[clue-talk] national ID card

[Jed S. Baer]

On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 10:53:34 -0400
Angelo Bertolli wrote:

> I think a national ID is fine as long as it's not required.  I'm not 
> opposed to an opt-in national ID.  But I really don't see much 
> difference between having a national ID and your drivers license anyway,
> except maybe they're less organized at the state level.  And what about 
> people who don't drive?

In some states -- Colorado is one of them, I think -- the DMV will issue a
non-driver ID card.

The biggest problem with the SSN morphing in to a de-fact national ID (as
it already has), or any other unified identifier system, is that it makes
the problem of ID theft far worse. The RealID is supposed to be much
harder to falsify, but what that will mean is that merchants, etc., will
be even more trusting of the fake ones. It's already far to easy to fake
being someone over the phone just by spouting off a few easily obtainable
data items. Considering how lax Xcel, Qwest, et. al. are in this regard, I
don't see RealID (or a biometric SS card for that matter) making it any
better.

And it isn't just merchants. I've already read articles about people
getting incorrect diagnoses and treatment at hospitals because their
medical records were messed up from someone "borrowing" their identity.

The fact that my medical records are accessible using the same "key" as my
credit history is just incredibly stupid.

jed