Are You Guys Ready For Your National ID Card?

[TruthBringer]

The Real ID Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush on May 11, 2005, mandates that all U.S. citizens will receive a National ID card by May of 2008.

Without this National ID, you won't...

Drive your car

Board a plane, train, or bus

Enter any federal building

Open a bank account

Hold a job

[TruthBringer]

There has been a bill passed by our goverment that will force us into getting yet another form of national idetification. This card, labled "REAL ID", will be a requirement from our government to obtain jobs, use national transportation (airplanes, trains, etc...), and eventually in order to buy things.

Real ID is a card that transmits a signal to surrounding machinery providing personal information and documentation to whoever obtains control of these set scanners.

We the People do have the power to still prevent this from happening. By voicing your opinion to your state's senators through mail, email, phone calls, protesting; we can block our states from participating in vanquishing our freedom.

Again, this card and the bill for it has been passed by The House, The Senate, and The President. However each state has the right to not participate, as shown already by New Hampshire. If you do NOT want to participate in giving away your freedom, please advise your state representative and vote accordingly.

[TruthBringer]

The corrupt section of our Government is going to combine all of this information into GIG (Global Information Grid) a tracking/information unit that is the next stage of Digital Angel.

Digital Angel Corporation develops advanced RFID and GPS technologies that enable rapid and accurate identification, location tracking, and condition monitoring of high-value assets. Applications for our products include identification and monitoring of pets, humans, fish and livestock through our patented implantable microchips as well as message monitoring of aircraft in remote locations through integrated GPS and geosynchronous satellite communications systems.

http://www.digitalangelcorp.com/ <--- Digital Angel's website.

[TruthBringer]

Digital Angel Corporation develops advanced RFID and GPS technologies that enable rapid and accurate identification, location tracking, and condition monitoring of high-value assets

Since when did Human Beings become "High-Value Assets" for corporations?

I have never thought of myself as a high-value asset for a corporation. I've thought of myself as a piece of the Creator. Maybe thats just me though.

So folks, how is it going to feel to be monitored by a corporation that considers you to be a "High-Value-Asset" when you owe no allegiance what-so-ever to it?

[TruthBringer]

The ID card is only the first step of the process.

The second step is Human Microchip Implants.

The REAL ID act will be too easily counterfeited by illegals and criminals. It will be this way by design.

After the REAL ID act is shown to be obsolete, the implants will be introduced.

It's all part of the plan folks.

[TruthBringer]

What is referred to as a "smart card" is the method by which these cards will operate.

They will contain the inclusion of RFID technology which will mean a tiny microchip implanted in their make up which will contain pertinent data on each cardholder respectively.

The data will be available to such machines as Card readers that will transmit a signal that the card will answer with a download to the reader of the contents of the cards chip.

This information will eventually consist of medical records, and personall data like previous convictions, be they federal or state, perhaps a military record of service, and a link to the big computer data bases which hold other info such as financial, political, personal, and other data deemed appropriate for collection and storage of every ones personal lives....

Money and hardware has been allocated to this intelligence project in the past, but it was disassembled into chunks by congress, though they did not stop its separate entities from completion.

The re-combination of these elements will be swift and the original intentions of it met with the issuance of these national IDs.

The data base already exists!

The cards will also act as a survielance tool of unerring accuracy that will be employed against every american and foriegn resident.

All movement within the country and outside it will be monitored through large computing capacity, and the card will eventually be required for so many things as to give a very detailed description of movements and whereabouts, as well as financial and other information that will make our lives transparant to analysis and subject to review and question with very little personal freedom or privacy allowed to exist.

[TruthBringer]

-

On June 6, 2006, 6-6-6, George Bush announces the REAL ID System.

[TruthBringer]

Aaron Russo had a lot to say about this

This video : has quite a bit about a pre-9/11 conversation with Nicholas Rockefeller. It goes into the the RFID system. This one is the longer version from a documentary called Zeitgeist :

[TruthBringer]

[TruthBringer]

RFID chips, tiny tracking devices the size of a grain of dust, can be used to secretly identify you and the things you're carrying--right through your clothes, wallet, backpack, or purse.

