BoatBanter.com - For the Right that thinks the Nazi like National ID card is a good

National ID Card Flaws
For years there has been talk of "improving" our drivers licenses and
even creating a national ID card using biometrics to improve the
security. The proponents of a nationally issued card call this a
Universal Biometric Identification (UBID) card. I opposed these plans
after only a few seconds of thought because they failed my Jews in the
attic test. No further effort was really needed to discern this was a
really bad idea. Unfortunately it wasn't nearly as simple as that to
convince other people. I debated this issue online on the Biometric
Consortium's electronic discussion group. The history of my debate can
be viewed in all it's "glory" and errors. In my mind at least -- I won
the battle. The following is to express the flaws in a more concise and
understandable manner.

As outlined by a participate on Biometrics Consortium Email Discussion
List the UBID would required for such a great number of day-to-day
activities that would be virtually impossible to function in society
without it. Furthermore when it was used a remote central database
would be contacted to confirm the validity of the card. These two
things are what give the card it's supposed power and are it's fatal flaws:

If the card and it's contact with the central database is required for
day-to-day activities then the creators of this system will have created
a single point failure system for the entire country. That database,
it's power supply, it's communication lines, it's software, everything
about it will be a means to bring this country to a halt. This
database, by necessity, must have hundreds of thousands of entry points
accepting millions of connections each day. The more access points the
more vulnerable the system is to attacks. Any building that requires
the card for access, any business that requires the card for
transactions will be vulnerable to having it's communication channel
severed. A UBID as envisioned by it's proponents will have created a
huge vulnerability to our society that cannot be allowed to exist.
Any central database that has the ability to track every move, every
transaction of a person will be a tool of tremendous potential for
abuse. It will dramatically fail my Jews in the attic test. No rules,
regulations or laws can prevent abuse by those people that enforce the
laws. This has been repeatedly proven not only in the classic cases of
Nazi Germany and the USSR, but in our own country with such examples as
the illegal access of census records to find and detain American
citizens of Japanese descent during WWII.
If a system were devised such that it does not have a central database
that can track everyone and is not required for day-to-day operation
then the above fatal flaws might disappear and only minor flaws, such as
those listed below, would exist. I suggested such a system and
described how it might work but it was essentially ignored by the
proponents of a UBID.

There are several lesser flaws that will negate any advantages and may
actually result in a net negative "benefit" although certainly not as
catastrophically as the fatal flaws listed above.

The more data and functionality associated with the card and the more
secure and trustworthy the card is perceived to be the greater value
there will be in forging it and/or bribing or otherwise corrupting the
people that are authorized to modify the data in the central database.
There will be, of necessity, thousands of people with such privileges.
All biometrics fail with some individuals or people that take effort to
disguise their biometric identifiers. Iris scans don't work on people
without eyes, people with particular disorders of the eye, and designer
contact lenses. Fingerprint biometrics don't work on people without
some skin disorders or people that soaked their fingers in bleach the
night before. There must exist a backup mechanism. The backup
mechanism must be as strong as any other point in the system or it will
be exploited to the exclusion of attacking the more primary verification
mechanisms.
Nearly all the problems UBID advocates hope to solve result in the
equivalent of putting an iron door on a grass hut. The existing systems
may be represented as a wooden door on the same grass hut. The wooden
door may have failed sometimes but the grass walls of the hut are far
weaker points to attack and the iron door will not make the contents of
the hut any safer.
People may refuse to participate. The firearms registry in Canada is a
failure for this very reason. It is so unpopular that most of the
provinces have refused to enforce it, an estimated 1 million firearms
are not registered and yet only person has been convicted of failing to
register his firearms.
A black market will spring up to supply the goods and services to those
willing to pay a premium for their privacy. Black markets result in
increases of other types of crime, frequently violent crime, as so
dramatically shown by this nations war on some recreational drugs

That's just the scratch of the surface. You can give up your right to
freedom if you want to, I choose not to.