White House Frowns on National ID Card

sonic writes "'One security measure that [Homeland Defense Chief] Clarke didn't put much store in, however, was a proposal by some industry leaders, including Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, to create a national ID card. Clarke said he could not name one official who supports the idea as proposed, though he said the administration does not yet have a formal position on the concept. "Everyone I've talked to doesn't think it's a good idea," Clarke said. "

Comments

just a little too late

[unformed]

Your social security number is already a national id card. Link it with a driver's license and you're set.

Regardless, this is a good sign. I also think one of the reasons that politicians are backing down on earlier proposals is because the public isn't as furious anymore. Wait about 3-6 months and few will care; wait a year and it'll be thrown in the back of society's minds. (Note: I don't mean to downplay the attacks by any means; all I'm saying is that it's human nature to get over things in about 3-6 months, of course, not including the people who were directly affected by it.)

Anyways, now that society's not as angry anymore, people are becoming relatively sane again. And in another year, we'll be back where we started.

Why stuck on smartcards?

[Lumpy]

What really blows my mind is this strange addiction to smart cards... digital ID? smartcard smartcard!!!!!!

smartcards suck. The readers are overpriced, the cards are delicate and cannot be worn on the person without clothing or in the shower.

I have an Ibutton ring, I shower with it on, If I'm buck naked (Ok all of you can stop going Ewwwwww!) I still have my ibuton on me. It stores more, can do more(Java VM built in) is pretty much indestructable (stainless steel) and is super secure/tamper proof. (Open the ibutton can and it releases the inert gas inside and causes the silicon inside to quickly erase/destruct)

I log in my computer, unlock my home's doors, and open the garage door with it. I also store my bank accountnumbers inside and when in my reader that cost a paltry $15.00, it also stores my login/password for websites and automagically logs me in.

granted the java ring is expensive ($75.00) bit the ibuton in single price quantity with 32K of flash storage is around $5.00 and about $2.00 if you are only interested in a ID.

smartcards are $5.00 each in lots of 100, the reader is horribly overpriced, and durability is not there by any means.

A national id is a horribe idea, but thinking of using a smartcard for it is plain stupidity.

About as stupid as thinking that Oracle was being nice and generous by offering to design the database.... Geee, what humanitarians.