Have you already taken one home with you?

A new consumer goods tracking system called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is poised to enter all of our lives, with profound implications for consumer privacy. RFID couples radio frequency (RF) identification technology with highly miniaturized computers that enable products to be identified and tracked at any point along the supply chain.

The system could be applied to almost any physical item, from ballpoint pens to toothpaste, which would carry their own unique information in the form of an embedded chip. The chip sends out an identification signal allowing it to communicate with reader devices and other products embedded with similar chips.

Analysts envision a time when the system will be used to identify and track every item produced on the planet.

[TruthBringer]

RFID employs a numbering scheme called EPC (for "electronic product code") which can provide a unique ID for any physical object in the world. The EPC is intended to replace the UPC bar code used on products today.

Unlike the bar code, however, the EPC goes beyond identifying product categories--it actually assigns a unique number to every single item that rolls off a manufacturing line. For example, each pack of cigarettes, individual can of soda, light bulb or package of razor blades produced would be uniquely identifiable through its own EPC number.

Once assigned, this number is transmitted by a radio frequency ID tag (RFID) in or on the product. These tiny tags, predicted by some to cost less than 1 cent each, are "somewhere between the size of a grain of sand and a speck of dust." They are to be built directly into food, clothes, drugs, or auto-parts during the manufacturing process.

Receiver or reader devices are used to pick up the signal transmitted by the RFID tag. Proponents envision a pervasive global network of millions of receivers along the entire supply chain -- in airports, seaports, highways, distribution centers, warehouses, retail stores, and in the home. This would allow for seamless, continuous identification and tracking of physical items as they move from one place to another, enabling companies to determine the whereabouts of all their products at all times.

[TruthBringer]

Steven Van Fleet, an executive at International Paper, looks forward to the prospect. "We'll put a radio frequency ID tag on everything that moves in the North American supply chain," he enthused recently.

The ultimate goal is for RFID to create a "physically linked world" in which every item on the planet is numbered, identified, catalogued, and tracked. And the technology exists to make this a reality. Described as "a political rather than a technological problem," creating a global system "would . . . involve negotiation between, and consensus among, different countries." Supporters are aiming for worldwide acceptance of the technologies needed to build the infrastructure within the next few years.

[drumbunny1]

Okay, but wouldn't having these ID cards help with illegal immigration?

[Bryn Mawr]

Jester;759219 wrote: Can you please link this statement to a factual accounting? I need to know if a grain of dust can be a tracking device. This is pretty far fetched to me. I understand that being dusted with a sunbstance then identified through specific camera's is possible, but a single trackign device the size of a 'grain of dust? I need proof of that.


The closest I can get to that is Smartwater but that's chemical and not radio.

[TruthBringer]

Guys. Come on. Technology is far more pronounced today than many people realize.

[TruthBringer]

Though many RFID proponents appear focused on inventory and supply chain efficiency, others are developing financial and consumer applications that, if adopted, will have chilling effects on consumers' ability to escape the oppressive surveillance of manufacturers, retailers, and marketers. Of course, government and law enforcement will be quick to use the technology to keep tabs on citizens, as well.

The European Central Bank has been quietly working to embed RFID tags in the fibers of Euro banknotes since 2005. The tag allows money to carry its own history by recording information about where it has been, thus giving governments and law enforcement agencies a means to literally "follow the money" in every transaction. If and when RFID devices are embedded in banknotes, the anonymity that cash affords in consumer transactions will be eliminated.

Hitachi Europe wants to supply the tags. The company has developed a smart tag chip that--at just 0.3mm square and as thin as a human hair -- can easily fit inside of a banknote. Mass-production of the new chip is currently underway.

[TruthBringer]

RFID would expand marketers' ability to monitor individuals' behavior to undreamt of extremes. With corporate sponsors like Wal-Mart, Target, the Food Marketing Institute, Home Depot, and British supermarket chain Tesco, as well as some of the world's largest consumer goods manufacturers including Proctor and Gamble, Phillip Morris, and Coca Cola it may not be long before RFID-based surveillance tags begin appearing in every store-bought item in a consumer's home.

