allowing the client or authorized account user to select which account is to be used, and when, how and where the account can be communicated with.

Safety-Zones is a very powerful solution and in the next section we will show you how it works, including sample screens that a user might access on a PDA or Smartphone while out shopping, or while home sitting in front of a personal computer shopping via the Internet.

Identity Verification (In isolation - this step has no traceable connection to any other step): In order for someone to hold a Safety-Zones account the person must first undergo identity verification, then submit a physical identity reference to be used to stop future impostors. The identity verification process is yet to be decided but will probably follow the US Passport process and other identity references. The physical identity reference will be, at the least, finger prints placed into a national database in order to compare the prints of every applicant against prints on file. The information will be stored in high-security encrypted-process computers with terminals located, most probably, in DMV departments in each State and in Local Police Stations. Activation of terminals will require 2 events - one by the DMV and one by the police. Deactivation of terminals will be automated.

Turn Accounts Off (In isolation - this step has no traceable connection to any other step): The second major event in the overall process is that all accounts to be protected by Safety-Zones are changed from there normal state of "On" (enabled) to "Off" (disabled) in such a way that account holders can thereafter 'control' the use of their own accounts whenever they want, most anywhere they want.

Account Holders Use Accounts (In isolation - this step has no traceable connection to any other step): From this point in time, information that is to be transferred or a purchase that is to be processed waits for conditions ABCDEF to be verified before the transaction is authorized.

The fourth step in the process (In isolation - this step has no traceable connection to any other step) is that who ever is to use an account may do so in the usual way. For example, you may now use your credit card in the usual way, after you give it permission to be used.)

Quality Assurance: The Safety-Zones process will have data security experts to create programs, to detect tampering, and to monitor product quality. Processes that use 128 bit encryption have not been broken, but if 2048 bit encryption is deemed appropriate it will be used. Everyone who enters data into Safety-Zones will be required to have a special security clearance.

----ll ll---- this represents a circuit or gate to be closed to complete a transaction

A = How? A1 ----ll ll---- A1 (B & M = Physical Store or Business) Or A2 ----ll ll---- A2 (Using the Internet)

B ----ll ll---- B = Who are you? = ID = Prove to me who you are by entering your Safety-Zones identification

Examples of the parameters to be controlled by each account holder for each transaction include, verification of how each valid account is to be used; verification of who you are; verification of which card or account opened in your name has your permission to be used; verification of where each valid account is to be used; if there is a financial limit for the transaction, the transaction requires verification of how much it is and how many transactions are permitted; and verification of when each valid account can be used.

Speaking of a typical credit card transaction, the current process without Safety-Zones is essentially 'wired together', with no way to stop a transaction once someone (anyone) provides the account number, expiration date (both shown on the card) and perhaps some other identification that is usually available.

Safety-Zones adds validation of account use that you control because it inserts requirements that you enter before any transaction is permitted. This makes identity theft useless because even if your identity is stolen it cannot be used because the thief cannot access the required parameters needed to validate a transaction. Said another way, Safety-Zones provides for controlled credit card and or information transactions by establishing 'gates' (your selections of specific information) that must be successfully passed through for the transaction to occur. This process does not interfere with any of the normal transaction protocols or security functions that are currently in use.

In effect, all your accounts would be off, that is, locked out by all service providers, consequently no one can use your credit card or transmit your private information even if it were stolen¹. When you want to buy something you set the conditions for the 'gates' A, B, C, D, E & F to be verified, in no particular order, before any transaction can be made. You set these parameters, using a set of menus provided on your computer browser, a PDA, or other electronic device.

Note 1: For total protection all credit card and private information provider companies would need to agree to the 'lockout' procedure, although each company could work independently and establish its own system. But given the enormity of the problem and the huge financial losses that are currently being incurred, would any company say no to this process? Would the government or the public let them?

