Saw this on Boing Boing which links to an action site. The REAL ID Act has been contentious, judging by the press coverage, so this is apparently an attempt by its proponents to slip it in through another bill. Not an uncommon practice but the costs of this national ID program are concerning as there is no federal funding apparently associated with the program. And the remarks about the hassle aren’t exaggeration as anyone who has recently tried to get or renew a US passport well knows. The privacy implications are also disturbing, we see enough problems with our de facto federal identifier, the SSN, and the de facto state identifier, the driver’s license. I can only imagine the new risks to which we’ll be exposed. Even if it is the same old risks, its one more juicy tag for easier correlation regardless of any individual’s stance on the handling and privacy of their data.
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