Driver's Licenses As National ID?

Story dated 24 January 2005

"A piece of the new National Intelligence Reform Act signed into law last week requires national standards for state licenses." That's fine. I've seen some pretty weird looking out of state drivers' licenses. I would have no idea if they were real of not (of course, I couldn't identify a forged license anyway unless it were badly done). "The standards, to be hammered out over the next 18 months by state and federal officials along with technology specialists and "interested parties," are raising concerns among privacy experts who see the move as the first step down the road to a national ID or centralized information on individuals." I am opposed to a centralized database on each citizen. There is too much opportunity for abuse. However, this law is not calling for any electronic chips, or biometrics (fingerprint or retina pattern -- which are easier to fake than you might think), or any centralized database. I am worried about the progression from a standard license to such things, but that is not a worry in the current law. What we as citizens need to do is make it clear to our leaders that we will not tolerate abuse of these standards by the government. You want to see something scary? Check out what it would be like to order a pizza under a national computerized ID database scheme.

"What several analysts question is why this standardizing IDs makes us more secure? "How does identification really relate to security?" asks Daniel Solove, a law professor at George Washington University and author of "The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age." "People just assume it [improves security] as if it was a fundamental truth." Sage considerations, indeed.

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Subject Matter: Congress Law Police State Privacy Surveillance Society Tyranny

posted by The Sovereign Editor | 4:06 PM

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