According to a video tour of the "Home of the Future" and "Store of the Future" sponsored by Proctor and Gamble, applications could include shopping carts that automatically bill consumers' accounts (cards would no longer be needed to link purchases to individuals), refrigerators that report their contents to the supermarket for re-ordering, and interactive televisions that select commercials based on the contents of a home's refrigerator.

Now that shopper cards have whetted their appetite for data, marketers are no longer content to know who buys what, when, where, and how. As incredible as it may seem, they are now planning ways to monitor consumers' use of products within their very homes. RFID tags coupled with indoor receivers installed in shelves, floors, and doorways, could provide a degree of omniscience about consumer behavior that staggers the imagination.

[TruthBringer]

Consider the following statements by John Stermer, Senior Vice President of eBusiness Market Development at ACNielsen:

"After bar codes the next 'big thing' was frequent shopper cards. While these did a better job of linking consumers and their purchases, loyalty cards were severely limited...consider the usage, consumer demographic, psychographic and economic blind spots of tracking data.... Something more integrated and holistic was needed to provide a ubiquitous understanding of on- and off-line consumer purchase behavior, attitudes and product usage. The answer: RFID (radio frequency identification) technology.... In an industry first, RFID enables the linking of all this product information with a specific consumer identified by key demographic and psychographic markers....Where once we collected purchase information, now we can correlate multiple points of consumer product purchase with consumption specifics such as the how, when and who of product use."

[TruthBringer]

Marketers aren't the only ones who want to watch what you do in your home. Enter again the health surveillance connection. Some have suggested that pill bottles in medicine cabinets be tagged with RFID devices to allow doctors to remotely monitor patient compliance with prescriptions.

While developers claim that RFID technology will create "order and balance" in a chaotic world, even the center's executive director, Kevin Ashton, acknowledges there's a "Brave New World" feel to the technology. He admits, for example, that people might balk at the thought of police using RFID to scan the contents of a car's trunk without needing to open it.

The Center's co-director, Sanjay E. Sarma, has already begun planning strategies to counter the public backlash he expects the system will encounter.

[AussiePam]

I agree with my fellow Aussie. Bring them on !!

[TruthBringer]

I know that a Big Brother vision of the future sounds farfetched. I assure you that this seemingly impossible future is on the drawing board, and I promise that you will be convinced, too.

In a future world laced with RFID spychips, cards in your wallet could "squeal" on you as you enter malls, retail outlets, and grocery stores, announcing your presence and value to businesses. Reader devices hidden in the doors, walls, displays, and floors could frisk the RFID chips in your clothes and other items on your person to determine your age, sex, and preferences. Since spychip information travels through clothing, they could even get a peek at the color and size of your underwear.

I'm not joking. A major worldwide clothing manufacturer named Benetton has already tried to embed RFID chips into women's undergarments. And they would have gotten away with it, too, had it not been for an international outcry.

While consumers might be able to avoid spychipped clothing brands for now, they could be forced to wear RFID-enabled work clothes to earn a living. Already uniform companies like AmeriPride and Cintas are embedding RFID tracking tags into their clothes that can withstand high temperature commercial washings.

Don't have to wear a chipped uniform to work? Your RFID-enabled employee badge could do the spying instead. One day, these devices could tell management who you're chatting with at the water cooler and how long you've spent in the restroom and even whether or not you've washed your hands. There's already a product called iHygiene that can monitor the handwashing habits of RFID-tagged employees during bathroom visits.

Our next generation of workers could be conditioned to obediently accept this degrading surveillance through forced early exposure. Some schools are already requiring students to wear spychipped identification badges around their necks to keep closer tabs on their daily activities. If Johnny is one-minute late for math class, the system knows. It's always watching.

