Re: ID card from hell

[frissell@panix.com (Duncan Frissell)]

At 06:10 PM 7/12/94 -0700, Brad Dolan wrote:

>Prediction
>
>If Americans accept this, as I expect they will, we will
>see the following:
>
>Cops doing card-scan roadblocks, ostensibly to find drunks and
>immigrants.

Mandatory carry not (yet) proposed.  Also Ontario Driver's License should
suffice.

>A requirement to present your card and have a computer record kept
>after every financial transaction over, say, $100.

How to handle tourists/Canadians/etc.

>A requirement to present your card to get medical care.

Already in the Health Security Act.  Doesn't *prevent* treatment just
records it.  You can claim to be an illegal alien, etc. 

>Adoption of these cards as drivers' licenses.  Just a magnetic / 
>electronic data entry to indicate if you are authorized to drive.

Doesn't cover driver's licenses issued by any other nations which are also
legal for domestic driving (even by US citizens who are 'non-residents').

>Same thing for professional licenses.

Net competition for professional services will soon end licensure in any case.

>Card-scan to buy guns or ammunition - if you are allowed to buy
>them at all.

Perhaps true.

>Card-scan to buy potentially subversive tools, chemicals, books.

Books?  Doubtfull.  Again what about tourists.

>Card-scan on entry to or exit from the U.S.  Instant database 
>check to see if you are authorized to enter or leave the U.S. 

Possible although departure controls are unlikely (and may violate treaties
to which the US is signatory), entry controls will dissolve over time as
travel volume and economic integration swamps any control regime.  The US
currently has 40 million border crossings per year and has 'lost control'.
400 million will be even harder to control.

>Card-scan on entry to or exit from "special" areas:  an extra
>little security check before  you enter places the government
>is taking an extra interest in. 

Possible.  

>Mandatory presentation of card to get access to an internet-
>attached computer account.

Not a chance.

>Card-scan at your kids' school.

My kids school was outside the jurisdiction.  Home schools would be exempt
in any case.  When Purdy shot up the school in Stockton California I
wondered - perversely - why parents worried about the small risk of their
kids being shot at school when those same kids were guarranteed to be brain
damaged at that same school.

>Linked databases of parents and kids, to correlate child support
>payments, vaccination histories, academic performance, truancy, 
>antisocial attitudes, you name it.

When in doubt, deny your enemies a key field.  Make sure to display multiple
addresses, names, numbers.  

DCF

"If you already comply with other's demands for personal information about
you, how can you complain when they ask for more?"