“If a man can look around this mad slaughterhouse of a world we live in and tell you that man is a noble creature, believe me, that man is full of bull shit”.
– Howard Beale
C/Net explains the Real ID Act:
President Bush is expected to sign an $82 billion military spending bill soon that will, in part, create electronically readable, federally approved ID cards for Americans. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the package–which includes the Real ID Act–on Thursday.
Starting three years from now, if you live or work in the United States, you’ll need a federally approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments, or take advantage of nearly any government service. Practically speaking, your driver’s license likely will have to be reissued to meet federal standards.
The House of Representatives has approved an $82 billion military spending bill with an attachment that would mandate electronically readable ID cards for Americans. President Bush is expected to sign the bill.
The Real ID Act would establish what amounts to a national identity card. State drivers’ licenses and other such documents would have to meet federal ID standards established by the Department of Homeland Security.
The Real ID Act hands the Department of Homeland Security the power to set these standards and determine whether state drivers’ licenses and other ID cards pass muster. Only ID cards approved by Homeland Security can be accepted “for any official purpose” by the feds. The Act lets Homeland Security determine the details. It could end up being a magnetic strip, enhanced bar code, or radio frequency identification (RFID) chips.
In the past, Homeland Security has indicated it likes the concept of RFID chips. The State Department is already going to be embedding RFID devices in passports. Homeland Security plans to start a yearlong test of the technology in July at checkpoints in Arizona, New York and Washington state.
The US Senate is scheduled to vote this Tuesday on the Real ID Act. The Unreal ID site thinks the national ID scheme is un-American, dangerous and wrong. They encourage citizens to stop the National ID card scheme.
RF-ID cards are read remotely, via RF activation. Range is usually limited to a few feet. But with larger antennas, read speeds in excess of 70mph and ranges up to 20 feet or more are possible.
The military planned a grand RF-ID material tracking scheme. Using a 64- or 96-bit computer chip embedded inside a printed bar code, material would not have to be unpacked from the pallet or individually scanned. A reader, either fixed or handheld, beams a low-power signal in the UHF frequency band (860 MHz to 960 MHz) to access information from tags on pallets and cases stacked on those pallets at a range of about 3 feet. There are a few bugs to work out.
MATRIX, the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, is a national database of civilian information, accessible only to law enforcement via secure fiber. MATRIX was created after Congress closed down John Poindexter’s civilian monitoring system, Total Information Awareness.
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A stick, a stone It’s a sliver of glass The oak when it blooms, The wood of the wind It’s the wind blowing free And the riverbank talks |
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that some 33 states released government and commercial records on residents. The massive storehouse of personal information is accessible only to law enforcement via secure fiber but the credibility of the system was called into question when the Deseret Morning News reported that MATRIX sold personal information to American Express for marketing purposes. It’s the new LifeLog. Your personal information shouldn’t be for sale…but it is.
The Real ID Act, in effect, may create a new national identification card that can track individuals remotely.
Bruce Schneier, a security technologist and author, says the International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance has issued a report (dated April 2005): “The Emergence of a Global Infrastructure for Mass Registration and Surveillance” (pdf). It reviews the current international trends towards global surveillance.
ABC News, Christian Science Monitor, Demoncracy Now, Seattle PI, USAToday and Web Commentary have more as does Google News.
Related DailyWireless stories include; No Encryption for RF-ID Passport, $10B Contract for People Tracking, Visa Tracking, Container Tracking, Port Security with RF-ID, RF-ID Tracking Pills, Mad Cow RF-ID, Handheld RF-ID Readers, Airport RF-ID, Tracking RF-ID, Digital Angel, RF-ID: From Soup to Nuts, Tracking Ship Movements – And You, Homeland Insecurity, Marathon RF-ID Tagging Port Security with RF-ID, Intelligent Transportation, RF-ID Tracking from Space?, Handheld Facial Recognition, Minority Report, The Matrix, the Matrix Expands and Matrix Shrinks.
C/Net editor Charles Cooper recalls the McCarthy Era from 1948 to about 1956. Here’s Edward R. Murrow (ram) on the junior Senator from Wisconson.
Good night and good luck.