Safety-Zones is Circuit B and was created to control the transactions in Circuit A

E-commerce Zone
Encryption, only if necessary
.	A1 B&M?	B Who? (ID)	C Which Account?	D Where? (Safety Zone)	E How Much? How Many?	F When? (When I say so!)	.
	A2 Internet?
Encryption, only if necessary
E-commerce Zone

E-commerce Zone

Encryption, if used

< When all information in Circuit B is verified to be correct and is closed
your credit card or information transaction is permitted in this circuit - Circuit A >

Encryption, if used

E-commerce Zone

During actual use you would submit your debit or credit card for a transaction as usual, and at the same time give electronic approval for it to be used within a very limited safety zone. (Isn't this great! You now control your account!) So even if your credit or debit card were stolen it could not be used. Conversely, if the PDA were lost or stolen, not only would password protection prevent access to Safety-Zones to make an unauthorized transaction, the user wouldn't have the credit card(s) to make the transaction. And if by some unusual circumstance the password had been entered s/he still couldn't make a transaction, and wouldn't even know which accounts the PDA controlled!²

Note 2: The function 'Which' (C) does not require the actual credit card number be shown; it could show a substitute code like Visa® 1 or MasterCard® 2.

Here is a tougher example: even if you lost all your credit cards (representing information needed to match up with C²) and you lost your identification, and at the same time you lost your PDA (representing control of all other functions), you are still protected! This is because Safety-Zones is password protected. It would then be a simple matter for you to call your service provider and take whatever corrective action you would like to take. We suppose this might mean that you would close the existing credit card accounts and open new ones, but in a 'world' that only uses Safety-Zones this wouldn't even be necessary. This is because you always control B, the special confidential code you use as your Safety-Zones identification.

a) If thieves steal personal information on credit or debit card account holders and or the cards themselves they would still not have the ability to use this information because the permission gate functions used to control the accounts and use of the cards are controlled by each customer, individually.

b) And the opposite is true: if thieves have control of the gate functions of an account, they would still not know which credit card(s) the account controlled, making the process somewhat tamper proof.

c) In the proof of identity system used by Safety-Zones there is no account information - the proof of identity system is used just to prove and record the identity of the intended account holder and to prevent future pretenders.

Superficially, setting and controlling all these new parameters might seem like it would be time-consuming and difficult. But it would not be so because you would have pull-down menus and functions that can easily be preselected and just left as your future personal selections. So you would not be making all this choices every time. We suppose that you could probably bypass some, but what's the point of having identity theft protection if you do this?

Eight (8) choices are shown. But how many times each year would you be choosing multiple payments instead of just one (1) payment to purchase something? For you it would probably remain at one (1). Now you have only 6 to choose from.

How many times each year would you be changing your Country Code and Area Code (or Zip Code if you choose this small a safety zone) when paying for something or shopping? Except for the business traveler we are somewhat stationary creatures of habit. So the answer is probably never until we go on vacation or visit somewhere. 'Traveling' via the Internet is another matter; here you could be making different 'destination' selections, like Amazon.com. But this is the purpose of Safety-Zones; to protect you no matter where you go. And when you 'travel' you probably need the most theft protection! Now you have 5 choices.

How many times each year would you be changing your credit card or switching between Brick and Mortar and Internet? We guess not too many times. In fact, we guess that you would probably have one set of choices for Brick and Mortar and another for Internet. If you require more selections you could certainly preset them. Now there are only 2 choices left - your identity and when.

So with pull-down menus and functions that can be preselected, Safety-Zones will be very quick and easy to use, especially after it has been used a few times. And think of the protection you get!

The Safety-Zones process uses existing networks and all the current encryption protocols, and easily converts for use in other languages.

The need will arise to use accounts in locations that have not yet been selected and therefore cannot be predicted. So users of Safety-Zones would have another gate function for this purpose named "Other"; it would remain off (open) until selected, turned on for use, and then off again when the transaction is completed.

This process can even be used to protect those who don't use credit cards because any bogus accounts opened in their names would be locked out ahead of time if the persons involved had subscribed to the service.

On a simple handheld device the Safety-Zones screen might look something like Exhibit A.

