So now it’s official. The USA will have national ID cards, with
built-in biometrics. The Clinton administration tried to do
this, and the Republicans had a canary. Now they’ve done it,
but this time they sneaked it in by attaching the legislation to
the emergency funding for the war in Iraq.
Only Clinton never proposed using RFID chips. With those
embedded in your ID card, the government will be able to
monitor your movements remotely. Remember the
horrifying movie “Minority Report” where people’s
movements were monitored everywhere by retinal
scanners? RFID chips are even more powerful. It’s more
like the movie “Xchange” (another science fiction horror
story).
Thank you, big government Republicans!
I’ll be interested to hear from our Bush supporters why this
was totally unacceptable eight years ago, but now is
completely justified.
FAQ: How Real ID will affect you
Published: May 6, 2005, 4:00 AM PDT
By Declan McCullagh
What’s all the fuss with the Real ID Act about? President Bush is expected to sign an $82 billion military
spending bill soon that will, in part, create electronically
readable, federally approved ID cards for Americans. The
House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the
package–which includes the Real ID Act–on Thursday.
What does that mean for me? Starting three years from now, if you live or work in the
United States, you’ll need a federally approved ID card to
travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social
Security payments, or take advantage of nearly any
government service. Practically speaking, your driver’s
license likely will have to be reissued to meet federal
standards.…
…Why did these ID requirements get attached to an
“emergency” military spending bill? Because it’s difficult for politicians to vote against money
that will go to the troops in Iraq and tsunami relief. The
funds cover ammunition, weapons, tracked combat
vehicles, aircraft, troop housing, death benefits, and so
on.
You said the ID card will be electronically readable. What
does that mean?
[i] The Real ID Act says federally accepted ID cards must be
“machine readable,” and lets Homeland Security determine
the details. That could end up being a magnetic strip,
enhanced bar code, or radio frequency identification (RFID)
chips.
In the past, Homeland Security has indicated it likes the
concept of RFID chips. The State Department is already
going to be embedding RFID devices in passports, and
Homeland Security wants to issue RFID-outfitted IDs to
foreign visitors who enter the country at the Mexican and
Canadian borders. The agency plans to start a yearlong test
of the technology in July at checkpoints in Arizona, New York
and Washington state.[/i]…
…Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties
Union’s technology and liberty program, says: “It’s going to
result in everyone, from the 7-Eleven store to the bank and
airlines, demanding to see the ID card. They’re going to
scan it in. They’re going to have all the data on it from the
front of the card…It’s going to be not just a national ID card
but a national database.”
I like the idea. Then if I’m ever driving a long distance trip and I’m flipping through channels in my car to find something that works, I can use the chip in my card to figure out what channel I’m on without having to look down at the radio!
Seriously, though, it won’t be like Minority Report, and it will be far less powerful than the retinal scanners in that movie. I’m sure the chips in those cards are going to have a very limited range-- sort of like the key to my building-- it has a 2cm range.
The fact that it’s automated will just make it easier. As it is, whenever you give your driver’s license number out they can just as easily log that. Personally, I hope that the card will let you give them a form and have it fill out part of your form electronically so you don’t have to fill in the same information in triplicate all the time.
The danger is that they can implant a more powerful chip into specific people’s cards that will be far easier to track, or perhaps eavesdrop without them knowing.
Gee…ya’d think the USA has some kinda ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION problem or something.
They are acting like hospitals and social service programs are going broke due to ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS depleting funds with demands of service.
Wow…who’da thunk it!
An update:
[quote]I Want My Real ID
May 05, 2005, 9:20 a.m.
Immigration enthusiasts are howling about the immigration-security provisions of the Real ID Act, which is part of the Iraq-funding bill the House is expected to vote on today. Their opposition alone would be enough to recommend the measure; but the substance is also compelling.
As its name suggests, the key element of Real ID is establishing federal minimum standards for the driver’s licenses and non-driver IDs issued by the states. Such a reform was specifically highlighted in the 9/11 Commission’s report, and with good reason.
No one seeking to open a bank account, rent a truck, board a plane, or enter a nuclear-power plant can do so without ID, because the mobility and anonymity of modern society make it imperative that people be able to prove who they are. In our decentralized system of government, state driver’s licenses have evolved to serve this purpose, and making it as hard as possible for terrorists and other bad guys to get these documents is an important piece of any homeland security strategy. After all, two of the 9/11 hijackers were able to get multiple state IDs after they had become illegal aliens, and future enemy operatives are even more likely to be illegal aliens, as legal entry becomes harder for them.
