Authenticating contact identities with digital fingerprints

Groove automatically generates a unique "digital fingerprint" to be associated with Groove identities. A digital fingerprint is presented to the user as a long, random-looking string of letters and numbers (with punctuation marks for readability). Digital fingerprints are used for authenticating the real-world identities of Groove contacts you see in your shared spaces and contact lists.  

Viewing your digital fingerprint

To see the digital fingerprint associated with any of your Groove identities:

  1. Open Account Preferences, and display the Identities panel.

  2. If you have more than one identity, select the identity you want.

  3. Click "Digital Fingerprint" in the vCard information box to display the Digital Fingerprint box.

 

Viewing others' digital fingerprints

You can see the digital fingerprint of other Groove contacts anywhere in Groove where you see a list of contact or member names. This includes:

To view a digital fingerprint in the contact and member lists:

  1. Right-click the contact name.

  2. Select View vCard...

  3. Click "Digital Fingerprint" in the vCard information box to display the Digital Fingerprint box.

Usage recommendations for authenticating identities with digital fingerprints

Digital fingerprints as implemented in Groove represent unspoofable proof of identity (using a branch of cryptography called "public key technology").  For two people to confidently authenticate the identity of the other person their computer is communicating with (as opposed to an imposter), they should check the digital fingerprint they see for each other against the codes reported by each other. For example, suppose Jane invites Bob to join a shared space. Jane reports her digital fingerprint code to Bob, and Bob checks this against the digital fingerprint code he sees when he opens Jane's contact information in the member panel. Then Jane and Bob repeat this operation, this time with Jane authenticating Bob's digital fingerprint. Jane and Bob need to do this checking only one time, not once for every shared space they are co-members of. This is because Groove digital identities span all shared spaces.

What's really important in this process are the methods Jane and Bob use for reporting this information.  Jane and Bob must use a method of communication that they trust.  Within the shared space, their best option is to use the Talk tool, provided that their speaker and sound systems let them reliably recognize each others' voices. Similarly in instant messages, users can attach a voice report for authentication purposes.

In addition to using Groove's audio capabilities, it's advisable to use other means of communication, such as the telephone, or a face-to-face meeting. As a rule of thumb, the more methods you use to authenticate identities, the more confident you can be that the authentication is correct.