Future
Forecast National ID card system will be implemented in the United States within the next two years Over 30 countries worldwide have some form of national ID card. Legislation Introduction of legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives last July, HR-4633 also known as the Drivers License Modernization Act, A Senate bill, S-1664 attempting to put into place a national ID system was voted on in 1996 but failed by a count of 54-46. Corporate influence Both Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems and Larry Ellison of Oracle have offered their versions of the technology for free to the government with, of course, a suspected payoff coming from the contract to support the system. [3] What will it look like? Basic information including, a name, birth date, gender, country and state, ID number, date acquired, expiration date and picture. Supplementary informational and security elements on the card may include barcodes and holograms. Embedded microchip with biometric retina scans or fingerprints of the cardholder. During a scan, the card could be linked to a central database where biometric information on each card holder is kept and verification could be confirmed. Medical information could potentially be included to provide information for emergency room doctors. Questions to consider? Will an ID card actually protect citizens? How secure is biometric data? To what extent could this information be abused? Final Comments- While ID cards linked to databases will not negatively affect the great majority of citizens, it is the minority that it will affect in which we should be concerned. The war on terrorism has created a feeling in many that stricter controls are in order. For, example, after September 11, a poll showed that 80 percent of Canadians said that they would be willing to submit fingerprints for a national ID card.
[1]
Several arguments against a national I.D. system can be found on the
Internet including http://msn.com.com/2100-1107-984835.html
and http://www.eagleforum.org/alert/2002/national-id-7-17-02.shtml
and [2]
For a copy of the legislation, search for HR-4633 at http://thomas.loc.gov.
For the results of the Senate on S-1644 vote go to [3] Information about Larry Ellison and Scott McNealy's backing of this idea is available from several sources including http://www.cpsr.org/program/natlID/natlIDfaq.html [4] Author unknown. "Your ID Please, Citizen: What a national ID card might look like." Popular Science. 2003. Article available online at: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,335428,00.html [5] For further information about the movie go to the Internet Movie Database at http://us.imdb.com/Title?0088846
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