Why Real ID is a flawed idea

Don't Forget the Benefits!: I too advocate a distributed data model to ensure there are multiple levels of security, including obfuscation.

What many people overlook is the benefit of being able to uniquely identify each person in the US. First response from the uneducated, or at least those who have never actually read 1984 is "Big Brother! Big Brother!" That argument doesn't apply because Big Brother was a benign system to support those who willingly surrendered control over themselves.

Go beyond the tremendous savings in benefits administration, immigration processing, and criminal prosecution. Over 60,000 people each year die in hospitals because of mistaken identity. There were 8.4 million identity theft victims in 2007 which means for every 140 cases of identity theft someone died because of being anonymous when it counted! Linking medical records to a universal identifier would prevent 99% of these mistakes according to individuals with the Kaiser Foundation and IBM who conducted the research.

As long as fear mongers focus on avoidance rather than figuring out how to make it happen more people will die and other costs will continue to spiral out of control. What's wrong with knowing who you are? Freedom does not extend to annonymity otherwise there would be no reason for a foundation of laws.; Posted by: spammaster@... Posted on: 01/31/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use