While opposition grows to a national ID card in the U.S., citizens of the southeast European nation of Serbia have successfully pressed their government to back off on a plan to make biometric data chips compulsory in the country's new citizen cards.The decision followed a pitched battle prior to the Jan. 21 election as opponents criticized the accompanying plan for a centralized database of citizen information and the taking of fingerprints. Biometric technology uses data from sources such as fingerprints, facial features and iris scans to authenticate a person's identity.
In the U.S., the Real ID Act passed by Congress in 2005 calls for a national ID portion to go into effect by May 2008. It requires states to participate in a federal data-sharing program when issuing driver's licenses, making those licenses de facto national ID cards.
A number of state legislatures have passed nonbinding measures in opposition, including the Maine House and Senate, which yesterday almost unanimously approved a resolution refusing to implement the Real ID Act.
Well, it's nice to see that there are some out there who have their heads on straight in this matter. Personally, I'm not really against biometric identification itself (i.e. fingerprinting, DNA, etc.). However, the federal government does not need a giant database with all of our personal information. It sounds pretty orwellian to me.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.