Governmental ID System in Japan

Kaan writes: "Japan just launched a mandatory, nationwide ID system whereby every citizen is assigned an 11-digit identification number. The database stores personal data (name, address, date of birth, gender, possibly more data) for each person. At least five municipalities are refusing to join the system, which accounts for ~4 million of the 127 million total. While some Japanese folks are refusing to cooperate, most are going along with it. Is this the beginning of the end of privacy in Japan? How much longer until we see something like that in the U.S.?"

Comments

Sounds like the danish system.

[Hektor_Troy]

Our CPR (Central Person Registry) stores your CPR-number. Mine looks like this:

130477-1235 (no, this is not my real CPR-number)

This indicates that my birthdate is the 13th day of the 04th month of the 77th year.

1235 is the "checksum" and gender-marker; even numbers for women, uneven for men. I think they use X for women and Y for men without a permanet citizen ship (refugees and the like).

Also, the entire number has to pass some kind of test, but I can't remember how it's used.

The CPR also has the current address of each person along with an opt out feature for commercial mail targeted at you, which is nice, because all companies in Denmark have to comply by that setting, but they only have access to the address through CPR.

You can read a lot more about the system here.

I am a proponent of personal privacy, and I don't have a problem with this system - probably because I can't think of a single intrusion into my privacy caused by it.

I think it comes down to "trust", and so far I haven't had a reason not to trust the CPR.

Re:Sounds like the danish system.

[Hektor_Troy]

Maybe I lied ...

Maybe it's because we've been told since 1968 (when the system was instated) that we shouldn't tell anyone the last four digits of our CPR number, if they didn't need it.

Re:SS#

[avdp]

Function full well without a SSN? Not even close. The only thing you may be able to do is live in a cabin in the woods in Montana, without electricity.

You need a SS# for the following (and this is no way a complete listing):

1. work
2. get a driver's licence (in my state anyway)
3. rent an apartment/house (or get a mortgage to buy one)
4. open bank account or credit card accounts
5. get electrical/phone/gas/etc service

So, when you say "full well", maybe this needs to be qualified a bit...

Re:SS#

[shani]

There's no law requiring children be born in a hospital. It just seems that way, in America at least. (In Holland being pregnant isn't a disease, so most women give birth at home.)

You do need to have a SSN for your children in order to claim them as dependents on your taxes. When this change was introduced, there ended up being a lot less children, meaning a lot of people where cheating on their taxes.

Re:This is good

[Peter H.S.]

[snip about the Danish CPR -ID system]

There are some security concerns and there is a very strict legislation about how to handle this system, but the economical benefits are huge and it does benefit society a lot.

The security around the CPR ID database system wasn't really that good some years ago; an internal audit made them tighten up the security a lot.
And usually, the control around any public database system in Denmark is a joke; all most all cops use the KR (criminal register) to snoop on their neighbours. The register is never cleaned for old records, even though the law requires it. A combination of these two vices, were demonstrated, when nosey police officers, leaked the criminal record of a well known conservative politician; he had a "drinking & driving" offence when he was around 18, in the 1950'ies. This costed him his post as a leader of the conservative party.
As usually, the police was unable to even discover which policy officer had leaked the information.
For what I know, your conviction that your data is safe in the states database systems, is pretty much nothing more than a conviction.

Besides, there are a major problem with centralized ID systems, besides the states tendency to abuse the system, namely, that such a system is a benefit for the Bad Guys too.

Eg. In Denmark the CPR ID number is slabbed around the newborn babies wrist, even before it is handed over to its mother. Everybody has a CPR id number. A huge amount of data is tied around that number, since all transactions with the state /county are tied to the CPR. Fortunately, a lot of the information is compartmentalized, meaning that one cannot (easily) make a centralized query of all the information regarding a citizen.

But since the CPR system is so convenient and omnipresent, even the lowliest, unmotivated, underpaid county clerk has access to it. (the open terminals that are so convenient when dealing with the state /county).
So getting access to all that real time information on people, is staggering easy.
One case to illustrate the point. During the 80'ies, the KGB just bribed such a county clerk, to tag all russian dissidents living here in Denmark.
So the KGB had instant updates on them, even if they changed their name and address constantly.
All those queries on russian dissidents (who weren't even living in this small county) were never discovered by an internal audit.

Another case: "Blekingegade banden" was a violent extremist group, that supplied extremist palestinian terror groups with weapons and money, stemming from violent robberies.
They were not stupid as many criminals actually are; they were intelligent and educated, and planted a man inside the institution that was running not only the CPR, but also the KR (criminal register), and countless other databases.
So this small "terrorist" group had an excellent tab on, how much the police new about them and their crimes.

I am sure, that both the KGB, Stasi, CIA etc, all had tremendous benefit of the Danish centralized register. Just as a lot of countries intelligence services will benefit from eg. a central US, or Japanese citizen ID database. Eg. Agent [ID] just moved to an area where [fascilitate] is located. He also got a raise, putting him in the same income bracket as known agents performing [function].

The ending of this rant:
Identity theft is just as easy with a centralized ID database as without, and probably more convenient for the thief.
And finally don't even think about the mess of troubles if one ever is deleted by the Danish CPR register (happens sometimes). Even with a valid ID as a passport, two hundred witnesses and your birth certificate, you are denied everything, like wage, a bank account, pension, etc. Even if the state /county officials /bank tellers /insurence agents are convinced about your identity, nothing can be done, since you are not in the CPR.