To control the safety zone the handheld (PDA) or computer monitor allows you to choose between either Off, B&M or Internet. Once a selection is made, the screen presentation shows the choices you have preselected and stored in the account digital wallet, or some other location. For Brick and Mortar transactions the Area Code would define your wide-area safety zone and a Zip Code would define your small-area safety zone of use. Selecting the larger Area Code would automatically turn on the smaller Zip Code zone, but choosing the smaller Zip Code would not turn on the larger Area Code. In Exhibit A you get to choose which source of funds to use in the upper portion of the display, and in which place to spend the funds in the lower portion of the display. Until that happens no transaction is permitted.

A credit or debit card transaction would now be protected because it requires the validation of several personal selections before a transaction can occur.

Safety-Zones in Action

This is one example of how Safety-Zones would work. Brick and Mortar (B&M) are the words that have been adopted to describe a physical store or enterprise, as opposed to a business that only exists electronically, known here as a location on the Internet.

In this Brick & Mortar display you have selected to use your credit card in the USA, within Area Code 415, (San Francisco, California) for one transaction not to exceed $90.00 while shopping at the local supermarket. But when that particular supermarket in San Francisco was selected 'the process' automatically narrowed the safety zone to the store's Zip Code - 94110. You have also made some preselections to use later. The numbers 1 to 7 are to explain that all accounts have hidden digital addresses to identify one account or provider from the other, and these codes or their namesakes could be used to narrow the safe zone even further. This is a very selective example, but it demonstrates the degree to which Safety-Zones can define a safe zone for a transaction.

An account transaction would now have real meaning because it validates several personal selections. During the intended transaction one scan determines whether it is authorized or not. If it's authorized, then the transaction is processed in the normal way.

Geographic boundary is a very important feature because many credit card numbers are being stolen in one country and then used in another. If the cardholder has set specific use boundaries, a safe zone of use, all other transaction areas are blocked automatically. Example: If you select an Area Code in the USA, say, San Francisco, California, then all other transaction requests for this account from anywhere else in the world will be blocked.

The same is true for Internet use. If, during any period of intended transactions, you have made selections from menus to shop at specific Internet websites with home addresses in the United States, shown as USA in the upper right, the opportunities for improper use are greatly reduced. The selection of an Internet 'store' or website narrows the safety zone even further. This is demonstrated in Exhibit B.

Here, you have chosen to use your credit card for shopping at Amazon.com from home in Zip Code 02139 (Cambridge, Massachusetts), for a one-time transaction not to exceed $45.00. When Amazon.com was selected for this Internet transaction, the safe zone was automatically narrowed to Amazon's digital address represented by the number 10, which has triggered its Zip Code to acknowledge the selection.

These examples are for descriptive purposes only. The final interface provider will present the system with better usability and ease of viewing.

Anyone wishing to use all the features of Safety-Zones would probably not make any selections until they are actually going to be used. And once selected Safety-Zones can also be programmed to default all selections to 'none selected' after a transaction or period of time. Safety-Zones would be password protected, and could also be encrypted or made code selectable to limit code copying. However, even if a user's codes were intercepted and stolen, the thief would not know which accounts they applied to because that information is in a separate location that has no usable identity information to connect it to the user codes; it's just information used for approving or denying an anonymous transaction somewhere.

Check fraud could be eliminated by using the selectable features described above, and by having the selection 'Check' under 'Which Account' (C) and by requiring an ID or some other form of unique identification that satisfies a Safety-Zones permission gate when presenting a check. This could function as a separate permission gate, with appropriate overrides, that closes only when an Identification Card and/or the correct security codes are presented.

Safety-Zones also provides enormous identity theft protection for the consumer that doesn't own or use a credit card. This is because once fully activated Safety-Zones blocks all normal methods of establishing false accounts in the user's name and because all transactions in Safety-Zones are off until the account holder turns them on.

B&M	Internet	Qty	.	$00.00	Country Code
- Safety-Zones^® -		On	Off	Zip Code	Area Code
.		.	.	.	.
		.
.		.	x	.	.
.		.	x	.	.

Exhibit C is just to make the point that if you are among those that don't own or use credit cards you would still be protected if you are entered into the proof of identity protection system that uses the Safety-Zones process. This is because your account would always be off until you turn it on. And when you turn it on you would still need to have the valid and verifiable means (credit card, debit card, check card, etc.) and select a purpose for it to be used.

