Giuliani: ID cards won't curb freedoms

R. A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Wed Jun 26 17:57:44 EDT 2002


http://news.com.com/2102-1017-939499.html


Giuliani: ID cards won't curb freedoms
By Margaret Kane
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
June 26, 2002, 9:00 AM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-939499.html

WASHINGTON--U.S. citizens may need to carry national identification cards
someday, but that doesn't need to translate into a loss of fundamental
freedoms in the name of safety, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said
Wednesday.

"We need a better way to properly ID people that's more effective (than
current means). There's a trade-off we have to make between privacy and the
protection of everybody...in society," said Giuliani, following a keynote
speech at the E-Gov 2002 conference here. More than 10,000 people are
attending the four-day conference, which concludes Thursday.

A national ID system has become a hot-button issue within the tech industry
and nationally. Technology experts and privacy advocates have been debating
the merits of national ID cards and other identification systems and trying
to figure out how to make sure they wouldn't be abused.

Giuliani said ID cards do not necessarily equal a loss of freedom, adding
that other democratic countries require citizens to carry ID cards.

"We have to separate fundamental freedoms...from those things that we had
the luxury to do in the past," he said.

Giuliani's speech was met with standing ovations and flag waving from the
crowd at the show, which included employees of federal, state and local
governments. The conference here is being run jointly with one on "homeland
security," reflecting a new focus from the technology world and the
government of using IT for defense.

Giuliani discussed ways that technology aided him as mayor, including
helping him handle the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

Before those attacks, Giuliani's best-known achievement had been lowering
the city's crime rate, a feat he said was greatly helped by the use of
technology to conduct daily monitoring of crime.

The city had previously analyzed crime statistics on a yearly basis, but he
initiated a program that helped track crime at the precinct level on a
daily basis and plotted that data on geographic and time bases to more
efficiently deploy police officers.

Similar programs were used in the city's correctional facilities to help
reduce violence at Riker's Island by 80 percent, he said.

Technology also helped open up the city to citizens, he said, making their
lives easier. For instance, New York has put in place ways for citizens to
use the Internet to pay parking tickets and apply for permits for
everything from opening a restaurant to tackling new construction.

"One of the great complaints about government, certainly in New York City,
was that it was unusable...and unmanageable," he said. "E-government is a
way to change that."

Giuliani's Emergency Management System, created in 1996, used technological
simulations to train for emergencies including terrorist attacks, fires and
other crises, Giuliani said.

"I can't emphasize more how important that it is to prepare for the worst
thing you can imagine," he said. "Using technology to try and play games
for what might happen, even if they're not exactly right when the
emergencies occur," is an important way to prepare.

Giuliani cautioned attendees to prepare for the unexpected but to remember
that "life goes on."

"At home, we have to do everything we can to be better prepared," he said.
"At the same time, we have to get people to relax and go about their daily
lives."

Giuliani disagreed with the notion that the world is now a more dangerous
place.

"It was as if a curtain was in front of us; we saw the world the way we
wanted to see it. Now the curtain has been lifted, and we can see the world
the way it really is," he said. "Having said that, and recognized that,
even before doing anything about it we're safer."

Asked if he would be interested in becoming secretary of the proposed
Department of Homeland Security, Giuliani said that he hadn't decided on
his future but that the job that he really wanted was to become "general
manager of the (New York) Yankees."

-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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