[17653] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: [Forwarded] RealID: How to become an unperson.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (hadmut@danisch.de)
Fri Jul 8 15:40:10 2005
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
X-Original-To: cryptography@metzdowd.com
From: hadmut@danisch.de
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 00:09:34 -0400
To: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@cs.columbia.edu>
Cc: cryptography@metzdowd.com
In-Reply-To: <20050706032654.C4BFB3BFF34@berkshire.machshav.com>
On Tue, Jul 05, 2005 at 11:26:54PM -0400, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
>
> Let me refer you to a National Academies report (I was on the
> committee): Stephen T. Kent and Lynette Millett, ed. IDs -- Not That
> Easy: Questions About Nationwide Identity Systems. National Academies
> Press, 2002. http://books.nap.edu/html/id_questions/ Briefly, the
> report notes that there are a very large number of questions that need
> to be answered about any such system before it's even possible to
> discuss it intelligently.
>
Thanks for the hint, but I am too busy to read it in detail before
next week.
However, there is a funny thing I need to mention:
- In Germany we have an ID card and I have it in my pocket all the
time. But actually it is rarely used, I do need it not more than
maybe three times a year. At the moment I can't remember to have it
used within the last two years, except for in my job when entering
high security areas and some protected company premises. But rarely
in private life. I know one shop where they do ask for when paying
with a card.
- In the USA they say they don't have ID cards.
But whereever I walk through the streets of cities at the
east- or westcoast, they all ask me for picture IDs. Some years ago
I couldn't even enter a night club without a picture ID, and in
every supermarket they have signs that they don't sell alcohol or
cigarettes without picture ID (besides the fact that I neither drink
nor smoke). Even in some hotels and gas stations they ask for a
picture ID.
Isn't that ridiculous? In the USA where they allegedly don't have ID cards
you are approx. more than 20 times as often asked for a picture ID than
in Germany where we have ID cards officially.
Last November I attended an Anti-Spam-Summit at FTC in Washington
DC. As usual they were checking for metal in the clothes, x-raying
bags, and (*surprise*) asking for a picture ID. Someone didn't have
a driving license. They accepted his WalMart Customer Card as a
picture ID. Isn't that scary?
reards
Hadmut
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