Where rubber meets the road in privacy debate

["Robert L Bass" <robertbass1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

New federal requirements for driver's licenses rev up the arguments

By Mike Stuckey
Senior news editor
MSNBC
Updated: 6:29 p.m. ET Oct. 19, 2006


            Mike Stuckey
            Senior news editor

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Any hope we may have of keeping government, industry and criminals out of our personal business is scheduled to vanish completely in
18 months, privacy advocates say.

That's when the federal government's Real ID Act is to be fully in place, effectively setting up a national identification program
by requiring states to adopt strict new high-tech standards for driver's licenses and ID cards if they are to be accepted by federal
authorities at places ranging from airports to U.S. courthouses.





The act's passage last year has crystallized the U.S. debate over the delicate balance between individual privacy rights and the
government's desire to securely identify travelers, applicants for federal benefits and anyone else who may pose a threat to its
security or economy..

Real ID's looming implementation has fueled sky-is-falling rhetoric from a broad spectrum of groups. They say it will push the
United States firmly toward an Orwellian surveillance society in which the federal government can track our every move. The personal
data of every American with a driver's license or state ID card also will be far easier for businesses and criminals to obtain, cost
billions to implement and do very little to fulfill its stated aim of increasing homeland security, they maintain.

"It is a very large step toward a national-identification, you-have-to-have-your-papers type of world," said Melissa Ngo, staff
counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

On the other side, backers of Real ID say the technology is essential for government officials in the post-9/11 world to know who's
who. And security industry representatives say that the technology itself and policy decisions on how it's implemented will do a
fine job of protecting privacy, and could even enhance it.

Just what the 9/11 Commission ordered
"The Real ID Act is a direct implementation of one of the 9/11 Commission recommendations," said Jeff Lungren, spokesman for House
Judiciary Chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., the legislation's key sponsor. "There's a ton of misconceptions that have been
promulgated by the opponents from the get-go. It's unfortunate that they're continuing to do so."

The thinking behind Real ID is that since the 9/11 hijackers were allowed through airport security with legitimate state-issued
driver's licenses or ID cards, the standards that states use to grant the cards must be tightened. Those standards are spelled out
in a 1,767-word section of the act and require, in addition to the holder's name, gender, date of birth and residential address, a
digital photograph, "physical security features" to prevent fraud, and the ability to be accessed by "machine-readable technology."

              RELATED LINKS
              a.. Fact file: Better IDs, new risks
              b.. Read Parts 1, 2 and 3 of Privacy Lost
              c.. Take our privacy survey and see how others responded
              d.. Share your thoughts on our Privacy Lost message board




But it's what lies beneath those features that raises the specter of Big Brother for privacy advocates and budget concerns for state
governments. In what some critics see as an unvarnished bid to also control illegal immigration, the act requires that states go to
extraordinary lengths to verify the identities of people to whom they issue cards, ensuring that cardholders are in the country
legally and verifying their Social Security numbers. The states must keep this proof on file for seven to 10 years, and they must
maintain a database with all driver's license information that can be accessed by all the other states. The act also bars drivers
from holding a license in more than one state at a time.

Precisely how the language of the Real ID Act is to be carried out at the practical level is in the hands of the Department of
Homeland Security, which is in "the process of developing the draft regulations," according to DHS spokesman Jarrod Agen. "The best
timeline I can give is that we should have those out for public comment by the end of the year." States are antsy to see the rules
because the law calls for the new licenses to be issued as of May 11, 2008, which doesn't leave a lot of time for the major changes
that will be required in some DMVs.


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