It's conceivable that banks and credit card issuing corporations will recognize so much value in Safety-Zones that they make it an account requirement.

There are other ways that Safety-Zones can be implemented, logically in stages. However, if the goal is to provide the best form of identity theft protection available Safety-Zones should be made available as quickly as is possible.

Fully-deployed the only transaction that is permitted is the one in the safety zone that you create! Whether transactions are made in the Brick & Mortar world or over the Internet, Safety-Zones provides the account holder with a number of ways to provide identity theft protection. If s/he has access s/he has control; if s/he left access control at home s/he is still in control and the accounts are safe. This gives the account holder a measure of control over his or her financial domain that is unprecedented in today's rapidly growing electronically connected world. Safety-Zones will save a growing number of people from further unnecessary grief and victimization. It will also save the corporate world many billions of dollars in losses to fraud every year.

In addition, the Safety-Zones process uses existing networks and all the current encryption protocols, and easily converts for use in other languages.

Q: Doesn't my pin number do the same thing? Provide protection? If I could use it everywhere?

A: If you could be sure that no one else had your account number and did not get your pin number by some devious means, and that every time your card was presented to the clerk s/he had a way to confirm without doubt that the user was you, and every electronic process could do the same for you, anywhere in the world, maybe. But how does any of this stop identity theft and the ability of thieves to open and use accounts in your name?

Q: Couldn't I just have a Safety-Zones account, setup a zone, close all the 'gates', then just use my card without doing anything else?

A: If you want to take the risk that is always your choice. We recommend that you use every feature available. But if you intend to take chances, in addition to your plan you should use the on-off switch, which should be available to you in various ways once the process is put in place.

It's too early to say which protective features will be made available and what conditions of use credit card companies will require. Since the process will most probably be created to save the parameters of each transaction a credit card company may put liability limits on accounts and transactions that do not use a minimum number of protective features.

A: As mentioned earlier, for all new spending locations there can be an "Other" or "wildcard" account that is accessed solely for this purpose. It would remain off (unused) until needed, and the account user will still have all the other protections because only one safety feature is being altered for this one transaction.

Q: How am I supposed to use the Brick & Mortar option if my computer is turned off?

A: Computer users can transfer their Safety-Zones application to a host server accessible by a PDA or smartphone when out shopping.

A: Safety-Zones cannot be all things to all people. Certainly, retailers could have selection/setup display terminals for customers to use, and bank and credit card service organizations could make their secure ATM's serve as terminals for setting parameters to limit and control account uses. Also, in addition to browser providers supplying computer software, both database and server providers could make the service available entirely through PDA's and other connecting devices. PDA makers could also provide the service entirely through their own servers without the client ever using what we consider to be a computer. But Safety-Zones is essentially an e-commerce service intended for people who are plugged into the e-commerce world. Safety-Zones is certainly a good reason for the non-computer user to consider buying a device like WebTV, which should eventually be enabled to make server space available for Safety-Zones. And, we are sure that many new devices would be invented to communicate with the Safety-Zones process.

Q: Can Safety-Zones be used in 'smaller' processes, smaller than in 'all' credit cards or 'everywhere'?

A: Yes. We chose credit cards as a group because they seem to represent the most obvious source of ID theft and the greatest amount of loss. But Safety-Zones could be used in any process where a proof-positive result is desired.

The steps to implementation: (So as not to violate any legal right of a registered name we'll call it Credit Card Company.)

1) Credit Card Company announces that it will begin using Safety-Zones effective in 6-months - date given - as Safety-Card. The company further states that it requires all users to prove their identity in some way by that date or lose receiving the new Safety-Card, and that all previously issued cards will be canceled.

2) How would users prove their identities? Each Safety-Card user would be required to take the information required to get a passport (birth certificate, social security card, photo, finger print card?, etc.) to a registered Safety-Card agent. A bank, for example.

