The admirable Phil Windley has an essay on the government’s role in issuing digital ID over at the DigitalID World site.

Phil’s perspective is great. As former CIO of Utah, he’s overseen the digital side of a state’s ID program (AKA drivers licenses). In the article he maintains that the government is and should be in the business of managing IDs. (It’s not very tempting to privatize drivers licenses, although I’m sure now I’ll hear from Libertarians telling me why I’m wrong.) Identity “is a foundational piece of almost everything a government does,” Phil argues, spelling out the reasons why. Government should address “three key artifacts” and that’s all: vital records, identity cards, and digital certificates. And that’s all. The ID card would be a smart card so it could be used to authenticate and authorize online transactions.

A couple of points:

First, a smart card doesn’t authenticate me on line the way a drivers license does in the real world. As Phil points out, drivers licenses have s “simple biometric”: a photo of the holder. Hacked or stolen smart cards lack that important feature. So, a smart card system would add a level of security but would be far from foolproof. The question is: Why do we need this new level of ID? Given the possibility of abuse both by criminals and over-zealous government security departments (Are you listening, John Poindexter? Oh, yeah, of course you are. I forgot.), what benefits do we get in return? Where’s the user-demand?

Second, I’m surprisingly ok with the idea of a national ID card system because it seems to me that we already have one — drivers licenses, birth certificates, and social security numbers — that doesn’t work very well. So, I don’t feel much need to fight the ID cards that are probably in our future. I do want to fight the widespread use and abuse of them. I don’t need to use my drivers license to buy anything now except liquor, guns, and boarding passes. That’s already one too many. So, give me my ID card if you must, but you better have damn good reasons for making me show it to you.

Or, in the form of a bumpersticker:

Mitch has trenchant comments on Phil’s piece. And thanks to Eric for pointing itlope.

Categories: Uncategorized dw