Advances in computer image recognition and measurement are likely to make the identity of objects detectable over distance using camera or laser systems31 even when they have not be specifically prepared. Similarly biometric identification and data fusion – the combination of evidence from several ‘senses’ – will make automatic remote identification of people easier (especially since they might carry a recognizable constellation of RFID tags and a smartphone). Thanks to rich databases and new probabilistic algorithms identity resolution (constructing a persistent identity from various records, which may be incomplete or conflict) is increasingly feasible32. Such systems are currently used in security, but are likely to spread into commercial and private use. Sources of error (and deception) will persist, but overall it is likely that in many domains 2025 the identity of actors and objects – as well as implied properties such as ownership – can be automatically monitored with a high precision. Anonymity would require deliberate social/legal decisions, cumbersome workarounds or avoiding many areas of life. This augmented world poses challenging new possibilities and demands in the force field between transparency, privacy, and secrecy. It allows unprecedented forms of transparency through automated documentation – in everyday life, in government, in business. Privacy is harder to maintain due to the ease of documentation, but might hence be regarded as a far more valuable commodity than today. By a similar token secrecy becomes harder to maintain – even the best encryption cannot protect from nearby sensors documenting passphrases and biometrics, and once something has been leaked into the public it is impossible to erase. To strike the proper balance between these factors in different domains will be a major social, legal and political undertaking for the next decade. 31 An interesting demonstration is how packaging can be ‘fingerprinted’ by the speckle pattern produced when a laser scans the individual irregularities of the surface, a pattern that persists after crumpling, scorching, wetting and being scribbled upon. James D. R. Buchanan, Russell P. Cowburn, Ana-Vanessa Jausovec, Dorothée Petit, Peter Seem, Gang Xiong, Del Atkinson, Kate Fenton, Dan A. Allwood & Matthew T. Bryan, Forgery: ‘Fingerprinting’ documents and packaging, Nature 436, 475 (28 July 2005) Russell Cowburn, Laser surface authentication - reading Nature's own security code, Contemporary Physics, Volume 49, Issue 5 September 2008 , pages 331 - 342 32 Jeff Jonas, Threat and Fraud Intelligence, Las Vegas Style, IEEE Security & Privacy, November/December 2006 28-3