[Cryptography] IDs and licenses, not Possible reason why password usage rules

[Mark Seiden]

(hi, jerry, russ.)
On Mar 6, 2020, 8:25 PM -0600, Jerry Leichter <leichter at lrw.com>, wrote:
>
> > Indeed, I have two valid driver's licenses for several months every time
> > the license is renewed. There's no "not valid before" date on the new
> > license, the renewed license is issued in advance of its expiration, and
> > since the renewal is by mail, I'm not required to surrender my old
> > driver's license to get a new one.
> Until relatively recently, way after every other state, New York used a plain cardboard computer-printed license with no photo on it. (Politics: The office that printed and mailed them was up in Albany and well-connected. They were not about to lose jobs to every DMV office in the state issuing licenses when they took a photo. They eventually reached a compromise that I believe holds to this day: The photos are indeed taken at each DMV office, but they are then uploaded to the central office in Albany which prints and mails the licenses.) My original driver's license was from New York. Later, I moved to Massachusetts and got a license there. They looked at my NY license, but gave it back to me. So I had two of them. For years after, New York let me renew my license - all I had to do was pay the fee. No photo so no visit to a DMV office required. At some point (well before they actually started requiring photos) I decided there really wasn't any point; but for many years I
> had licenses from multiple states, and no one seemed to care.

mailing the license also has the effect of proofing your address, controlling “card stock”, and needing a small number of expensive card printers.

but on the subject of having licenses in more than one state,  there are several states that require you to have a license in their state if you live OR work in that state.
(some of them define “resident” with such judgments).  some exclude “seasonal farm work” from this requirement.

but when i lived in new york and worked summers at music festivals (e.g. colorado and vermont) i tried to conform with (and test out) the requirements.   i was
required to have a license in two states, but they had the requirement that you only be licensed in one state.  at one point, my new york license was about to expire,
so i turned it in for a colorado license, and after the summer, renewed my new york license, and they asked me questions about colorado.

by the way, the residency definitions, which sometimes apply to paying taxes or owning property in a state are also often in conflict.

and also, it appears that some states require you to have at least a state id (if not a driver’s license) to register a vehicle in that state.  unless you are a corporation (!).

>
>
> There's a *lot* of security theatre involved in this stuff.

ha, you betcha.

i had to get my passport recently renewed.  passport office would not accept my global entry card as one primary id.  in order to get that they practically give you a
proctological exam.    and they would not accept my new york birth certificate.  before around 1960, new york city issued original birth certificates that were photostats (!)
of the original one on file in their big baby book.   but it didn’t have “a raised seal” on it.  so, about 40 years later, i got a “certification of birth” (with the raised seal),
an assertion that there is an original on file at the nyc health dept.  the passport office wouldn’t accept *that* because it didn’t show my parent’s names, like a “REAL”
birth certificate.  they wanted to see a social security card — they wouldn’t take a medicare card.  the san francisco passport office sneered at my new york driver’s license
which in my opinion is more forge-resistant than california ID or DL.

and all this despite their continuous knowledge of my details none of which have changed since my first passport almost 50 years ago.

(also they wouldn’t let me in the san francisco federal building using my UC Berkeley Faculty id, definitely state issued id.)

i sympathize with the estonians, who have promulgated the rule that their government should only collect a piece of information from an individual ONCE.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once-only_principle


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