Risks of belief in identities

Anonymous nobody at hyperreal.pl
Wed Nov 21 10:33:22 PST 2001


>From: "Peter G. Neumann" <neumann at csl.sri.com>
>Subject: Risks of belief in identities
>
>For those of you who might believe that national ID cards might be a good
>idea, check out the December 2001 *Commun.ACM* Inside Risks column by me
>and Lauren Weinstein, previewed on my Web site
>   http://www.csl.sri.com/neumann/insiderisks.html

The criticisms in this essay have nothing to do with national ID cards
per se.  The points have nothing to do with the cards being national,
with them proving ID, or with them being in the form of a card for
that matter.  What the essay really argues against is any attempt to
prove that someone has been checked for a certain property by showing
a document.  Documents can be forged, biometrics are imperfect, and the
employees who issue the documents can be bribed.

By this argument, we should have no driver's licenses, credit cards,
or paper cash for that matter.  Everything stuffed into your wallet
is useless.  Any one of those items could be forged or could have been
given to you improperly.  But we find them to be useful anyway.

In actuality, no one in politics is seriously pushing for a national
ID card.  However they are talking about having an air travel card
which would allow holders to go through an expedited security check.
Neumann's arguments apply just as strongly against such a card (which
need not have ID printed on it at all), further proving that he is not
in fact opposing a national ID card but any kind of carried credential.





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