Explain to me how the National ID card is so depressingly worse than the established use of SSIDs/drivers licenses/state IDs throughout current American society.
(a) alter peoples' attitudes about who has access to their personal information and (b) make it harder to fight (say) mandatory swipes to use the T later, because it's a smaller change, and people tend to be more tolerant of small changes.
The only real theory I've heard is how, within the language of the bill, federal agents can detain people indefinitely if they cannot prove their identity, and that with a massive federal system controlling the ability to prove identification - they could simply wipe political dissidents identities clean and put them into a political bag. But that just sounds too much like an overblown conspiracy theory.
There is also a concern that security companies that are currently mismanaging our information are going to find it much easier to sell thousands of personal information accounts to scam artists by accident if the system becomes more centralized.
In my mind - we already have several examples of how massive federal databases fail spectacularly, and leave many citizens struggling to simply go on living a normal life. Take the 'no-fly list' for instance - I know it's not the same thing, but if federal agents are dumb enough to arrest a five-year-old girl simply because she has a similar name to a terrorist half a world away, there is cause for some doubt. I also seem to remember something about a crime database that has the information feds could have used to stop 9/11, but it's so slow and dilapidated, you couldn't even run a search on it using more then one word at a time.
So, my answer is - I have no faith in the currently mismanaged and financially strapped federal government to do an acceptable job of creating this database without screwing a ton of regular citizens and putting them through a hell of paperwork and legal wrangling. They just haven't been doing that great of a job recently...
My main concern is enforcement. Will it become the defacto law to carry them? Already my nigh-refusal to show my driver's license makes it difficult for me to enter federal (public!) buildings, buy alcohol, enter assorted private buildings (harvard), fly... I mix it up with passport and student id.
Also, I have Jewish paranoia. It has never, in the history of the world, turned out well when people were asked to carry "papers".
Also, Homeland Security -- which is not subject to normal due process, remember -- will have immediate access to state info. And remember, that red tape is not mere bureaucracy. It's the legal system which protects us.
Incidentally it's also hugely anti-states' rights but that doesn't bother me except as hypocrisy.
Someone who works with international students said this will make his job harder. I can give some general statements he made about it being problematic, but I don't remember a level of detail beyond it being extra hassle for students coming from abroad.
- ID cards does not make us more secure, but less secure. Think of it this way. $AUTHORITY requests ID. You present yours, you are assumed to be a good guy. Obviously an $EVILDOER would not have proper documentation... that's the impression that people get. ID's like this only give false sense of security, so the thought that our security will be increased is bogus.
- You will not use a PO Box for a DL. It's not allowed. This is a Bad Thing for judges, undercover cops, undercover agents, politicians, political aides, lobbyists and citizens seeking redress of their government. There is benefit to anonymity for a multitude of reasons. Of course, this doesn't affect Joe Citizen, like you and I, but indirectly it affects our security.
- Database availability. So, you're okay with that, because nobody in authority would issue your private info to anyone else, but consider this from epic.org:
"In recent months three state DMVs have been penetrated by identity thieves. In March, burglars rammed a vehicle through a back wall at a DMV near Las Vegas and drove off with files, including Social Security numbers, on about 9,000 people. Last week Florida police arrested 52 people, including 3 DMV examiners, in a scheme that sold more than 2,000 fake driver’s licenses. Two weeks ago Maryland police arrested three people, including a DMW worker, in a plot to sell about 150 fake licenses"
If we can't trust them to keep the existing documents secure, can we trust them not to sell your info? They already have lost people's info before.
There is no provision for the security of these databases that's addressed in this bill.
- If it IS RFID, you will be able to be scanned at more than the supposed 8mm distance claimed. This has already been shown in regard to the passport changes. [1] You'll need to protect your license in one of those anti-stat bags to keep it from being read. Or nuke it on high for 7 seconds :) If you do nuke it, according to REAL ID, you'll be subject to jail time.
- Who's paying for it? There is no mention of funding in the bill. You will pay for it. Or your state will and raise your taxes.
- It was passed with absolutely no public debate. None. Not a single second. THAT should piss you off right there.
- All the recommendations of the 9/11 commission regarding identity documents was addressed in previous legislation, The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. [2]
- Hate to use these words, but 'slippery slope'. It _will_ be a very easy next step to require everyone carry ID all the time. Whether it happens or not is speculation, but this makes it a great stepping stone to it.
