Privacy and the Government - Ethics for the Information Age - page 299

scale....TheroadtoanOrwellian police state of universal tracking, but actually
reduced security, could well be paved with hundreds of millions of such [national
identification] cards” [75].
5. While most people may feel they have nothing to fear from a national identification
card system since they are law-abiding citizens, even law-abiding people are subject to
fraud and the indiscretions and errors of others.
Suppose a teacher, a doctor, or someone else in a position of authority creates
a file containing misleading or erroneous information. Files created by people in
positions of authority can be difficult to remove [76].
In a society with decentralized record keeping, old school or medical records
are less likely to be accessed. The harm caused by inaccurate records is reduced. If
all records are centralized around national identification numbers, files containing
inaccurate or misleading information could haunt individuals for the rest of their
lives.
6.9.3 The REAL ID Act
In May 2005, President George W. Bush signed the REAL ID Act, which would signif-
icantly change driver's licenses in the United States. To date, this law has not been put
into effect. The motivation for passing the REAL ID Act was to make the driver's license
a more reliable form of identification. Critics, however, say the act would create a de
facto national ID card in the United States.
The REAL ID Act requires that every state issue new driver's licenses. These licenses
will be needed in order to open a bank account, fly on a commercial airplane, enter a
federal building, or receive a government service, such as a Social Security check. The
law makes it more difficult for impostors to get driver's licenses, by requiring applicants
to supply four different kinds of documentation and requiring state employees to verify
these documents using federal databases. Because the new driver's license contains a
biometric identifier, it is supposed to be a stronger credential than current licenses [77].
Although each state is responsible for issuing new driver's licenses to its citizens,
these licenses must meet federal standards. The license must include the person's full
legal name, date of birth, gender, driver's license number, digital photograph, legal ad-
dress, and signature. All data on the license must be in machine-readable form. The
license must have physical security features designed to prevent tampering, counterfeit-
ing, or duplication [78]. The federal government estimates the total cost of implement-
ing REAL ID nationwide to be more than $23 billion—or more than $100 per driver's
license.
Supporters of the measure say making the driver's license a more reliable identifier
will have numerous benefits. Law enforcement is easier when police can be more certain
that a driver's license correctly identifies the individual carrying it. Society is better
off when parents ducking child support and criminals on the run cannot change their
identities by crossing a state border and getting a new driver's license under a different
name [79].