Retailers are thrilled at the idea of being able to price products according to your purchase history and value to the store. RFID will allow them to assess your worth as you pick up products and flash you a corresponding customer-specific price. Prime customers might pay three dollars for a staple like peanut butter while "bargain shoppers" or the economically challenged could be charged twice as much. The goal is to encourage the loyalty of shoppers who contribute to the profit margins while discouraging those who don't. After all, stores justify, why have unprofitable customers cluttering the store and breathing their air?

[TruthBringer]

RFID chips embedded in passbooks and ATM cards will identify and profile customers as they enter bank lobbies, beaming bank balances to employees who will snicker at the customer with a mere thirty-seven dollars in the bank while offering white glove treatment to the high-rollers.

RFID could also be used to infringe upon civil liberties. The technology could give government officials the ability to electronically frisk citizens without their knowledge and set up invisible checkpoints on roads and in pedestrian zones to monitor their movements.

While RFID proponents claim they would never use RFID to track people, the fact is that they are not only considering it, they've done it. The United States government has already controlled people with RFID-laced bracelets—and not just criminals. And now they're planning to embed spychips in U.S. passports so citizens can be tracked as they move about airport terminals and cross international borders.

Hitting the open road will no longer be the "get away from it all" experience many of us crave. You may already be under surveillance, courtesy of your RFID-enabled highway toll transponder. Some highways, like those in the Houston area, have set up readers that probe the tag's information every few miles. But that's child's play compared to what they've got planned. The Federal Highway Administration is joining with states and vehicle manufacturers to promote "intelligent vehicles" that can be monitored and tracked through built-in RFID devices (Minority Report-style).

RFID spychips in your shoes and car tires will make it possible for strangers to track you as you walk and drive through public and private spaces, betraying your habits and the deepest secrets even your own mother has no right knowing. Pair RFID devices with global positioning (GPS) technology, and you could literally be pinpointed on the globe in real time, creating a borderless tracking system that already has law enforcement, governments, stalkers, and voyeurs salivating.

There will be no more secret love letters in the RFID world, either—not if the U.S. Postal Service has its way. They would like to embed every postage stamp with an RFID chip that would enable point-to-point tracking. Even more disturbingly, RFID could remove the anonymity of cash. Already, the European Union has discussed chipping Euro banknotes, and the Bank of Japan is contemplating a similar program for high-value currency. Your every purchase could be under the microscope.

So could your trash. In the RFID world, garbage will become a snoop's and criminal's best friend. Today, it's a dirty job sifting through diapers and table scraps to get at tell-tale signs of a household's market value, habits, and purchases. In the RFID world, scanning trash could be a simple as driving down the street with a car-mounted reader on trash day.

How about the "smart" house? Researchers have developed prototype "homes of the future" to showcase RFID-enabled household gadgets like refrigerators that know what's in them (and can tattletale to marketers), medicine cabinets that talk (to your doctor, government, and HMO), and floors that keep track of where you are at each moment. The potential is staggering. Your insurance company could remotely monitor your food consumption and set rates accordingly, health officials could track the prescription drugs you're taking, and attorneys could subpoena your home activity records for use against you in court.

[TruthBringer]

Home RFID networks will allow family members to remotely track you during your "golden years," or times of incompetence, real or otherwise. Doors can remain bolted to keep you from wandering, toilets can monitor your bowel habits and transmit data to distant physicians, and databases can sense your state of mind. It's all under development and headed your way.

But chipping inanimate objects is just the start. The endpoint is a form of RFID that can be injected into flesh. Pets and livestock are already being chipped, and there are those who believe humans should be next. Incredibly, bars have begun implanting their patrons with glass-encapsulated RFID tags that can be used to pay for drinks. This application startles many Christians who have likened payment applications of RFID to biblical predictions about the Mark of the Beast, a number the book of Revelation says will be needed to buy or sell in the "end times."

While some of these applications are slated for our future, others are already here, right now—and they're spreading. Wal-Mart has mandated that its top one hundred suppliers affix RFID tags to crates and pallets being shipped to selected warehouses. Analysts estimate this one initiative alone has already driven close to $250 million worth of investment in the technology. Other retailers such as Albertsons, Target, and Best Buy have followed suit with mandates of their own. According to one industry analyst, there are now sixty thousand companies operating under RFID mandates and scrambling to get with the spychip program as quickly as possible.

