Entrusting data to an agency that breaks the law.

Martin H. Bosworth, at ConsumerAffairs.Com, discusses recent revelations that the TSA has broken a number of the very few laws limiting its almost unlimitable actions - such as collecting profiling data after promising not to do so. He writes, "This has aroused concerns among privacy advocates and opponents of the "Real ID" Act who believe that entrusting such a complex enterprise to companies that have already proven incapable of protecting the data they collect may lead to even more instances of identity theft." Some quotes:

Opponents of these provisions maintain that additional security requirements are not only burdensome to implement and unnecessarily invasive, but offer a dangerous opportunity for "information broker" companies to hoard even more data.

Acxiom itself was ahead of the identity-theft curve, as its servers were hacked by employees not once, but twice - first in March 2003 and again in July 2004. Both times, millions of aggregated data records were stolen and put up for sale on the "gray market" of identity theft rings.

Everybody Gets it!

I've seen very little in the press in favor of relID, while column after column comes out against it. If state politicians weren't so lazy we should see a big repeal effort by now. Here's yet another column, in the Colorado Greeley tribune. The (anonymous?) author sees no problem in prinicple with a federal ID number for everyone, but calls for funding RealId and/or fixing the legislation to make it useable:

"However, to saddle the states with the responsibility but no money to accomplish the task is ridiculous, especially in these challenging economic times where states -- Colorado included -- are struggling to keep their heads above financial disaster."

Drivers' License == Passport ????

This Daily Oakland Press article mentions, for the first time I've seen it, the idea that we might "use the licenses as passports, since the same information is basically required for both". It's an idea that raises an important question: would the federal operation that issues passports replace all the state MVBs? Or would it work the other way around? Would it be alright to renew drivers' licenses every ten years? If not, why don't states do that now?

One of the reasons that states control drivers' licenses is that they have to try to force drivers to keep up to date auto insurance. How would that work if passports were the "same thing?" Perhaps we would get a federal passport, and then bring it to any state to get it stamped as "driver-worthy" when we passed the state's other driving requirements.

I see the states losing a source of revenue if these two documents are combined, but this is the ideal time to do it if they would otherwise have to spend $100 million each to be able to issue the new licenses.

"States are in an uproar"

journalnow.com, the online half of the Winston Salem Journal paper in North Carolina, quotes Marilyn Rauber's Washington Dateline column that looks at state reactions to RealID. They say "States are in an uproar over the Real ID Act." Some quotes:

"It would have been nice if they had consulted with the states," said Kevin Hall, a spokesman for Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia.

States claim that the new federal mandates could cost them up to $1 billion a year.

Montana legislators voted to ignore the law before it even passed.

The article also notes that "The lax rules in North Carolina prompted a scathing report from North Carolina's state auditor, who warned that the state was creating a magnet for illegal workers."

What if the states just sit on their hands?

Claire, at Hyphen Magazine (Asian American Unabridged) asks, "What would happen if states simply sat down and refused to budge without federal money?" Her piece on realId is here.

How Much will RealID Really cost?

Before this law was passed, guesstimated state costs were below $100 million. About the time of passage, critics began to cite numbers in the range of $100 to $700 million. (The act provides $100 million in funding; I'm not sure what those funds will cover.)

Now some states are claiming it will cost them (that is, just one state) $100 or $200 million to comply with RealID, raising a specter of $2 to $5 billion for all the states. This is all guesswork now, especially since the Home Security Secretary has not specified exactly what must be on the licenses. But keep an eye on the cost issue. Those high estimates could turn out to be right.

RealID Law Unconstitutional?

New Mexico's Governor Richardson says a new national driver's license law is shortsighted and ill-conceived. He says the Real ID Act unconstitutionally infringes on state laws and Richardson says New Mexico will challenge it.
This story was reporrted by KRQE news.

They'll line up to hack it, misuse it, ...

