[Forwarded] RealID: How to become an unperson.

[Steven M. Bellovin]

In message <20050706010705.GA8585 at danisch.de>, hadmut at danisch.de writes:

>
>But nevertheless, I do not understand why americans are so afraid of
>an ID card. It has by far more advantages than disadvantages, and
>actually the US driving license is already a kind of ID card.

Let me refer you to a National Academies report (I was on the 
committee):  Stephen T. Kent and Lynette Millett, ed. IDs -- Not That
Easy: Questions About Nationwide Identity Systems. National Academies
Press, 2002.  http://books.nap.edu/html/id_questions/  Briefly, the 
report notes that there are a very large number of questions that need 
to be answered about any such system before it's even possible to 
discuss it intelligently.

> And
>whenever I enter the US, I have to give the fingerprints of my index
>fingers and they take a picture of me. That's worse than an ID card. 

Agreed.

		--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb



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