[Infowarrior] - US Move to National ID Cards Delayed

[Richard Forno]

Threat Level Privacy, Crime and Security Online
Move to National ID Cards Delayed
	• By David Kravets
	• December 14, 2009  |

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/real_id/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired27b+%28Blog+-+27B+Stroke+6+%28Threat+Level%29%29

The United States’ quest for a national identification database  
associated with driver’s licenses won’t be finished by year’s end.
The deadline was Dec. 31 for the states to create what would be the  
largest identification database of its kind under the auspices of the  
Real ID program. The law also mandates uniform anti-counterfeiting  
standards for state driver’s licenses.

None of the states are in full compliance with the law, first adopted  
in 2005, requiring state motor vehicle bureaus to obtain and  
internally scan and store personal information like Social Security  
cards and birth certificates for a national database, according to the  
American Civil Liberties Union. About half the states oppose the  
mandate, or have said they would never comply.

Beginning Jan.1, the law was supposed to have blocked anybody from  
boarding a plane using their driver’s license as ID if their resident  
state did not comport with the Real ID program. But the Department of  
Homeland Security is set to extend, for at least a year, the deadline  
of the Real ID program that has raised the ire of privacy advocates.

Homeland Security officials point to the 9/11 hijackers’ ability to  
get driver’s licenses in Virginia using false information as  
justification for the proposed $24 billion program.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier  
Foundation suggest the plan is misguided, and might pave the way for  
requiring such IDs to vote or purchase prescription drugs.

“Our biggest concern is that it is a national ID card. It changes the  
relationship between the citizen and the state,” Chris Calabrese, the  
ACLU’s legislative counsel, said in a telephone interview. “We see it  
as a potential mission creep, and an individual’s rights can be  
curtailed because of this.”

Richard Esguerra, the EFF’s residence activist, said in a telephone  
interview Monday and in a recent blog post that the giant database, if  
it ever comes to fruition, “threatens citizens’ personal privacy  
without actually justifying its impact or improving security.”