3) The bank would review the information and when accepted, a) enter required information into the Safety-Zones system designated for Safety-Card via a secure computer link. b) The bank would give the person a registered Safety-Card ID. At this point all credit cards previously issued to this person by Credit Card Company would be turned off - they cannot be used again, ever. The new credit card, known as Safety-Card, would be mailed, and it could never be used without the registered user's permission, because its 'normal electronic state' is "Off", after activation.

4) What then? To use a Safety-Card the registered user would thenceforth communicate electronically with a server that permits Safety-Card use.

Please give me an example. The Safety-Card user wants to permit use of the specific card on a specific date, between specific hours, in a specific area code, with no single transaction to exceed a specific amount. These choices are made from the server menu after signing in using the registered ID for Safety-Card. In a more mature form the user may also change the ID to one that is preferred.

As the Safety-Zones process becomes more universal, computer browsers, PDAs and other electronic devices would no doubt be configured to permit greater ease of use. The Safety-Card instant on-off feature coupled with the selectable zone of use being the most protective and useful.

To limit risk from fraud and ID theft the Safety-Card company would probably also begin to require a minimum number of features to be selected to initiate a transaction, and not permit card available-for-use-time to be more than about 12 hours at any given time, until the instant on-off feature is readily available.

This concept easily translates to, for example, the State of Connecticut using the Safety-Zones process for just voting, or for just issuing driver licenses. The Safety-Zones process also helps a company to withhold private or confidential information from any individual or any other company until receiving specific proof of who they are.

Once Safety-Zones is put in place, more universally, it is estimated that it will eliminate over 90% of the fraudulent use of credit cards. However, if we permit anyone to create or use an account with Safety-Zones, without proof of identity, then we are defeating the purpose of any identity theft protection process.

To ensure this does not happen, we need an independent identity verification process to prevent thieves from opening or continuing to use fraudulent accounts in the names of others. One method that might be used is to require that everyone signing up for identity theft protection be authenticated by a special computerized verification process managed by either authorized banks requiring proof of identity or by local police departments or motor vehicle licensing departments [see below] that perform the same task.

Once the person signing up for a Safety-Zones account is authenticated and his or her identifying information is placed in the system he or she would be allowed to create an ID known only to Safety-Zones that he or she may manage.

Physical identification will necessarily become an important requirement. For example, police departments could purchase computers with special features for verifying information and collecting fingerprints to be used only in the identity theft protection process³. Each person wanting to open an identity theft protection account, like Safety-Zones, would bring the information to the police department, have their fingerprints taken and pay an 'authentication' and setup fee for the service. This pays the police department for the computer and the online hook up, and the funds collected above their costs would provide a source of revenue to the municipality involved. The information collected would go into an identity theft protection database. Nothing would be done with the information collected until there is a conflict of information from the ongoing matching of information, at which time a designated authority would determine the problem and resolve it. Clearly, the fingerprint information would be used to ensure that no person has two names or two accounts, and that two different people could not claim to have the same social security number.

Note 3: This method would be superior to the method proposed by 3M (see Plague on Links page) in that there would be no need for anyone to carry a card imprinted with a fingerprint; the fingerprint would only exist in the database as physical proof of the identity of the account holder.

The system can also have built-in safeguards. For example, upon certification of death, an account can be kept active but permanently closed to use through Safety-Zones for x years or until the account is closed legally. The deciding and most important factor is that Safety-Zones provides the safety zone because it is always in the "off state condition", and only turned on to permit a transaction, so even upon death the account holder's accounts or information are protected against misuse. To gain the full benefit of Safety-Zones, off-line manual credit card imprinting and acceptance without some form of on-line electronic verification would need to be eliminated.

Safety-Zones is patent pending as E-commerce Account Holder Security Participation.

The patent was applied for in 2001. We are still waiting for the US patent office to finish their review.

In the meantime, we have provided information to the Identity Theft Resource Center anticipating that it will be made available to others, and to help enable implementation once our offer to proceed without patent is accepted.

It is also worth noting that whether we are granted the entire patent, or a combination of our patent and another patent is employed, there is enough process information explained on this page to demonstrate that most, if not all, of the losses and damages caused by identity theft can be stopped.

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