Adding fuel to the fire, the Department of Defense is also requiring suppliers to use RFID. In fact, government cheerleaders can't fall over themselves fast enough to support the technology. The Department of Homeland Security is testing the use of RFID in visas, and the Social Security Administration is using spychips to track citizen files. Not to be outdone, the Food and Drug Administration wants RFID on all prescription drugs, and the makers of Oxycontin and Viagra have already begun to comply. The FDA has also approved the use of subcutaneous RFID implants for managing patient medical records the same implants being used to track bar patrons.

You may have already brought a spychip home with you. If you own a toll transponder or a Mobil Speedpass, you're interacting with RFID every time you use it. And if you bought Procter & Gamble's Lipfinity lipstick at a Wal-Mart in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, between March and June of 2003, you could have brought home a live RFID chip in the product packaging and unknowingly starred in a video, too!

P&G is not the only company that's tested spychips on unwitting consumers. Gillette was also caught tagging packages of Mach3 razor blades with some of the 500 million (that's half a billion!) RFID chips it put on order in early 2003. There's also evidence to suggest that other everyday products like Pantene Shampoo, Purina Dog Chow, and Huggies baby wipes may have been tagged with RFID chips and sold to unsuspecting consumers.

[TruthBringer]

Why would anyone want to keep such close track on everyday objects? The answer is simple. Businesses want the technology to give them complete visibility of their products at all times. Having this real-time knowledge would allow them to keep products on store shelves and know precisely what's in their warehouses. They also believe it could help them fight theft and counterfeiting. Theoretically, it could even eliminate the checkstand, since doorways could scan your purchases automatically when you leave the store and charge them to an RFID-based account.

While some of these goals may sound appealing, the problem is what happens when spychipped products leave the store with us and find their way into other areas of our lives.

The seamy details that have been discovered make the spychipped future look more like the ending scene of a gut-wrenching Outer Limits episode.

[TruthBringer]

One of the consumer privacy nightmares is for those little anti-theft tags (known in the industry as "EAS" tags) to someday be combined with individually trackable RFID chips and slipped into consumer products.

An article in the RFID Journal (posted below), reveals that Checkpoint Systems has actually developed a product tag that combines anti-theft and RFID tracking capabilities. The tags were at the RFID Journal Live! Conference in Orlando, Florida. What's more, Sensormatic, Checkpoint's only serious competitor, is running a whole conference session to describe the benefits of using this combined tracking technology.

This is beyond a doubt one of the most important and dangerous developments in the consumer privacy arena today. It means consumers may soon be buying, wearing, and carrying products tagged with RFID at the item level, because Checkpoint and Sensormatic specialize in hiding anti-theft tags deep inside of products, then distributing those products to nearly a million retail locations worldwide.

Now they want to do the same thing with RFID spychips. If they are not stopped, Checkpoint and Sensormatic will soon be hiding these dual-use tracking devices in your belongings, where they will be able to silently and secretly transmit information about you to marketers, criminals, and Big Brother.

This will be a consumer privacy nightmare and no one will even know it's happening. That's because industry lobbyists have prevented RFID labeling legislation from passing anywhere in the nation. There is no requirement that retailers or manufacturers tell us when they're hiding RFID tags in our clothes, shoes, books, or anything else.

Our only protection against this threat is the strength of our voices and the power of our protests.

Here is a list of the companies that have joined the RFID journal conferences:

Academy Sports & Outdoors

Albertsons

The ALDO Group

Anheuser-Busch

Best Buy

Blockbuster

Blommer Chocolate

Brass Eagle

CDW Corp.

Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream

Electrolux

Energizer Battery

Fuji Photo Film USA

The Gap

General Mills

Gillette Company

Hampton Products

Hasbro

Hershey Foods

Hewlett Packard (HP)

Hunter Fan

Hy-Vee, Inc.

