[The relevant section of the bill, to be considered in the state once home to Thomas Jefferson and George Mason, says: "Every application for a driver's license shall include (i) a color photograph of the applicant supplied under arrangements made by the Department and (ii) a thumbprint or other biometric identifier, as determined by the Commissioner." Perhaps all those DC-area libertarians who decamped to Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax will be heading back to the city. :) --Declan] --- From: Fred Heutte <phredat_private> To: <declanat_private> CC: <donbainat_private> Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 18:49:46 GMT Hi Declan, an interesting pointer from my friend Don Bain that might be something to put on Politech. The actual text of the bill is at: http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?021+ful+SB62 I'm not as certain that this is a slippery-slope step toward the national ID concept, which was pretty thoroughly thrashed in the House hearing last month, where even Oracle ran away from the idea. But I am concerned about data quality and authentication issues. Thumbprints are better than facial recognition scanning, but not all that much. Finally, the big issue that facial scanning surfaces is what happens to all the data that is *already* collected long in advance of any kind of official national ID program. In the UK, there is at least the principle that all CCTV video in public areas, for example, must be made available to those who were captured. Of course, implementation is spotty but at least the principle and legal right pertains. Fred ------ mail forwarded, original message follows ------ To: aboutardat_private From: DonBainat_private <> Subject: Fwd: Biometric IDs Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 16:53:30 EST Coming to the Virginia General Assembly and, I suspect, to other legislatures around the country very soon: ---------------------- SB 62 Driver's licenses, commercial driver's licenses, and special identification cards Patron - John C. Watkins (all patrons) Summary as introduced: Driver's licenses, commercial driver's licenses, and special identification cards; use of thumbprints or other biometric identifiers required. Requires use of thumbprints or other biometric identifiers (as determined by the DMV Commissioner) in connection with driver's licenses, commercial driver's licenses, and special identification cards. These provisions would only apply to driver's licenses, commercial driver's licenses, special identification cards, and applications therefor issued or submitted on or after January 1, 2003. --------------------- Govt-issued biometric IDs are one short step from a national identity card. Once this is done at the state level, they will trade that data across the states and, voila!, a national ID card. State DMVs, the medical insurance industry and police depts. already are skirting privacy and dossier laws via private independent organizations for trading their information. Such an ID will become the common medium around which _all_ your personal, private and public data is _automatically_ gathered, distributed, traded and sold (opting out will not be an option); and a gateway to modern life in this country (without one you'll be barred from many public and private services and privileges). With it comes the issues of data privacy, your right to see your own files and make corrections, opting out of various sources and uses, identity theft, and inevitably, like in previous depotic/communist/authoritarian/socialist regimes, involuntary "Your papers!" demands being foisted on everyone, anytime, anywhere (only then without your awareness its happening) - and it being illegal not to have it. Don Bain ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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