Concerns from some opponents about the development of a centralized national ID card are not to be disregarded, but they are misplaced in this instance. State driver’s licenses already serve as de facto national IDs. They are the only practicable national IDs we can have
Low transmission RFID has a 6 foot range! 6 FOOT RANGE!!! Hi transmission RFID has a 90 foot range. You need a government agent following you within 6 feet away or 90 feet away pointing a 6inch X 6inch grey block directly at you in order to “track you”. This article is a silly scare tactic or from some idiot who has no idea how the technology works.
Have you written papers on RFID for Symbol? Experimented with the technology for Symbol? NO I DON’T THINK SO! BUT I HAVE! Ugh. annoyed
[quote=“ShrimpCrackers”]Low transmission RFID has a 6 foot range! 6 FOOT RANGE!!! Hi transmission RFID has a 90 foot range. You need a government agent following you within 6 feet away or 90 feet away pointing a 6inch X 6inch grey block directly at you in order to “track you”. This article is a silly scare tactic or from some idiot who has no idea how the technology works.
Have you written papers on RFID for Symbol? Experimented with the technology for Symbol? NO I don’t THINK SO! BUT I have! Ugh. annoyed[/quote]
In a big city such as New York, you have a zillion places to put sensors - on subway trains (as the retina scanners depicted in Minority Report), buses, in stores, elevators, etc. Especially after the World Trade Center was destroyed, I can see the logic being applied: “We’re afraid of terrorists, so we must have sensors everywhere to track them.” With a 90-foot maximum range, you could easily be tracked almost everywhere in New York. I see no reason to assume they are going to use the more limited range low-power RFIDs.
You can already be tracked through a cell phone, of course, but at least you can turn the phone off. I suppose with RFID I can get a lead-lined case to put the driver’s license and passport inside. Of course, maybe that will be made illegal (just as it was in that paranoid movie Xchange).
Of course, you can’t be tracked in rural areas, right? So how about your car? GPS devices in cars are already being used to track their movements (car rental agencies do this, and the FBI has planted GPS devices in cars to track people they wanted to follow). Right now there is no law requiring you to put a GPS in your car, but there have already been proposals to make it mandatory. After the next terrorist attack in America, I can easily believe it will become mandatory and disabling it will be a criminal offense. Combine a GPS with a RFID reader and you have a device to track the IDs of everybody in the car.
Of course, none of this could ever happen, right? Why the USA would NEVER do such a thing as make mandatory RFID ID cards and GPS devices in vehicles. If you can’t trust the US government, who can you trust?
And Wal-Mart will never put RFID tags on their items to track your purchases (whoops, they already announced that they intend to do this).
Now will somebody please remind me why we NEED RFID tags on ID cards, passports, and potato chips? Wouldn’t a simple bar code (in the case of potato chips) or contact smart chip (in the case of ID cards and passports) be enough? Why is it necessary to have a chip that can be tracked remotely, unless you intend to abuse this technology?
You think that movies like Minority Report and Xchange are ridiculously paranoid? I personally think that some of those creeps in the Dept of Homeland Security watch these movies and get ideas.
[quote]What does that mean for me?
Starting three years from now, if you live or work in the
United States, you’ll need a federally approved ID card to
travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social
Security payments, or take advantage of nearly any
government service. Practically speaking, your driver’s
license likely will have to be reissued to meet federal
standards… [/quote]
Those BASTARDS!
ID to travel on an airplane…why? oh sorry, forgot about 911
open a bank acct…why, it’s not like I’d fund hamas or something
collect social security…yeah right, like there’s SS fruad…
any government service…why should they know who they’re helping
[quote]Wal-Mart Looks At Forklift Reader And Next Generation Tag
Wal-Mart is looking to add mobility to its RFID tag readers. At its lab in Bentonville, Ark., it is testing an RFID reader that could be installed on a forklift. This reader would read tags on pallets and transmit data through the RFID network, informing users a myriad of supply-chain data. In six weeks, Wal-Mart hopes to run trials on a new type of RFID tag that uses ultra-high frequency. Such tags are more akin to a global RFID standard. [/quote]
[quote]Wal-Mart Looks At Forklift Reader And Next Generation Tag
Wal-Mart is looking to add mobility to its RFID tag readers. At its lab in Bentonville, Ark., it is testing an RFID reader that could be installed on a forklift. This reader would read tags on pallets and transmit data through the RFID network, informing users a myriad of supply-chain data. In six weeks, Wal-Mart hopes to run trials on a new type of RFID tag that uses ultra-high frequency. Such tags are more akin to a global RFID standard. [/quote]
I do check my facts. Maybe you should too. Right now, the
only thing keeping RFID tags from being applied to each and
every item is the cost, but that is falling. The below article
(which is very pro-Walmart) gives a good overview - a
partial quote:
Downstream) Supply Chain Extension. The above
discussion talked mainly about business-to-business
relationships and transactions, and in the case of Wal-Mart,
using RFID tags at the crate and pallet level. There is great
potential in also applying RFID to the individual product units
purchased by Wal-Mart’s customers, be it DVD players,
clothing, or boxes of Kleenex, for the purposes of managing
inventory within the store shopping floor itself. As the cost of
RFID tags drops closer to the one cent per tag mark, the
temptation for Wal-Mart and others to apply the tags to
individual items will grow. The allure of knowing how, when
and from what shelf or end-cap goods were purchased and
the spatial relationships to other purchases will drive
demand for a new generation of merchandising strategies,
not to mention the prospect of driving shoplifting and
employee theft down to near zero. The demand for these
kinds of systems in turn will drive demand for new forms of
GIS mapping. However, standing in the way is consumer
fear of having their privacy violated.
