I agree with Markus on many areas. First that it is true that America and Canada have the toughest ID system I have ever encountered in all the countries I lived so far. It only happens to be called a driver licence. In Germany the DL is for "life" and one doesn't have to renew it. This simple requirement makes it a lot less potent as an ID than the US/Canadian DLs
In US one can hardly do anything without DL or without an ID which (at least in NY state one can get from the same place as the DL and it is actually a DL without driving privileges). The only way one can survive without using/needing an ID is if you are paid cash for your work and you pay cash for all goods you buy and you never own a home or a car. But who lives that kind of life? If that is the definition of freedom I prefer to be "in chains". Secondly, I agree that having a unified ID system whether it is called federal DL or whatever, is a convenience for honest people and a headache only for crooks. Also, be assured that the government has enough files on people or methods to make them with or without ID. The only thing the ID would "help" the government do is to better organize its files by ID number, that's all. A. ----- Original Message ----- From: Markus Kuhn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 15:43:43 +0100 To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [USMA:21182] RE: National US drivers licenses (an SI opportunity) > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote on 2002-07-16 15:43 UTC: > > The US driver's licence is supposed to be for *driving* not citizen > > tracking. The clue is in the name. > > The US id cards are only for historical resons called drivers licences. > They are already id cards in most but name. In no country I have > visited, I had to identify myself by photo ID card more often then in > the US, including countries such as Germany where you are (at least in > theory) even supposed/expected to carry your ID card with you. > > > 7 days written notice if they want to see a UK driver's licence, which > > is only a piece of paper ... > > Today, its actually a plastic identification card in ISO 7810 ID-1 > format (the inch-based US banking card standard format 85.60 x 53.98 mm). > > If the UK introduced an ID card, then for the majority of the > population, the drivers licence would also be your ID card at the same > time. The introduction of a government identity scheme means merely, > that the government maintains a high-quality register of all citizens > and legal residents in the country, including their current resitental > address, something which neither the US nor the UK have at the moment, > hence their need for electrolar registers, arcane semi-secure > authentication methods involving utility bills, bank statements, etc. in > many business transactions (such as opening and accessing bank > accounts). It's really more a convenience than a privacy issue, IMHO. > > Markus > > -- > Markus G. Kuhn, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK > Email: mkuhn at acm.org, WWW: <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/> > > -- __________________________________________________________ Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup Save up to $160 by signing up for NetZero Platinum Internet service. http://www.netzero.net/?refcd=N2P0602NEP8
