What the study found was that in every region of the world, people would accept an identification strategy such as the use of a multipurpose ID or smart card that could serve as a driver's license and an ATM card and could be used to pay tolls or for border crossings, Cohn said. A person's health records could also be put on it, he said.

'So it's a secure ID that can store multiapplication data for multiple purposes,' Cohn said. 'And they put right on there digital certificates -- PKI certificates -- for encryption and authentications. So now that same card can be used for Internet commerce to prove you are who you claim to be. This card could be used for 14 different purposes. We've issued about 17 million to people in Malaysia who voluntarily choose what they want their card to be used for. Other countries are doing it as well, but these systems are not interoperable.'

Unisys also asked people about who they trusted to protect their privacy, who they trusted to be ID card issuers in different regions of the world and what technology, such as biometrics, would they be willing to use, he said.

'We asked at what level are you comfortable having your fingerprints taken, because there are a lot of cultures where it was thought there were a lot of objections to that,' Cohn said. 'But we found that those objections aren't as prevalent as we thought.'

The study also found that 46 percent of respondents trust banking institutions to issue and manage a multi-purpose identity credential, and 45 percent said they favor establishing a government agency to issue such cards. By contrast, only 40 percent said they trust the police to issue identity credentials, and 38 percent said they favor having a private company issue ID cards.