Jockey International

Johnson & Johnson

Johnsonville Sausage

Kellogg Co.

Kimberly-Clark

Limited Brands

L'Oreal USA

Loblaws

Louisville Bedding

Lowe's Companies

Luxottica Retail

Maidenform Worldwide

Mars

Marubeni America

Masterfoods USA

McIlhenny Co.

Meyer Corp.

Nestle USA

Newell Rubbermaid

OfficeMax

Pacific Cycle

Payless Shoe Source

Pharmavite

Procter & Gamble

S. C. Johnson

SAKS Inc.

Sara Lee Foods

Schick

Scott Paper Limited

Sears

Sears Canada

Sherwin-Williams

Storekraft

Stride Rite Corp.

Tanimura & Antle

Target Corp.

The Valvoline Co.

Unilever

Wal-Mart

Walgreens

Wm Wrigley Jr Co

Wegmans

To learn more about the conference, and to see a video on it, see: http://www.rfidjournalevents.com/live/

[TruthBringer]

Write to as many of these companies as you can. Let them know how strongly you oppose RFID spychips. When you're done writing an email, call their customer service lines for good measure. Send a fax, write snail mail, send a singing telegram. But whatever you do, don't take this lying down. We need everyone we can to put a stop to this.

[drumbunny1]

Oh I really don't think these "chips" are going to happen anytime soon.....thats just my opinion anyways. As for the ID cards....I'll take one!!! If it will help out, why not? If your a law abiding citizen with nothing to hide then why should you care if it would prevent illegal immigration and terrorism? As for the microchip....microchip me up baby!!!:D

[TruthBringer]

drumbunny1;760101 wrote: Oh I really don't think these "chips" are going to happen anytime soon.....thats just my opinion anyways. As for the ID cards....I'll take one!!! If it will help out, why not? If your a law abiding citizen with nothing to hide then why should you care if it would prevent illegal immigration and terrorism? As for the microchip....microchip me up baby!!!:D


In all due respect, they have already chipped people. So yes, the "chips" have already happened.

And, from what I read from your post....clearly you are losing your mind? And willing to give up your freedom for....basicly nothing?

The ID cards will not prevent terrorism in any way. They will be easy to counterfeit. As far as immigration? Same thing.

No....these ID cards are the first step in a plan to crack down on all Americans. To turn the United States into a police state. The Nazi's did the same thing. Along with disarming the population. The corrupt section of the United States government has already created the ID card, and it shouldn't be too much longer before they attempt to disarm our population as well.

It was never the plan to have the ID cards "work" for Americans. They are purposely designed to fail (and they will), so that they can then eventually introduce and then mandate the microchip to all Americans who wish to live in their society.

[drumbunny1]

Where have they microchipped people? I'm not arguing with you....just curious to know where they've already done it? So they'll be easy to duplicate huh? Like a driver license? Because I know those are duplicated...but now a lot of them have like a bar code on the back and its swiped like a credit card to determine authenticity...THATS pretty hard to duplicate! So what exactly are you afraid of? You think they'll start watching every move everyone makes and then disarm us?

I also don't mind an "invasion" of my privacy if like I said its to help with the greater good of things...I have nothing to hide! Well....almost nothing.

[TruthBringer]

drumbunny1;760103 wrote: Where have they microchipped people? I'm not arguing with you....just curious to know where they've already done it? So they'll be easy to duplicate huh? Like a driver license? Because I know those are duplicated...but now a lot of them have like a bar code on the back and its swiped like a credit card to determine authenticity...THATS pretty hard to duplicate! So what exactly are you afraid of? You think they'll start watching every move everyone makes and then disarm us?

I also don't mind an "invasion" of my privacy if like I said its to help with the greater good of things...I have nothing to hide! Well....almost nothing.


All you have to do is go to any search engine and type in the words "Microchips implanted in Human Beings", and you will have your answer.

They don't care whether you have anything to hide. That's not why they are doing this. They want to take your freedoms away. One by one, until you are finally nothing more than a slave to the police-state. The coming American police-state.

