By Dennis Bailey

Anti-terrorism efforts are driving many countries around the world, including the United States, to standardize identification. Emerging authentication technologies such as facial recognition and fingerprint scanning make faster, accurate identification possible. The U.S. Congress is debating the merits of national standards for driver's licenses. Meanwhile, some high school cafeterias already accept fingerprint scans for payment. Over the next few issues, the TRUSTe Advocate plans to explore a variety of viewpoints and consumer attitudes regarding new issues in personal identity information.

We asked Dennis Bailey, author of The Open Society Paradox: Why the Twenty-First Century Calls for More Openness, Not Less, to share his take on the idea of a national identification card.

Rather than jump directly into the fray of the identification debate, I propose starting things off with a search for a little common ground.

First, let’s drop the negatively-charged term “national ID,” which has become a pejorative phrase, and use something more neutral like “identity card” or “ID.” Trying to frame the debate with emotion-laden words hinders a rational examination of the issues.

Second, let’s see if we can agree that in a modern information society there are at least a few occasions when identification is required. We can disagree over which situations should require individuals to produce an ID but certainly we can find examples where an ID is necessary. For instance, an individual may refuse to fly because of the identification requirement, but when we’re talking about taking out a loan, proper identification would prevent fraud, for which society would have to absorb the cost.

The next obvious question is whether our de facto identity card, the driver’s license, is secure enough to serve its purpose. I would argue that when a teenager can forge a driver’s license, the system is insecure. As a result, we have an engine that is driving the fastest growing crime in America -- identity theft. Not only will a fake ID get a teenager into a bar, it will allow a thief to open a bank account, a child predator to avoid Megan’s Law, a criminal on the lam to hide from authorities, a parent to dodge child support collectors, and a terrorist to evade a watch list.

As I result, I support Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 12, which requires all government employees and contractors to participate in a single secure identification card system by 2006. I also support the “Real ID Act,” which, through federal standards, would make state driver’s licenses more tamperproof and add biometric identifiers.

Some would argue that our flimsy paper-based system is a good thing, since dictators have used identity cards as a form of control and our government might try the same if given the chance. While we have yet to see a democratic institution transformed into repressive regime in the dozens of countries where identity cards have been issued, I suggest this is a separate argument. Secure the U.S. driver’s license and then let the will of the people, exercised through their representatives in Congress, decide when and how secure identification cards should be used.

Dennis Bailey is the COO of Comter Systems.

 

Ponemon Institute