The Telegraph in Macon Georgia is astounded that Home Security Secretary Michael Chertoff seems to think "the Real ID Act could create opportunities to protect people against identity theft." They really bear into this wild idea. Quotes:

[He] is reported to have said that implementing the Real ID Act could create opportunities to protect people against identity theft. It may likely have the opposite effect.

"Collect it, and they'll come." They'll line up to hack it, misuse it, salt it away in databases and sell it. "They" being every one from crooks, cops and tax sleuths on fishing expeditions to marketers.

Just the cost of collecting the information, much less gearing up to do it by 2008, has governors worried. Congress appropriated $100 million, but the governors of Pennsylvania and Virginia say it'll cost that much for each of their states. (Can you spell m-o-s-t-l-y u-n-f-u-n-d-e-d m-a-n-d-a-t-e?)

Each card will store one's name, address, birthdate, sex, ID numbers and digital photo at minimum. Homeland Security can decide there should be fingerprints or retinal scans as well. This personal information must be encoded in machine-readable form - enhanced bar codes, magnetic strips or even radio frequency identification chips. With that infrastructure, it's a short step to transform these drivers' licenses on steroids into official national ID cards - a bright idea that's been turned down repeatedly.

Besides imposing a heavy financial burden on the states, Real ID will place the privacy and financial well-being of every citizen at risk. Congress must reconsider this act, slipped through as it was, without debate.

What year was that again?

A negative editorial in The Free-Lance Star (Fredricksburg, Va.) concludes:
"Unless modified by Congress, the program goes into effect in 2008. But somehow the year 1984 sticks in the mind."

RealID looks awful in Vermont!

Here's an opinion column in the Vermmont Brattleboro Reformer. The writer asks: "What happens if every Vermont driver has to go to the DMV? A system that can just about cope with its current workload will be absolutely swamped. And that's just for regular licenses. Right now, it costs $23 for a two-year license and $35 for a four-year one. Add in the costs of residency verification and all the various bells and whistles the REAL ID requires, and it could mean that renewing a driver's license could cost $100 or more."

The editorial concludes, "As for the REAL ID Act's potential effectiveness as an anti-terrorism measure, fake IDs are easy to make and ubiquitous. If a high school senior can get them, a terrorist can.

Unless the federal government wants to pay for it, we think the REAL ID Act of 2005 should be repealed. It's unneeded, expensive and imposes an unnecessary level of bureaucracy to states that are unable to handle it."

Governors: Driver's License Costs to Soar!

The Washington Post reports Governors' feelings about RealID at the governors' conference. Quotes:

Fees for a new driver's license could triple. Lines at motor vehicles offices could stretch out the door. Governors warned Monday that states and consumers would bear much of the burden for a terrorism-driven push to turn licenses into a national ID card.

"It's a huge problem," said Democrat Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania. "Trying to make this work, there will be hell to pay." He said it would cost his state "$100 million-plus" to restructure motor vehicle offices to respond to a new federal law called the REAL ID Act.

"It has become a national ID card. It's a terrible idea for the states to do it," said Republican Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, chairman of the governors association. "They have created a national nightmare and they'll probably be driving up the cost of the driver's licenses by three- or four-fold."

The federal government is essentially demanding the skills of immigration officials and FBI agents from motor vehicle clerks whose starting pay, in Arkansas, is $8.27 an hour ...

Tenn. Gov. Phil Bredesen thinks his state is "ahead of he curve"

Tennessee's governor has a blog, and on July 18 he wrote about the RealID act, following a discussion at a givernors' conference with homeland Security Secretary Chertoff. The governor feels that "Tennessee is ahead of the curve on this one due to the legislation from last year which established the two classes of liscenses (regular and a "not for identification" certificate). We are already doing many of the things that this would require, and so if it comes to pass should not affect us as severely as many of our neighbors. "

He also noted that some gvernors are worried about implementing it. I suspect he will be shocked when his IT people tell him what it will cost to implement.

Can Identity Really be Authenticated?

