October 8, 2001 Commentary Digital IDs Can Help Prevent Terrorism By Larry Ellison, the founder and CEO of Oracle Corp. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, our country has been thrust into a debate over how to root out terrorists while also maintaining our civil liberties. One of the suggestions proposed, though not yet fully debated, is that of national identification cards. Many Americans instinctively fear that a national ID card would sacrifice basic freedoms and compromise personal privacy. On the face of it, issuing ID cards does seem a significant step. Trusting government to maintain a database with our names, addresses, places of work, amounts and sources of income, assets, purchases, travel destinations, and more, seems a huge leap of faith. But we should remember that these databases already exist, and that we willingly helped in their creation. For years, companies like American Express and Visa have been issuing cards and building up information on millions of Americans. The databases they maintain are searched and sold on a daily basis. We should remember, too, that the government already tracks things -- lots of things. Federal, state and local agencies issue Social Security cards, driver's licenses, pilot's licenses, passports and visas. They maintain thousands of databases to keep track of everyone from taxpayers and voters to suspected terrorists. And so the question is not whether the government should issue ID cards and maintain databases; they already do. The question is whether the ones we have can be made more effective, especially when it comes to finding criminals. Do we need one national ID card? No. But the IDs that the government issues -- such as Social Security cards -- should use modern credit card technology. Do we need more databases? No, just the opposite. The biggest problem today is that we have too many. The single thing we could do to make life tougher for terrorists would be to ensure that all the information in myriad government databases was integrated into a single national file. Today, every federal intelligence and law enforcement agency and all manner of state and local bodies maintain their own separate databases on suspected criminals. All these separate databases make it difficult for one agency to know about and apprehend someone wanted by another agency. That's why one of the Sept. 11 hijackers made it through U.S. passport control, even though he had an outstanding arrest warrant in Broward County, Fla. The FBI was searching for several other of the terrorists, because CIA intelligence revealed they had ties to Osama bin Laden. Four more were sought by the Immigration and Naturalization Service because they were in the country illegally. Such a national database, though a large undertaking, is possible. My company, for example, has already offered to provide the necessary software for free, and I'm sure other companies would pitch in with hardware and support. It's important these donations be made with no strings attached: The database would be maintained and run by the government alone, with no question of corporations benefiting. The uses of such a database would be significant. Airlines, for example, could cross-check the names of passengers with names on a watch list. If this had been done, many of the Sept. 11 terrorists would have been caught before they boarded their flights. Another challenge is tracking people with multiple or stolen identities. The good news is that a national database combined with biometrics, thumb prints, hand prints, iris scans, or other new technology could detect false identities. Gaining entry to an airport or other secure location would require people to present a photo ID, put their thumb on a fingerprint scanner and tell the guard their Social Security number. This information would be cross-checked with the database. The government could phase in digital ID cards to replace existing Social Security cards and driver's licenses. These new IDs should be based on a uniform standard such as credit card technology, which is harder to counterfeit than existing government IDs, or on smart-card technology, which is better but more expensive. There is no need to compel any American to have a digital ID. Some Americans may choose to apply for a digital ID card to speed the airport security check-in process. Some states might use digital IDs for their next generation of driver's licenses. Companies might want to replace their current hodgepodge of IDs with the new system. In fact, a voluntary system of standardized IDs issued by government agencies and private companies could prove more effective than a mandatory system. We don't need to trade our liberties for our lives. By law, Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure would govern access to the national security database. The "probable cause" standard will still have to be met. Two hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson warned us that our liberties were at risk unless we exercised "eternal vigilance." Jefferson lived in an age of aristocrats and monarchs. We live with the threat of terrorists getting their hands on weapons with the capacity to destroy entire cities. Only by giving our intelligence and law enforcement agencies better tools can we expect to save life and liberty together.