Federal ID card standards draw harsh criticism

Bob Brewin of GovernmentExecutive.com writes that Federal ID card standards draw harsh criticism.

Standards proposed by the Homeland Security Department for secure drivers licenses and identification cards issued by all 50 states are drawing fire from state officials.

Some people say that REAL ID is not a national identification card because the federal government is not maintaining one database containing everyone's information. But this is a semantic smoke-screen:

The Real ID Act also requires that states provide other states with access to their databases, which the California DMV said could result in an interconnected virtual database of the 242 million driver's licenses in the country that would be a prime target for hackers and criminals.

With networking, there is no need to maintain ONE database. If all 50 state databases are linked, we--in fact-- have one database in the sense of access to the information. It doesn't matter just where the information lies.

Let's think:

1. The standards for REAL ID are set by THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.

2. The drivers' licenses are will be used for many IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES.

3. The driver's license is a small piece of plastic the size of a credit CARD

Therefore, REAL ID is a NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION CARD.

This is not rocket science.

Read more of Bob's article here.