I'm working on some more info relating to this and am considering going to Washington in June for a discussion of this. I hope that I can use you as a sounding board for 'why this sucks' so that I make sure I'm up on my facts. :)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
RFID?
Z
P.S.: Being, of course, Them. You know.
Re: RFID?
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
no subject
(a) alter peoples' attitudes about who has access to their personal information and
(b) make it harder to fight (say) mandatory swipes to use the T later, because it's a smaller change, and people tend to be more tolerant of small changes.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
There is also a concern that security companies that are currently mismanaging our information are going to find it much easier to sell thousands of personal information accounts to scam artists by accident if the system becomes more centralized.
In my mind - we already have several examples of how massive federal databases fail spectacularly, and leave many citizens struggling to simply go on living a normal life. Take the 'no-fly list' for instance - I know it's not the same thing, but if federal agents are dumb enough to arrest a five-year-old girl simply because she has a similar name to a terrorist half a world away, there is cause for some doubt. I also seem to remember something about a crime database that has the information feds could have used to stop 9/11, but it's so slow and dilapidated, you couldn't even run a search on it using more then one word at a time.
So, my answer is - I have no faith in the currently mismanaged and financially strapped federal government to do an acceptable job of creating this database without screwing a ton of regular citizens and putting them through a hell of paperwork and legal wrangling. They just haven't been doing that great of a job recently...
no subject
Also, I have Jewish paranoia. It has never, in the history of the world, turned out well when people were asked to carry "papers".
Also, Homeland Security -- which is not subject to normal due process, remember -- will have immediate access to state info. And remember, that red tape is not mere bureaucracy. It's the legal system which protects us.
Incidentally it's also hugely anti-states' rights but that doesn't bother me except as hypocrisy.
Some links:
http://www.epic.org/privacy/id_cards/
http://www.unrealid.com/
http://aila.org/contentViewer.aspx?bc=9,594,8140,9251
http://www.urban75.org/legal/id.html
no subject
no subject
- ID cards does not make us more secure, but less secure. Think of it this way. $AUTHORITY requests ID. You present yours, you are assumed to be a good guy. Obviously an $EVILDOER would not have proper documentation... that's the impression that people get. ID's like this only give false sense of security, so the thought that our security will be increased is bogus.
- You will not use a PO Box for a DL. It's not allowed. This is a Bad Thing for judges, undercover cops, undercover agents, politicians, political aides, lobbyists and citizens seeking redress of their government. There is benefit to anonymity for a multitude of reasons. Of course, this doesn't affect Joe Citizen, like you and I, but indirectly it affects our security.
- Database availability. So, you're okay with that, because nobody in authority would issue your private info to anyone else, but consider this from epic.org:
"In recent months three state DMVs have been penetrated by identity thieves. In March, burglars rammed a vehicle through a back wall at a DMV near Las Vegas and drove off with files, including Social Security numbers, on about 9,000 people. Last week Florida police arrested 52 people, including 3 DMV examiners, in a scheme that sold more than 2,000 fake driver’s licenses. Two weeks ago Maryland police arrested three people, including a DMW worker, in a plot to sell about 150 fake licenses"
If we can't trust them to keep the existing documents secure, can we trust them not to sell your info? They already have lost people's info before.
There is no provision for the security of these databases that's addressed in this bill.
- If it IS RFID, you will be able to be scanned at more than the supposed 8mm distance claimed. This has already been shown in regard to the passport changes. [1] You'll need to protect your license in one of those anti-stat bags to keep it from being read. Or nuke it on high for 7 seconds :) If you do nuke it, according to REAL ID, you'll be subject to jail time.
- Who's paying for it? There is no mention of funding in the bill. You will pay for it. Or your state will and raise your taxes.
- It was passed with absolutely no public debate. None. Not a single second. THAT should piss you off right there.
- All the recommendations of the 9/11 commission regarding identity documents was addressed in previous legislation, The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. [2]
- Hate to use these words, but 'slippery slope'. It _will_ be a very easy next step to require everyone carry ID all the time. Whether it happens or not is speculation, but this makes it a great stepping stone to it.
I'm working on some more info relating to this and am considering going to Washington in June for a discussion of this. I hope that I can use you as a sounding board for 'why this sucks' so that I make sure I'm up on my facts. :)
Hope this was helpful.
[1] http://www.guardmycreditfile.org/index.php/content/view/391/76/
[2] http://www.eff.org/Activism/realid/analysis.pdf
other
- http://epic.org/privacy/id_cards/
- http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.00418:
- http://www.eff.org/Activism/realid/analysis.pdf