Terror Arrest Used As Fodder To Fund Real ID Act 212
BeatTheChip writes "There's been a lot of buzz in recent days concerning the deadline to deliver on the federal Real ID Act. Congress is looking for corners to cut. One tactic is to attach emergency policy to the Real ID in order to sustain funding for its development by authoring members in Congress. In an effort to link the two, Rep. Lamar Smith and others asked DHS to increase enforcement of the Real ID Act over a terror suspect apprehended by lawful means."
Re:As a US citizen (Score:2, Interesting)
It almost seems more convenient to just use a national ID.
I mean, if I could replace my driver's license and passport with this card, and it could act as an oAuth for any other service ( meaning complaint companies wouldn't need to issue their own magic cards anymore ), and especially if this card erased the need for multiple proofs of ID I'd be fine with having it. I'm not normally a convenience over security guy, but I really don't get why people flip shit over this when you already have a local nation id in the form of a driver's license / state issued photo id and your passport.
captcha: infringe
We don't need no steenking real-id (Score:4, Interesting)
As a EU citizen (Score:2, Interesting)
Some states have national ID cards, some require you to always carry one on pain of arrest and a fine. The UK is a notable exception in that it actually implemented such a thing and then repealed it. Still has biometric passports though, and they'll take your fingerprints AND DNA swab if you're arrested --regardless of reason-- and will keep the profile indefinitely, "just in case". Getting out if proven innocent is unreasonably hard to the point of being almost impossible.
My government insists on fingerprints, storing them in the RFIDed passport, and storing them on local computers at the municipality (there's a plan to network all those things but not in effect yet) run by some foreign (AAMOF French) company. All passports are in the EU are RFIDed, none come with built-in shielding like in US passports. EG Germany just added RFID to national ID cards, having added fingerprints first.
It's a bit of a jumble, as this sort of thing is regulated through EU directive that then gets implemented more or less zealously byt the state, generally more. All states have a national standard ID card that's valid in the entire EU plus some extras (like Switzerland), and many more people have passports. More biometrics, less privacy.
And yes, that all really got pushed through when the US started requiring it for the so-called visa waiver programme, though the extra zeal was "our" own invention. There's some eurocrats that like that a lot, sneaking through as many loopholes as possible to get out from the built-in oversight mechanisms.
It's also then that I decided not to travel to the USoA while the security circus was still in effect, but it's come home: My passport and ID card are about to expire (last 5 years only) and I won't be able to get new ones without handing over my fingerprints. Well, if I'm to be a criminal then so be it. Bye bye legal identity.