Ben Finney <[email protected]> writes: > Russ Allbery <[email protected]> writes:
>> For example, I think US drivers' licenses are only verifiable by >> someone who's lived in that state or otherwise seen drivers' licenses >> from that state. I really dislike seeing people use them at key >> signings and would rather see people use passports. > Presumably this is because the identity checking for a passport is > much more careful and strict than for a driver's license. Not really. It's more that every state issues very different driver's licenses, so unless you're familiar with it or have a manual it's very hard to verify it. Whereas a US passport looks quite a bit like a passport from many other countries, with the fairly common booklet-style layout. It also always has a picture with forgery protection, whereas some state driver's licenses are very, very low-security. >> I suspect you're going to see a ton of them in the 2010 Debconf key >> signing, though, since a lot of people in the US simply never bother >> to get a passport. > Presumably this is because the identity checking for a passport is much > more careful and strict than fro a driver's license. No, almost definitely not, speaking as a US citizen. The identity checking is pretty much identical to what's required to get a driver's license. It's more because very few people in the US ever travel internationally, and getting a passport costs a reasonable amount of money and is a hassle. So people just don't bother. It was even worse when one could travel to and from Canada and Mexico without a passport. Then to a first approximation only richer people who vacationed in Europe ever bothered. -- Russ Allbery ([email protected]) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/> -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected]
