REAL ID reincarnated with a new name: "PASS ID"
Snip from a news item posted to the EFF's Deep Links blog by Richard Esguerra:
In February, opponents of REAL ID were given a bit of hope when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that she wanted to repeal the REAL ID Act, the federal government's failed plan to impose a national identification card through state driver's licenses. But what has taken place since is no return to sanity, as political machi nations have produced a cosmetic makeover called "PASS ID" that has revived the push for a national identification card.PASS ID: REAL ID Reanimated (EFF Deep Links)The PASS ID Act (S. 1261) seeks to make many of the same ineffectual, dangerous changes the REAL ID Act attempted to impose. Fundamentally, PASS ID operates on the same flawed premise of REAL ID -- that requiring various "identity documents" (and storing that information in databases for later access) will magically make state drivers' licenses more legitimate, which will in turn improve national security.
Some helpful background on REAL ID in the Wikipedia subject entry.
Previously:
- Montana Governor explains why Real ID sucks
- California asks for Real ID extension, but won't promise to comply ...
- Real ID foes manage to block mandatory carding -- for now. -
- Boing Boing: Real ID passes in US Senate
- FAQ: How Real ID Act will affect you
- ONE MORE DAY to stop REAL ID and keep Big Brother out of the US ...
- Kill the national ID card: 48h remain
the latest
latest episodes
this comment has nothing to do with PASS ID, but I just want to say that I think we, the BB readers, are owed a Unicorn Chaser after this many horrifying, awful, and generally heavy articles.
Like the Real ID act this bill requires that the ID card contain a "digital photograph" without ever defining that phrase. My interpretation of this phrase is either a photograph encoded in a computer readable form or a photograph of one of more of a person's fingers. Neither seems terribly useful. The ID needs an analog photograph so that a human being can read the photograph and compare it to the person's actual appearance.
Starting 1 January my home state of Florida will be complying with the Real ID act. After convincing a teacher at a local private highschool to have all the students read Little Brother, they have all decided to destroy the RFID chips in their drivers licenses.
FAIL ID
Well, it isn't secure and is a privacy nightmare and will accomplish the opposite of its stated goals, but at least it will create jobs in the Faraday cage industry.
@mellowknees, I find looking at lolcats does the same thing.
Still haven't figured out why the driver's license folks requiring a birth certificate to get a photo id. I look nothing like that now.
I'm like a more low tech approach. Something that doesn't require a computer to read and you want every forget to take it with you. Since tattoos are very popular these days, what about just tattooing a number on everybody?
Anything to keep out them ferners.
"wheahs yoah pass, boyuh?"
We already have a National ID Card. It's called a "Passport."
Except it's not mandatory to have one. It's just a good idea. PASS ID is a stupid name for it. "Let's see your pass." They should have called it the SAFE ID or something else with a warm and fuzzy name.
Papers please! Achtung!
"Let's see your Magic Rainbow Ticket".
I'm disappointed. Seven comments to Godwin? Normally on a post like this it only takes about 3 comments.
Since Michigan (where I live) bent over almost immediately for REAL ID, in spite of the deficit creating cost, I expect a similar response to this new scheme. Any practical advice available from Boingers on how to defeat the RFID inside these IDs? Hammer? Microwave? An instructible on a card-size Faraday cage?
I've lived all my life in a country which uses a national ID card, and don't quite understand why the idea of it pisses off so many americans, beyond the classic goverment incompentence handling information and the very possible leaks of it. All the impersonation and falsification stuff is already possible, anyway, and I think it's even easier to do without a consolidated DB backing information. Is it more of a moral and principles issue, or there are other reasons? Would an ID card with limited personal information, say, name and birthdate and that's it, be more acceptable?
@Gato #13:
For me, at least, the reluctance to allow this step comes from the fear that the national ID will remain revocable (as drivers' licenses are). We fear giving the bureaucrats the power to strip us of personhood for petty offenses or for offending the powerful. If it becomes unlawful to leave your house without your papers, and petty bureaucrats have the power to invalidate your papers for any imagined crime, we're all in Big Trouble. And that's where the system is headed.
Kevin Kenny:
Thanks! I see... So, in essence, they're not proposing an authentication mechanism (which is basically what we have here), but rather a mean to control people, and do it so in an abusive way. If that's what they want to do... hell, that reeks of fascism.
I'm rather shocked that a tech-friendly forum seems so adamantly opposed to Real-ID/Pass-ID.
This isn't a "freedom" issue, people are already required to have photo ID before boarding an airplane or crossing a border. As far as the photo Id's themselves, they don't even change that much.. heck here in New York our drivers licenses were already compliant. There are no electronic chips, or encoded fingerprints etc.
This is about preventing ID fraud. Many of the most serious crimes in our society are possible because of ID fraud, including the September 11th attacks, human trafficking etc. When kidnapped kids are recovered, most are found to have had new identities obtained through ID fraud, which enables this crime.
What does Pass-ID do? When you bring a birth certificate into a DMV, the only way to valiadte that it's authentic (aside from looking at it; in which case a good forgery is indistinguishable) is to check it with the issuing agency and make sure they have the same certificate in thier possession with the same matching information.
Keep in mind that many states this is impossible, records are still on paper and stored in a cabinet somewhere, and PASS-ID gives grants to the states to clean up thier records (note: no national database or national ID).
There is nothing wrong with working to modernize state record keeping, or standardizing the criteria required to issue ID's across all states. This is not a violation of rights, it is providing for the common welfare.
Indiana goes REAL ID next year. They're already spreading news pieces around with information on what pile of ID you're going to have to present just to renew your driver's license.
@18-
when "providing for the common welfare" includes being able to point a scanner at you from across the street and reading all your personal information without so much as a "hello," I'll take my chances with the crazy survivalists out in Montana, thank you very much. I live in NYC and I have no interest in being forced to "behave" by the same people that have been lying to us and abusing the power we gave them to provide for the common welfare for decades. And if you're a minority, fuggedaboutit!
where do seemingly innocent things lead to?
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Science/1138763.html
@ GATO #15
I can't speak for other americans, but for me it is about personal freedom. Our government doesn't always get it right, but in theory we are all free princes and not answerable to anyone. It comes down to due process; I don't have to prove anything. It is incumbent upon the police to prove I have done something wrong or that I am not who I say I am. The government keeping tabs on me with an ID card implies that I have done, or will do, something wrong.
Yes, but without a national ID, how will we ever stop the terrorists? They invariably fill in "terrorism" under their occupation. That's how we get them.