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From high-tech driver's licenses to national ID cards?
By Declan McCullagh
Story last modified Mon Feb 14 04:00:00 PST 2005
A recent vote in Congress endorsing standardized, electronically readable
driver's licenses has raised fears about whether the proposal would usher
in what amounts to a national ID card.
In a vote that largely divided along party lines, the U.S. House of
Representatives approved a Republican-backed measure that would compel
states to design their driver's licenses by 2008 to comply with federal
antiterrorist standards. Federal employees would reject licenses or
identity cards that don't comply, which could curb Americans' access to
everything from airplanes to national parks and some courthouses.
The congressional maneuvering takes place as governments are growing more
interested in implanting technology in ID cards to make them smarter and
more secure. The U.S. State Department soon will begin issuing passports
with radio frequency identification, or RFID, chips embedded in them, and
Virginia may become the first state to glue RFID tags into all its driver's
licenses.
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What's new:
A recent vote in Congress endorsing standardized, electronically readable
driver's licenses has raised fears about whether the proposal would usher
in what amounts to a national ID card.
Bottom line:Proponents of the Real ID Act say it's needed to frustrate
both terrorists and illegal immigrants. Critics say it imposes more
requirements for identity documents on states, and gives the Department of
Homeland Security carte blanche to do nearly anything else "to protect the
national security interests of the United States."
More stories on privacy and national security
"Supporters claim it is not a national ID because it is voluntary," Rep.
Ron Paul of Texas, one of the eight Republicans to object to the measure,
said during the floor debate this week. "However, any state that opts out
will automatically make nonpersons out of its citizens. They will not be
able to fly or to take a train."
Paul warned that the legislation, called the Real ID Act, gives unfettered
authority to the Department of Homeland Security to design state ID cards
and driver's licenses. Among the possibilities: biometric information such
as retinal scans, fingerprints, DNA data and RFID tracking technology.
Proponents of the Real ID Act say it adheres to the recommendations of the
9/11 Commission and is needed to frustrate both terrorists and illegal
immigrants. Only a portion of the legislation regulates ID cards; the rest
deals with immigration law and asylum requests. "American citizens have the
right to know who is in their country, that people are who they say they
are, and that the name on the driver's license is the real holder's name,
not some alias," F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., said last week.
"If these commonsense reforms had been in place in 2001, they would have
hindered the efforts of the 9/11 terrorists, and they will go a long way
toward helping us prevent another tragedy like 9/11," said House Majority
Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
Now the Real ID Act heads to the Senate, where its future is less certain.
Senate rules make it easier for politicians to derail legislation, and an
aide said Friday that Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Judiciary
Committee, was concerned about portions of the bill.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on a terrorism
subcommittee, said "I basically support the thrust of the bill" in an
e-mail to CNET News.com on Friday. "The federal government should have the
ability to issue standards that all driver's licenses and identification
documents should meet."
"Spy-D" cards?
National ID cards are nothing new, of course. Many European, Asian and
South American countries require their citizens to carry such documents at
all times, with legal punishments in place for people caught without them.
Other nations that share the English common law tradition, including
Australia and New Zealand, have rejected such schemes.
A host of political, cultural and even religious concerns has prevented a
national ID from being adopted in the United States, even during the
tumultuous days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that ushered in the
Patriot Act.
Conservatives and libertarians typically argue that a national ID card
will increase the power of the government, and they fear the dehumanizing
effects of laws enacted as a result. Civil liberties groups tend to worry
about the administrative problems, the opportunities for criminal mischief,
and the potential irreversibility of such a system.
Some evangelical Christians have likened such a proposal to language in
the Bible warning "that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the
mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." That mark is
the sign of the "end times," according to evangelical thinking, which
predicts that anyone who accepts the mark will be doomed to eternal torment.
Those long-standing concerns have become more pointed recently, thanks to
the opportunity for greater tracking--as well as potentially greater
security for ID documents--that technologies such as RFID provide. Though
the Real ID act does not specify RFID or biometric technology, it requires
that the Department of Homeland Security adopt "machine-readable
technology" standards and provides broad discretion in how to do it.