[quote]I do check my facts. Maybe you should too. Right now, the
only thing keeping RFID tags from being applied to each and
every item is the cost, but that is falling. The below article
(which is very pro-Walmart) gives a good overview - a
partial quote: [/quote]
Well, then the FACT is that they NOW do not tag each individual item, right?
And honestly, who cares? You think gillette is going to send out flying rfid scanners throuhgout neigborhoods seeing where the highest concentrations of ass cream are?
What’s next? RFID tag newborns? Chill man.
BTW I thought the Government chips were your deal, not what walmart is doing? Are you saying they deserve equal attention? Or equal paranoia? The rfid wave is about saving money and time, and IF individual item tags are used, they will most likely only be scannable INSIDE the store. Why the hysteria?
And MTKid, please tell me, what can a can of shaving cream, rfid tagged do to cause me injury or paranoia in my own home? It would most likely read how fast the can is emptied, not what body parts are being shaved? lol
The big question is, how could it possibly be read?
Besides, DB, I am up on RFID as I have been looking for a good tech investments…the prices are simply not close enough to even consider tagging all items…unless they are very very expensive items.
I know, I’m going to find a company that sells rfidtag blockers…sleeves or patches that fit over the bar code…it’ll make millions from wacky consumers who watch too much tv.
I’m not trying to say it’s a good or bad thing, but you should try to look at it objectively is all. It’s like they say, guns don’t kill people, people do.
I can think of all kinds of cool things that could be done with this kind of technology, but I can also think of all kinds of things I won’t want done with it. Are you saying you can’t see anyway something like this could be abused?
Forget kidnapping and crime. Think about what this will do for marketers out there. Marketing freaks me out.
Not to be a party pooper, but this new law reminded me of a quote from a little book with which G.W. Bush might want to refamiliarize himself…
[quote]Revelation 13:16-18
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.[/quote]
Granted it’s not going to be imbedded, yet, but it is interesting food for thought.
I think you’re pretty naive about how technology gets abused. Ever heard the term “mission creep?” When social security numbers were first invented, they were only supposed to be used for collecting social security. Now they are effectively national ID numbers.
When traffic cameras were first deployed in the USA, the authorities promised they would only issue tickets if they could get a photo of the driver. That way, you couldn’t bust the owner of the vehicle if there was any doubt about who was driving. But that requirement went right out the window. Then when the authorities saw what great money makers these cameras were, they started playing tricks like changing the timing on traffic lights so you couldn’t possibly get through a yellow light - green, yellow, red in 1/4 of a second (common here in Taiwan too). Or adjusting the speed limit down from 60 mph to 40 mph within 50 feet. When outraged motorists started shooting at traffic cameras with guns, the authorities installed video cameras to watch the traffic cameras.
Speaking of traffic cameras, they were used to bust protesters in the Tiananmen Square incident in Beijing in 1989.
When aircraft hijackings first started in the 1960s, stringent security measures like x-raying of baggage started. But it wasn’t long before it became mainly used for the war on drugs. Except it wasn’t necessarily drug dealers getting arrested, but teenage kids with a couple of joints in their pocket.
DNA testing - it can be used for a lot of medical things, but now it’s mostly used in criminal investigations. Some enthusiasts want to make it mandatory that everybody submit a blood sample for DNA testing, and the government maintain a DNA database.
The Internet was supposed to spread freedom and democracy. Then the FBI came up with Project Carnivore:
Perhaps the most intrusive web-based technology ever developed, Carnivore possesses the ability to essentially wiretap individuals’ computers, accessing every piece of datum flowing to and from a Central Processing Unit (CPU), provided the data were moved on a network connection. But Carnivore opens up a privacy ‘can of worms,’ as the technology far out-paces present laws aimed at the protection of individual liberty and privacy. And, indeed, the surveillance project has already been examined on a number of grounds, including possible Fourth and First Amendment abuses and violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986. Yet, although several groups have expressed a desire to challenge the project’s constitutionality, the ECPA at present remains the sole source of judicial action concerning Carnivore (American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU], 2002, 2003; StopCarnivoreNow, 2003; Gooldstein & Orr, 2003).
