real i.d. act: Big Victory for Big Brother

By tacking the ominous Real ID Act to an $82 billion military spending bill, President Bush won the approval of the Congress and signed the act on May 11. Previously, the Real ID Act, which lays the groundwork for the federal government to track and maintain records of all cardholders movements and purchases, was expected to face opposition in the Senate. But since no politicians want to appear unpatriotic by questioning financial support for US troops, the Act has now sailed through Congress. Regardless of speculation, the bottomline is that passed, 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 if you live or work in the United States.

Advocates of Real ID claim that the stricter verification process for US citizens and foreigners applying for documentation is necessary to thwart terrorism, but many Republican leaders have been vocal about supporting Real ID as a means of thwarting primarily Mexican immigration. The Department of Homeland Security has even begun testing RFID-implanted IDs to foreign visitors who enter through the Mexican and Canadian borders in Arizona, New York and Washington. At a minimum, the Real ID cards will contain the following information: name, birth date, sex, ID number, a digital photograph, address, and “common machine-readable technology” Homeland Security will decide on. The card must also sport “physical security features designed to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or duplication of the document for fraudulent purposes.”

Homeland Security is permitted to add additional requirements--such as a fingerprint or retinal scan--on top of those, but these specifics have yet to be revealed. However, part of the plan is that state DMVs and other agencies (imagine how bad marketing firms will want access to this info) will be able to easily share information. In exchange for federal cash, states must agree to link up their databases. Specifically, the Real ID Act says it hopes to “provide electronic access by a state to information contained in the motor vehicle databases of all other states.”