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Driver's Licenses with Digital Watermarks
ForceQuit writes "MIT Technology Review reports that Minnesota will begin issuing a unique driver's license designed to combat counterfeiting. It includes a reflective image (of a loon) that appears to float above and below the card when the license is tilted. It also includes an invisible, digital watermark capable of carrying security data such as date of birth. The information would be readable only through a computerized scanner, which law enforcement officers could carry."
Don't see any possible problems with this move, apart from the immigration part. Sounds like the information encoded in the chip contains no sensitive information, so that's a bonus, and a more secure identification system makes the entire system more reliable. However, from the article:
There will also be a "status check" notation on the front and back of licenses showing when an immigrant's visa expires, something the state already had begun to put on licenses despite opposition from civil liberties groups.
This is a bit of a sticky point, IMHO. This isn't really necessary, and will probably achieve nothing but undue stress for immigrants, and prompt deportation if an illegal gets caught at a traffic stop (presuming that these IDs can not be forged). I don't know what Minnesota's illegal immigrant problem is, but this is a disturbing development. It's a drivers license, not a citizenship card. First step in a bad direction?
"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
- Bob Dylan
i live in alberta where we have a snazzy driver's license with an encoded pattern and such.
about a year ago i lost my license (along with just about every other card i have) so i headed down to one of the privatized "registry shops" to get a new one.
really, the process was embarassingly easy. when the woman asked me behind the counter for some i.d. i said "it's all been stolen". she shrugged, took my picture, and gave me a brand new license basically on faith alone that i was who i claimed to be.
now, she did look at the picture they had on file but, really, if you look like like your license photo you're in rough shape. bottom line: any 180 cm tall male with light hair and grey eyes who didn't look too dissimilar to me could have waltzed in there and picked up a license with my name on it, snazzy security stripe not withstanding.
2 1337 4 u!
You are afforded basic human rights by the constitution while in our country. We don't have to let you stay in our country. If anything this move is better for immigrants than some of the other proposed solutions, because they have to be caught breaking another law, as opposed to simply having their ID broadcasting with an RF chip. Sure, our immigration laws can be silly, but part of that is due to the fact there is no one litmus test to tell who's a productive member of society and who isn't. In my mind, we should actively be seeking out illegals who are working in this country not to deport them, but to grant them visas and begin collecting taxes from them. I know, it's simplistic given the wages many of them earn, but I have a hard time divorcing the right to live in the USA with the responsibility to pay taxes. I guess I believe in "pay to play".
Never confuse volume with power.
Try New Jersey...My college roommate did this
He took his brothers birth certificate and Social Sec Card to a different DMV(Dept. of Motor Vehicles) and said he lost his license. Since pictures weren't kept centrally (only at local offices) they gave him a brand spanking new license with HIS picture but all his brothers info on it. And the original license his brother had was never cancelled. So now two valid licenses existed for the same person with different pictures.
Granted you needed the docs, but hey some bad guys work in groups...
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
Ah, but if you repeat it enough, then it becomes truth
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Blockpoth the quoster:
There's a simpler way -- introduce the magstrip on your license to Mr. Bulk Magtape Eraser. Then they can swipe away, and when their reader doesn't work, you say "Yeah, that happens to my credit cards, too, sometimes -- I occasionally work around high magnetic fields." Then they have to look at the front of the license anyway. If they don't accept it, it's not like you're out anything -- you weren't going to frequent their establishment anyway, right?Need a UNIX/Linux/network guru in the Boulde
Yes, folks can refuse to register their babies but if they want them to be able to.. buy, sell, travel, work and excercise all those other "privileges" our loving Gov. grants us they will have to get the number (and the ID) eventually.
http://tinyurl.com/globalwarmingisascam
...Beginning in 2005, the Department of Homeland Security will issue new uniformity regulations to the States requiring that all Drivers Licenses and Birth Certificates meet minimal Federal Standards with regard to US citizen information, including biometric security provisions...
Because the federal government now controls the universal standard for Drivers Licences.
Its clear that the house should never pass a bill with more than 10 pages; these provisions were buried in a 3000 page bill, which no legislator read before voting.
Each congressman should be forced to read every page of the bills that they sign into law, and they should be made to sign each page indicating that they hare read the page.
Then again, no one in america cares about any of this, and for certain, at least 59,054,087 people will think that its a good idea.
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