Apparently this wasn’t intrusive enough. The Dept of Homeland Security has replaced Carnivore with the Total Information Awareness (TIA) project:
[i]The Total Information Awareness program is the main reason for the existence of the IAO and it receives the bulk of its funding. Right now, DARPA considers TIA research one of its main priorities. The TIA program is a project that would create a working model for a computerized profile of the intimate details of a citizen’s private life. Neoconservative New York Times columnist William Safire notes the potential of the TIA program as follows:
"Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend — all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as “a virtual, centralized grand database.”[/i]
That’s the way it will go with RFID. Walmart is really only interested in using RFID for inventory control, not fighting terrorists. But as soon as every item in the store carries an RFID tag and every customer has an RFID ID card in his/her wallet, the government steps in and requires Walmart to open its database to the Department of Homeland Security. The RFID sensor knows who bought what - every razor blade and roll of toilet paper you buy gets dumped into a database with your name and ID card number. Paying cash doesn’t make you anonymous - the sensor can read your ID card number right out of your wallet.
And then the FBI demands access to the database for fighting crime. So “Great!” you say - a valuable new tool for fighting crime, just like DNA testing. Good!
No problem, until you have a garage sale, somebody buys your old set of kitchen knives, the buyer uses one to kill his wife and the FBI comes and breaks down your door because the knife is linked to your ID card #. Or you donate some old clothes to the Salavation Army, and the police break down your door and drag you off because your old T-shirt was used as a rag to clean up some equipment in a meth-amphetamine lab.
Of course, none of this is ever going to happen, right? The Dept of Homeland Security would NEVER force Walmart to share their database with the authorities. The police would NEVER use information in a criminal investigation. And they would NEVER violate somebody’s privacy.
Just like the FBI would never look at your records of book purchases or library book borrowings. Whoops - they are doing that now under the Patriot Act, and it’s illegal for the librarian or bookstore owner to tell you.
It’s so trivially easy I’m surprised you ask. The scanners at the checkout counter read your ID off your driver’s license when you open your wallet to pay. So paying cash leaves a record too. And every item you buy gets recorded and linked to your name. There will be a record of everything you buy - the FBI will know how many condoms you buy in a year, any dirty magazines, etc.
The price will fall. Gillette already finds it cost-effective to RFID their high-priced Track III razor blades.
Could it be that your willingness to accept this technology (and all the potential totalitarian abuses) have something to do with the fact that you’d like to have a financial interest in it?
[quote]
I know, I’m going to find a company that sells rfidtag blockers…sleeves or patches that fit over the bar code…it’ll make millions from wacky consumers who watch too much tv. [/quote]
I don’t watch TV. But I’d be interested in a blocker. Better yet, I’d like to buy a scanner, find all the RFID tags that Walmart and others plant in my clothes, and destroy them. Of course, maybe destroying an RFID will be made illegal.
George Orwell forecast that in the future totalitarian world, we would have a “telescreen” in every home. His idea now sounds quaint - RFID is far more effective for monitoring people.
I am just amazed at the number of “conservatives” on this forum who claim to be for “freedom” and “small government” who enthusiastically cheer as their freedom is being eroded. Just like those who helped the Nazis, your reward will be a window seat on the train to the concentration camp.
An article in the Taipei Times sums up the outrage:
States ready to fight over new driver’s license rules
[i]ANTI-TERROR MEASURE: Congress is getting ready to
order states to issue more uniform licenses and confirm
applicants’ immigration status
AP AND NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , WASHINGTON
Wednesday, May 11, 2005,Page 7
US states are threatening to challenge in court or even
disobey new orders from Congress to make driver’s licenses
more uniform and to verify applicants’ citizenship or legal
status.
Some states are concerned they’ll get stuck paying a large
tab to implement the new rules, while making the process of
getting a driver’s license a bigger headache for law-abiding
residents.
“Governors are looking at all their options. If more than half
of the governors agree we’re not going down without a fight
on this, Congress will have to consider changing this
unfunded federal mandate,” said Arkansas Governor Mike
Huckabee, who is vice chairman of the National Governors
Association.
A Huckabee aide said the options included court action.[/i]
DB, First, I do want to thank you for a well thought out response. Shows you care and that’s good in my book.
[quote]
I think you’re pretty naive about how technology gets abused. Ever heard the term “mission creep?” When social security numbers were first invented, they were only supposed to be used for collecting social security. Now they are effectively national ID numbers.[/quote]
Which makes it much more covenient for people to pick up benefits, open bank accounts and such legal things. Seems to me that the biggest problem is ID theft, not the ID itself.
OK, so the technology was used to apprehend people who were, well, breaking the law, right?
Now THIS is intrusive. I find no logical reason why the government needs to do this, unless they assume that everyone has an equal chance of committing a felony. :loco:
[quote]"Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend
[/quote]