I work with homeless people, people in precarious situations, people without ID, immigrants without papers, etc.
I've discussed this very concept multiple times, from multiple angles, with a few organisations.
This issue becomes a real issue of when the person becomes gravely ill, or dies. Most of the time, it's impossible to trace the person's history - contacting next of kin, working out their path until their demise.
This is a real problem to solve.
However, the practical aspects are that this device needs to be non-identifying, and needs also to be non-exploitable by third parties (in particular: police).
Many people without papers are already in a situation that's difficult enough as it is, but this would be made even more difficult by giving police / other authorities a tool to trace, track, and punish.
Likewise, many people in these situations do not WANT to be found, or do not WANT to carry papers.
The conclusion that I had come to would be that these devices are completely encrypted, and provide no form of external data (ID, etc); and a 'read only' industry facing interface would be exposed.
Services, such as hospitals, or indeed police, etc - could lodge requests to a system with this data. The system would register this information, but give nothing back.
The organisation trusted with this information (could be a recognised charity that works with homeless etc) - would be able to, if requested, or required, or at the person's death, be able to access this information.
The end result being, a person holding one of these cards would be able to have a medical history, and be able to build up a map of their lives.
Such things already exist: social security card, etc.
It's a tough problem to crack, once you start to consider the human element.
These are very real and very serious concerns for some homeless individuals. For others, not so much. I think it would be great if the system you describe were available. But I also see nothing wrong with trying to find something simple and easy that works in the here and now for some portion of the homeless population.
I've discussed this very concept multiple times, from multiple angles, with a few organisations.
This issue becomes a real issue of when the person becomes gravely ill, or dies. Most of the time, it's impossible to trace the person's history - contacting next of kin, working out their path until their demise.
This is a real problem to solve.
However, the practical aspects are that this device needs to be non-identifying, and needs also to be non-exploitable by third parties (in particular: police).
Many people without papers are already in a situation that's difficult enough as it is, but this would be made even more difficult by giving police / other authorities a tool to trace, track, and punish.
Likewise, many people in these situations do not WANT to be found, or do not WANT to carry papers.
The conclusion that I had come to would be that these devices are completely encrypted, and provide no form of external data (ID, etc); and a 'read only' industry facing interface would be exposed.
Services, such as hospitals, or indeed police, etc - could lodge requests to a system with this data. The system would register this information, but give nothing back.
The organisation trusted with this information (could be a recognised charity that works with homeless etc) - would be able to, if requested, or required, or at the person's death, be able to access this information.
The end result being, a person holding one of these cards would be able to have a medical history, and be able to build up a map of their lives.
Such things already exist: social security card, etc.
It's a tough problem to crack, once you start to consider the human element.