Make Me Mad

[prog]

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.

Seriously, I'm asking.

Comments

[keimel.livejournal.com]

Why is a national ID bad?

- 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