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National Identity Card Focuses on US Workers & Immigrants
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
The Wall Street Journal reports under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.
There are too many forms of identification floating around right now that lack standards and overall security. The Social Security card is currently our national identification card that’s not supposed to be used for identification. From a NY Times article from 1998 it states: WASHINGTON— FOR many years, Social Security cards carried an admonition that they were to be used ”for Social Security and tax purposes — not for identification.” That assurance rings hollow today. Congress has authorized so many uses of the nine-digit number, and Americans use it for so many unauthorized purposes, that it has just about become a national identifier. Today your social is connected to everything.
Security Management reports that all workers and mariners attempting to access secure maritime and port areas nationwide will have to flash a government-approved Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC), which includes a biometric identification card before entry. HSPD-12, or Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, set universal identification standards for federal employees and contractors, streamlining access to buildings and computer networks. Then there is old and new versions of the passport, as many as 200 forms of ID circulating from state to state, plus another 14,000 birth certificates and 49 versions of the Social Security card.
Government has tried hard to create identification that will once and for all standardize the process under the REAL ID Act which is most likely going to be squashed under Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano who is proposing the repeal of the Real ID Act.
“A person familiar with the legislative planning said the biometric data would likely be either fingerprints or a scan of the veins in the top of the hand. It would be required of all workers, including teenagers, but would be phased in, with current workers needing to obtain the card only when they next changed jobs, the person said.”
Many oppose biometrics and New Hampshire has even proposed legislation against it. My money is on biometrics creeping into our lives in the form of a national ID. Like it or not biometrics are coming.
Meanwhile, until there is assigned accountability, which means nobody can pose as you and work as you and open new accounts as you, protect your identity.
Get a credit freeze and follow the steps for your particular state. This is an absolutely necessary tool to secure your credit. In most cases, it prevents new accounts from being opened in your name. This makes your Social Security number useless to a potential identity thief.
Invest in anti-virus and keep it auto-updated and check out my spyware killer IDTheftSecurty HERE
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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker discussing Social Security numbers on Fox News
Comment
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Comment by Larry Bailey on April 3, 2010 at 9:31pm -
We will see how paranoid I am when they take everything that is dear to you and you start screaming, I for one have had enough of this merry-go-round
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Comment by Spiff Slalom on April 2, 2010 at 8:10am -
Jay
I don't trust corporations either.
I will no longer continue this battle of wits with the unarmed.
Enjoy your dystopia.
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Comment by Larry Bailey on April 2, 2010 at 7:50am
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Biometric ID is just another form of Control
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Comment by Jay G on April 2, 2010 at 7:38am -
Spiff Slalom,
Corporate enterprise works hard to electronically collate much more information about an individual's private life than any government. Do we so trust the moral and ethical credentials of free enterprise corporations that we feel our personal details are safer in their caring possession than the government?
Evoking fear of dire consequences doesn't help your argument. So, are we to suppose that the Kymer Rouge, Rwandan villagers, Darfur warlords, etc., would have ignored an enemy who was without an ID card?
The same is true for your proposition that if any government knows enough about its citizens, it will ultimately become inclined to consign them to a slaughterhouse.
Groundless paranoia is pointless and pathetic.
Biometric ID assists individual security which increases community safety.
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Comment by Spiff Slalom on April 2, 2010 at 6:04am
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@Jay G
I think Larry made his point very well.
If you cannot live your life without your moves, interests & economic transactions being tracked (or able to be tracked at will) by your government, you are not free - you are relegated to the status of cattle. And where do cattle end up? The slaughterhouse.
The Number One cause of death in the 20th century, in terms of sheer numbers, and excluding deaths in declared wars, is government actions. Look at the Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge, the genocides in Rwanda, Darfur, Uganda, Bosnia/Herzegovina, the Kurds in Iraq, the Armenians, the confiscations of the entire harvest in large regions of the USSR in '33, which starved more people than Hitler killed in the Holocaust, I could go on & on & on - just look up 'genocide in history' in Wikipedia.
Wait, wait - don't tell me - "It can't happen here."
Yeah. Riiiiiiiight.
Why anyone would want to give more power to any government, or surrender their rights - including the right to privacy - is totally incomprehensible to anyone with a half-dozen brain cells to rub together.
The government rules with the consent of the governed - at least supposedly - in this country. If it gets to the point where the people can't deny that consent, it's too late.
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Comment by Jay G on April 2, 2010 at 4:43am
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* Robert Siciliano,
Thanks. Hope there's lots more where that came from. Cheers.
* Larry Bailey,
Your point, please?
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Comment by Robert Siciliano on April 2, 2010 at 4:30am -
Wow. Look what i started! Great comments Geeks!
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Comment by Larry Bailey on April 2, 2010 at 4:11am
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The one constant in all the world is that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, it matters not what country you live in, if the government officials decide (without you knowing) that a particular thing should be done, they will do it (legal or not) if you get in the way, you become a sacrifice for freedom.
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Comment by Jay G on April 1, 2010 at 9:56pm
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It just does not follow that a totalitarian state will result from a secure national ID system. Most Western nations have had similar systems for decades, often by default. Many responsible national governments are working to improve their existing ID systems in the light of increasing international security threats.
Fear of an informed bureaucracy is very foolish. The public service, as the name implies, is an institution established to benefit the population without discrimination. The more sophisticated and knowledgeable a bureaucracy is on all levels, the more efficient is the service provision.
The security of biometric ID helps keep personal details less open to theft and abuse. We need to embrace the reality of the modern world and avoid excessive, pathetic and pointless paranoia.
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Comment by Ashram on April 1, 2010 at 8:33pm -
"People who have something to hide are against ID disclosure."
And that's how intrusion to your life starts. "If you have nothing to hide..."
That is nonsense.
I don't have anything to hide, but I should not have to prove my innocence either.
You shouldn't have to, either. Nor should anyone else.
It's sets up a slippery slope where you must prove your own innocence to the state rather than the state having to presume innocence until it has evidence to prove otherwise.
© 2012 Created by Chris Pirillo.
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