A National ID

[R. A. Hettinga]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/31/opinion/31MON1.html?pagewanted=print&position=>

The New York Times

May 31, 2004

A National ID
The very idea of a national identity card has always rankled Americans
across the political spectrum. It conjures images of totalitarianism - Big
Brother or even the German SS soldier asking to see a citizen's papers. But
in most European countries, people carry national ID's as a matter of
course. And pressure is mounting in America for some kind of security card.

 Private companies in the United States are already marketing the idea of
providing a secure card for those willing to submit to extra background
checks, similar to a concept proposed by the airlines. Tenants of high-rise
buildings or workers at chemical plants, for example, also want security
without endless body searches and bag checks. It's time for Congress to
begin a serious discussion of how to create a workable national
identification system without infringing on the constitutional rights of
Americans.

Concerns for security have already forced Americans to flash identification
far more frequently than they would ever have imagined before the terrorist
attacks of 2001. Driver's licenses are well on their way to becoming "de
facto" national ID's. Their inappropriateness is one of the most compelling
reasons for a national identification card. The states have wildly
different standards for determining whether applicants for driver's
licenses really are who they say they are, making them only minimally
reliable for security purposes. And turning driver's licenses into
identification cards undermines their original purpose - to make certain
that drivers are qualified to handle a car or truck. The very rational
argument in favor of allowing undocumented immigrants to get driver's
licenses - that it would encourage them to learn to drive safely and to
obtain insurance - is undermined if the licenses are also used to
demonstrate that a person is not a security risk.

 Private corporations are now marketing identification systems based on
personal and unique "biometrics" like eye scans or fingerprints. The
airlines are also considering ways to create a kind of frequent-flier
security pass for those willing to submit to a more intense identification
check. These private solutions might allow corporations to work out the
kinks in these new security systems, a process that could take years if the
government tried to do it. But they are only appropriate for limited uses.
Otherwise, the country would become a two-tiered security world where the
haves zip through lines and have-nots wait endlessly and endure personal
searches.

The concept of a national ID card, on the other hand, presents a host of
possible problems, not all of them related to civil liberties. As the New
York City Council learned tragically last year when a councilman was killed
after he helped get his killer around the screening point, the point of
security is not to make sure that people are carrying the correct form of
identification. It is to make sure that they do not have a weapon. Almost
any identification card that can be created can be counterfeited, and a
fake supersecurity pass would present more dangers than a fake driver's
license.

If ever there was a good subject for a study commission, this is it.
Congress or President Bush should get the best minds, the experts on
security, civil liberties and technology, to start wrestling with the most
nettlesome issues in this debate.

How, for instance, would government agencies ensure that documents
submitted to obtain an ID card - like birth certificates or driver's
licenses - were not forged? How could access to the central database be
limited and protected against misuse, particularly by law enforcement? A
card might help Americans move through airports more easily or even cash
checks more rapidly. But it would probably have to be voluntary. That also
means the police must not be allowed to harass those who choose not to have
it.

If we're going to move to a national identification card, we can't afford
to do it badly. Now is the time to figure out how to create a card that
helps identify people but doesn't rob them of a huge swath of their civil
liberties in the process.


-- 
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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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