[drumbunny1]

Whats a police state?

[TruthBringer]

drumbunny1;760105 wrote: Whats a police state?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_state http://www.hyperdictionary.com/search.a ... lice+state+

[Accountable]

TruthBringer;760093 wrote: Don't have to wear a chipped uniform to work? Your RFID-enabled employee badge could do the spying instead. One day, these devices could tell management who you're chatting with at the water cooler and how long you've spent in the restroom and even whether or not you've washed your hands. There's already a product called iHygiene that can monitor the handwashing habits of RFID-tagged employees during bathroom visits.
I really don't have the time to read your volumes, Truth. I scanned a few paragraphs and saw this. You seem to be implying that such things are bad. Why is this bad?



I understand the implications of giving the gov't such power over the citizenry, but this particular use seems like a great idea to me.

[grh]

So, here's my question..

Which of my identities will it be tracking?





:sneaky:

[TruthBringer]

The Real ID Act, which is a law signed by President Bush in May 2005, and, if it is accepted by and carried out by the states, would turn state drivers licenses into a genuine national identity card and impose numerous new burdens on taxpayers, citizens, immigrants, and state governments.

Real ID would force the states to standardize drivers licenses cards across the nation into a single national identity card and database. It does this by stipulating that state drivers licenses and state ID cards will not be accepted for federal purposes including boarding an aircraft or entering a federal facility unless they meet all of the laws numerous conditions, which include:

Standardized data elements and security features on the IDs.

A machine readable zone that will allow for the easy capture of all the data on the ID by stores or anyone else with a reader.

The construction of a 50-state, interlinked database making all the information in each persons file available to all the other states and to the federal government.

A requirement that states verify the issuance, validity and completeness of every document presented at motor vehicles agencies (usually called DMVs) as part of an application for a Real ID card.

[TruthBringer]

Whats Wrong With Real ID



Its a national identity system. The standardized national drivers licenses created by Real ID would become a key part of a system of identity papers, databases, status and identity checks and access control points an internal passport that will increasingly be used to track and control individuals movements and activities.

Will not be effective against terrorism. The fact is, identity-based security is not an effective way to stop terrorism. ID documents do not reveal anything about evil intent and even if they did, determined terrorists will always be able to obtain fraudulent documents (either counterfeit or real documents bought from corrupt officials).

Will be a nightmare for state governments. Real ID requires state governments to remake their drivers licenses, restructure many of their computer databases and other systems, create an extensive new document-storage system, and perhaps most difficult of all verify the issuance, validity and completeness of every document presented at DMVs. See Real Burdens.

Will mean higher fees, long lines, and bureaucratic nightmares for individuals. Because Congress ordered but did not pay for these mandates, which will cost states billions of dollars, fees on individuals applying for drivers licenses will inevitably rise, perhaps steeply. Individuals are also likely to confront slower service, longer lines, and frequent bureaucratic snafus in obtaining these ID cards. Many unlucky individuals will find themselves caught in a bureaucratic nightmare as they run up against the complexities of this law.



Increased security and ID-theft risks. The creation of a single interlinked database as well as the requirement that each DMV store copies of every birth certificate and other documents presented to it will create a one-stop shop for identity thieves.

Will be exploited by the private sector to invade privacy. Real ID would make it easy for anybody in private industry to snap up the data on these IDs. Already, bars often swipe licenses to collect personal data on customers but that will prove to be just the tip of the iceberg as every convenience store learns to grab that data and sell it to data companies for a dime.

Will expand over time. The Real ID database will inevitably, over time, become the repository for more and more data on individuals, and will be drawn on for an ever-wider set of purposes. Its standardized machine-readable interface will drive its integration into an ever-growing network of identity checks and access control points each of which will create new data trails that will in turn be linked to that central database or its private-sector shadow equivalent.

[TruthBringer]

The Real ID Act has been passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush. But its acceptance in the states is far from assured. And the states have to come into compliance, or their citizens drivers licenses will eventually no longer be accepted for federal purposes. But the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must first complete work creating regulations that spell out in more detail exactly what the states must do to make compliant IDs.