An ad hoc alliance of privacy groups and technologists recently has been
fighting proposals from the International Civil Aviation Organization to
require that passports and other travel documents be outfitted with
biometrics and remotely readable RFID-type "contact-less integrated
circuits."
The ICAO, a United Nations organization, argues the measures are necessary
to reduce fraud, combat terrorism and improve airline security. But its
critics have raised questions about how the technology could be misused by
identity thieves with RFID readers, and they say it would "promote
irresponsible national behavior."
In the United States, the federal government is planning to embed RFID
chips in all U.S. passports and some foreign visitor's documents. The U.S.
State Department is now evaluating so-called e-passport technology from
eight different companies. The agency plans to select a supplier and issue
the first e-passports this spring, starting in Los Angeles, and predicts
that all U.S. passport agencies will be issuing them within a year.
The high-tech passports are supposed to deter theft and forgeries, as well
as accelerating immigration checks at airports and borders. They'll contain
within their covers a miniscule microchip that stores basic data, including
the passport holder's name, date of birth and place of birth. The chip,
which can transmit information through a tiny included antenna, also has
enough room to store biometric data such as digitized fingerprints,
photographs and iris scans.
Border officials can compare the information on the chip to that on the
rest of the passport and to the person actually carrying it. Discrepancies
could signal foul play.
In a separate program, the Department of Homeland Security plans to issue
RFID devices to foreign visitors that enter the country at the Mexican and
Canadian borders. The agency plans to start a yearlong test of the
technology in July at checkpoints in Arizona, New York and Washington state.
The idea is to aid immigration officials in tracking visitors' arrivals
and departures and snare those who overstay their visas. Similar to
e-passports, the new system should speed up inspection procedures. It's
part of the US-VISIT program, a federal initiative designed to capture and
share data such as fingerprints and photographs of foreign visitors.
A "Trojan horse"
The legislation approved by the House last Thursday follows a related
measure President Bush signed into law in December. That law gives the
Transportation Department two years to devise standard rules for state
licenses, requires information to be stored in "machine-readable" format,
and says noncompliant ID cards won't be accepted by federal agencies.
But critics fret that the new bill goes even further. It shifts authority
to the Department of Homeland Security, imposes more requirements for
identity documents on states, and gives the department carte blanche to do
nearly anything else "to protect the national security interests of the
United States."
"In reality, this bill is a Trojan horse," said Paul, the Republican
congressman. "It pretends to offer desperately needed border control in
order to stampede Americans into sacrificing what is uniquely American: our
constitutionally protected liberty."
Unlike last year's measure, the Real ID Act "doesn't even mention the word
'privacy,'" said Marv Johnson, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties
Union.
"What I think the House is planning on doing is attaching this bill to
tsunami relief or money to the troops," Johnson says. "When they send it to
the Senate, the Senate will have to either fish or cut bait. They can
approve it or ask for a conference committee, at which point the House can
say 'they're playing games with national security.'"
In response to a question about a national ID card, White House spokesman
Scott McClellan told reporters on Friday that "the president supports the
legislation that just passed the House." McClellan pointed to a statement
from the White House earlier in the week that endorsed it.
Another section of the Real ID Act that has raised alarms is the linking
of state Department of Motor Vehicles databases, which was not part of last
year's law. Among the information that must be shared: "All data fields
printed on drivers' licenses and identification cards" and complete
drivers' histories, including motor vehicle violations, suspensions and
points on licenses.
Some senators have indicated they may rewrite part of the measure once
they begin deliberations.
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., chairman of a terrorism subcommittee, is readying
his own bill that will be introduced within a few weeks, spokesman Andrew
Wilder said on Friday. "He has been at work on his own version of things,"
Wilder said. "Senator Kyl does support biometric identifiers."
CNET News.com's Alorie Gilbert contributed to this report.
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R. A. Hettinga