On Tue, Jul 05, 2005 at 11:26:54PM -0400, Steven M. Bellovin wrote: > > Let me refer you to a National Academies report (I was on the > committee): Stephen T. Kent and Lynette Millett, ed. IDs -- Not That > Easy: Questions About Nationwide Identity Systems. National Academies > Press, 2002. http://books.nap.edu/html/id_questions/ Briefly, the > report notes that there are a very large number of questions that need > to be answered about any such system before it's even possible to > discuss it intelligently. >
Thanks for the hint, but I am too busy to read it in detail before next week. However, there is a funny thing I need to mention: - In Germany we have an ID card and I have it in my pocket all the time. But actually it is rarely used, I do need it not more than maybe three times a year. At the moment I can't remember to have it used within the last two years, except for in my job when entering high security areas and some protected company premises. But rarely in private life. I know one shop where they do ask for when paying with a card. - In the USA they say they don't have ID cards. But whereever I walk through the streets of cities at the east- or westcoast, they all ask me for picture IDs. Some years ago I couldn't even enter a night club without a picture ID, and in every supermarket they have signs that they don't sell alcohol or cigarettes without picture ID (besides the fact that I neither drink nor smoke). Even in some hotels and gas stations they ask for a picture ID. Isn't that ridiculous? In the USA where they allegedly don't have ID cards you are approx. more than 20 times as often asked for a picture ID than in Germany where we have ID cards officially. Last November I attended an Anti-Spam-Summit at FTC in Washington DC. As usual they were checking for metal in the clothes, x-raying bags, and (*surprise*) asking for a picture ID. Someone didn't have a driving license. They accepted his WalMart Customer Card as a picture ID. Isn't that scary? reards Hadmut --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