The Act was not passed through a true democratic process. It was slipped through Congress in May 2005 in a must-pass Iraq War/Tsunami relief supplemental bill, as part of a deal reached between the powerful Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R, Wis.) and the Congressional leadership. There was no time for sufficient consideration of the Act and its sweeping implications; in the Senate, there was not even a single hearing held on the Act. The result is that Real ID lacks the legitimacy that comes from having been studied, debated, considered, and directly voted upon by Americans elected representatives.

The game is not over, it has just moved into the states. Although the Act was passed by Congress, Real ID cannot go into effect without a multitude of actions in the states. State legislatures must appropriate money and, in most cases, change state laws. State executives must remake or build anew all the administrative machinery required to comply with the Acts numerous mandates. And a lot of people at the state level do not like what they see.

Broad interest-group opposition. Opponents range from privacy and civil liberties organizations like the ACLU to conservative groups to immigration groups.

Its a bad Act. Most fundamentally, the Real ID Act has sparked opposition because it would not be good for our country.

The opposition to Real ID is broad and deep, and despite its passage by Congress, there remains an excellent chance that it will be reversed in part or in whole.

[TruthBringer]

Simply put, Real ID would offer significant costs and disadvantages without any corresponding advantages:

By definitively turning drivers licenses into a form of national identity documents, Real ID would have a tremendously destructive impact on privacy.

The Act would impose significant administrative burdens and expenses on state governments, and would mean higher fees, longer lines, repeat visits to the DMV, and bureaucratic nightmares for individuals.

Yet, it would not be effective at increasing security against terrorism or bring any other benefits which would justify those costs.

[Accountable]

Accountable;760162 wrote: [click the blue arrow]
Thank you for answering my post so succinctly. :yh_wait

[TruthBringer]

Accountable;760389 wrote: Thank you for answering my post so succinctly. :yh_wait


Was there something you wanted us to take a look at?

[TruthBringer]

Real ID would significantly strain state governments. Among the most significant burdens:

It would require the states to remake their driver's licenses, restructure many of their computer databases and other systems, create an extensive new document-storage system, and considerably expanded their security measures.

It would require the states to set up an interstate data-sharing network, which would also require complex administrative, technical, and security measures.

It includes a devilishly difficult mandate that states verify the issuance, validity and completeness of every birth certificate, immigration document, utility bill, and any other document presented at DMVs as part of an application for a Real ID card.

Yet, it leaves the DMVs with no way to compel utility companies or other document issuers to cooperate with that verification.

It would require states to expand their DMV payrolls, initiate or expand employee training in such areas as security, document verification, and immigration law, and initiate or expand security clearance procedures for their workers.

Many in state government are saying that it would be nearly impossible to comply with Real ID by the Act's deadline.

[TruthBringer]

Real ID would mean higher fees, inconveniences, and bureaucratic nightmares for individuals.

Higher fees. Because the Act's mandates would cost states billions of dollars that Congress is not paying for, fees on individuals applying for driver's licenses would inevitably rise, perhaps steeply. State taxes might also go up.

Worse service. Because of the new document requirements for individuals, the labor-intensive complexities involved in verifying those documents, and the need for DMVs to reprocess the bulk of the population that already has driver's licenses, individuals would be likely to confront slower service, longer lines, and the need for repeat visits to the DMV.

Bureaucratic problems. The complicated yet often ambiguous maze of requirements created by the Act would throw many unlucky individuals into a bureaucratic quagmire as they try to overcome inflexible verification requirements, bureaucratic errors or mismatches, lost documents, unique circumstances, or other problems. Some individuals, inevitably, would find themselves unable to obtain these new identity papers.

These kinds of problems would be significant for anyone. In addition, for many low-income workers for whom taking off time from work is difficult or expensive, the need for repeated trips to the DMV (and to other agencies such as registrar's offices in search of birth certificates) would be an even greater burden.