Laura Newland has a personal take on realID here. She says, " The REAL ID Act is about much more than identity theft. It is about the notion that identity is something that can be authenticated in the first place." A longer quote:

The REAL ID Act has passed, so let’s take its implications seriously because it is rooted in fear, the result of which is the codification of racial profiling that is shameful. Where is our response to this white vigilance against nonwhites? Where is our outrage? Why is it so easy to place our outrage in abstract legal conceptualizations of rights, such as privacy, but so difficult to place our outrage in our own experiences? Why do we continue denying the experiences of others? Where is our ethical vigilance against bigotry?

A history of the RealID law, and its implications:

Robert Gellman has a clear description of the law and its implications in the DM News here. In his most interesting quote, Gellman zeroes in on the public inconveneniences the law will require. (Bear in mind that requiring everyone to renew licenses in person and checking many more credentials will add enormous waiting times to drivers' license renewals.)

The factor that most often undermines the public’s desire for privacy is the public’s desire for convenience. People will give up their privacy for shorter lines, less hassle and faster transactions. The Real ID Act will result in exactly the opposite.

Repeal Real ID Act, allow for personal privacy!

As soon as RealID passed, Nathan Swire, in an opinion piece at Black and White Online, called for the obvious: Repeal the RealID act! (It's not necessary to repeal the entire emergency spending bill, the RealID parts can be expunged.) Quotes:

Congress should repeal the Real ID Act, a bill establishing a national personal information database, because it jeopardizes civil liberties and does not fulfill its goals of fighting terrorism.

Identification numbers provide a powerful new tool that businesses can use to check the identification of their customers, but this gives criminals a new way to steal the identities of normal citizens. Whenever a company scans the license, every employee involved in the process will see the information of the customer. Unscrupulous employees can and will sell this information to data companies, or even to criminal groups. Identity theft and customer data abuse already threaten consumers today and would become even greater threats with the implementation of the act.

This is not a science fiction scenario!

Don Monkerud, at www.OpEdNews.com, has published a thoughtful review titled Get ready for the new America about how RealID was forced upon the states, and how they are just starting to come to terms with its stupendous unfunded costs. The article comes to some strong conclusions. Please read it in full. Some quotes:

This is not a science fiction scenario, but the result of President Bush signing the Real ID Act on May 11. To avoid congressional debate, the GOP slipped the provision into an $82 billion military spending bill ...

Passing Federal bills without debate is a dangerous practice because the full ramifications can't be assessed by those passing the bills or by voters. Groups such as the National Governors Association, the Council of State Governments, and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators object to unnecessary bureaucracy and retraining of staff and the National Council of State Legislatures estimates an administrative cost of $500 to $700 million. ...

The law affects the status of immigrants and represents a major rewriting of immigration law. How, for example, will a DMV clerk verify the birth certificate of someone from a village in Mexico, China, Africa or India?

Meanwhile, laws protecting our personal information remain very weak. A national database with information that can be scanned like a barcode will give businesses a new revenue stream from data collection and sale to information brokers such as ChoicePoint and LexisNexis. Currently some businesses obtain personal information but the practice is not widespread; the Real ID Act will augment this practice.

REAL ID doesn't seem like a good ID!

Mary Sanchez has an intelligent column about the Real ID card in the South Mississippi Sun Herald. (You don't have to be a northern liberal to be suspicious of RealID.) Her main points:

1. Driver's licenses are being pushed to uses far beyoind their original intention.
   
2. It's reasonable to worry about what will happen to all the new data collected.
   
3. RealID probably would not have helped catch the 9-11 hijackers.
   

Some quotes:

The initial problem is that driver's licenses have gone far beyond their intended use in society. Driver's licenses are used to board planes, open bank accounts, rent cars, and to prove identity in a wide variety of places and situations. So tinkering too much with driver's licenses is the fastest route toward establishing a national identification card.

A not completely unfathomable fear is what will be done with all of the information gathered, Big Brother's national database.