an image of an eye glowing green...

0wn yourself

2005-05-30

here we go again--national id's suck

HP Announces New National Identity System Solution Built on Microsoft .NET Platform

we keep edging ever closer to a precipice. not really a new danger, but new in the us.

a national id system poses a threat for three major reasons. one, it takes more power away from state governments and deposits it right into the lap of the federal government. two, in order to properly run a national id system, there would have to be a centralized database with information on everybody (which creates a definite set of problems on its own). and thirdly, a national id system is just one more precedent for stripping the rights that our country was built on.

whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? some of you may question what this has to do with a national id system, but it effectively takes your us citizenship and transfigures it into a number. no longer a person. just a number.

and there's no clear solution. the overall system became very dependent on one's social security number (and i might add that was _never_ the intended purpose of social security) until people realized how easy identity theft became by having easy access to a number which identifies you, so then people started hiding their ss numbers. licenses began to have a separate unique number to identify you.

but that just means there's a different number to steal (or another number to protect, depending upon where you're standing). there's no real protection method, because we are _forced_ to comply with the system.

adding a physical card with biometric identification markers embedded may solve the problem of proving you are who you say you are, but it opens up several other (more terrifying) worlds of possibility.

namely, the databases that will be needed to run these things. it puts us all squarely into an easily searchable archive of american history. which sounds a lot less threatening than the reality of the situation will be.

one, centralized easy-to-data-mine source. and the feds get first crack at it. kinda defeats the whole checks and balances thing, huh?

but don't you worry (can you taste the sarcasm?) even taking for granted all the individual government workers which will gain access (whether authorized or not) to this massive data warehouse, corporate databases will certainly rival (and even feed off) the federal database, opening a plethora of other opportunities for the sensitive personal data of citizens to be leaked out into channels where they were never intended to go.

and we're gonna put up with all this nonsense for what? security? they're doing this in the name stopping terrorism, after all. do you really think that this will make you _more_ secure?

if you do, i urge you to go out with an open mind and read up on some different points of view. bruce schneier wrote some some good articles on the matter. as always, you can find an overflowing spring of info at google, as well as the eff.

and if you do realize what's wrong with our current predicament, say something. do something. tell somebody. write a letter, make a phone call, fire off and email, write a blog, protest, be active, MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

it's up to us.

--cid

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