[Infowarrior] - DHS' Own Privacy Panel Declines to Endorse License Rules

[Richard Forno]

Homeland Security's Own Privacy Panel Declines to Endorse License Rules

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/homeland_securi.html

The Department of Homeland Security's outside privacy advisors explicitly
refused to bless proposed federal rules to standardize states' driver's
licenses Monday, saying the Department's proposed rules for standardized
driver's licenses -- known as Real IDs -- do not adequately address concerns
about privacy, price, information security, redress, "mission creep", and
national security protections.

"Given that these issues have not received adequate consideration, the
Committee feels it is important that the following comments do not
constitute an endorsement of REAL ID or the regulations as workable or
appropriate," the committee wrote in the introduction to their comments
(.pdf) for the rulemaking record.  "The issues pose serious risks to an
individual¹s privacy and, without amelioration, could undermine the stated
goals of the REAL ID Act."

The 18-member Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee began looking at
the proposed rules at the request of Hugo Teufel IIl, DHS's chief privacy
officer.  According to Teufel's instructions, the group was asked to provide
very specific comment on how to implement the rules, which civil liberties
groups and libertarian-leaning states want repealed, not reformed.

While the committee's 12 final recommendations are mostly predictable (such
as restricting what the ID can be used for and making sure that the
machine-readable portion of any Real ID should not be easily readable by
unauthorized persons), the importance of Homeland Security's own advisory
board explicitly saying it won't endorse Real ID as workable or appropriate
shouldn't be underestimated.

Comments are due on the proposed rules by 5 p.m. EST Tuesday.