Too Much Information?

It's just in the planning stages now, but the EU is considering a standardized Europe-wide ID card that would include biometric information on the cardholder.

Comments

[Jean Bart]

Well, I don't have an issue with such ID cards.

[Anonymous]

>>>Well, I don't have an issue with such ID cards.

more reason to be against them

[WLC]

JB,

Out of curiosity, why not?

[Jean Bart]

WLC,

Because governments track people anyway; better to have the process out in the open than hidden.

[dhex]

plus there's the added benefit of drowning the state in even more paperwork, more redundancy and more tape. though i'm not sure if it would bring anything out in the open, really.

[Tim Cavanaugh]

Because governments track people anyway; better to have the process out in the open than hidden.

Which is the security argument against the national ID card-that it will be easier to fake a national ID than to obtain the wide range of documentation (current bills, birth certificates, drivers licences and so on) that are used to establish bona fides now.

[LauraN]

Once they started requiring fingerprints for drivers licenses, the jig was up. All it takes is someone who has the desire to have that data to reproduce it. IMO, a fingerprint is no longer a safe bit of evidence. It is now forgeable. Just send that data over to a nice rapid prototyping machine and see the gel make a tidy version thereof.

Just call me paranoid. I don't mind.

[Hovig]

LauraN is correct. Japanese researcher Tsutomu Matsumoto fooled fingerprint readers about 80% of the time by covering his finger with gelatin like that found in Gummi Bears, in the shape of another person's fingerprint.

[Anonymous]

I want to see this in the next James Bond flick. Bond tricks the bad guy into holding a warm Gummi bear for a few seconds, then uses the bear to break into the villian's volcano hideout. It could happen.

[LB]

Hmmmmmm...gummy bears

[david f]

"they've been in my pocket all day. they're warm"

[Lonewacko: I Blogged Across Am]

I've been posting about this and similar reports for a while.

[Anonymous]

but wait? acording to the euros, AshcroktKKK and Bushilter are the true threats to civil liberties? confused?

[Douglas Fletcher]

"plus there's the added benefit of drowning the state in even more paperwork, more redundancy and more tape."

The NSA already systematically monitors all the radio & telephone traffic in the country -- what makes you think the government wouldn't find an effective way to deal with the extra paperwork an ID card would bring about?

[latinopundit]

The mark of the beast comes to mind.