Posted on 02/21/2007 2:41:17 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Driver’s licenses across the country are going high-tech, with invisible features to stop identity thieves scheming to commit credit card fraud or just hoping to buy a beer before turning 21.
Almost half of the states now use specialized technology to make driver’s licenses more secure, spelling an end to the days when the most personal information they carried was a driver’s name, age and weight.
In November, Iowa became the latest state to adopt biometric facial-recognition technology to defend against identity theft. It joins Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas and West Virginia in using computer software to digitally map an applicant’s facial features to prevent thieves from using multiple identities to get real driver’s licenses.
In addition, at least 12 states use a verification mechanism called digital watermarking to store personalized information within the license. Unlike the colorful watermarks on new $20 bills, the information is invisible to the naked eye. But a scanner can detect the information and use it to verify the license’s authenticity and defend against counterfeiting.
The driver’s license is on the verge of its greatest revolution since Missouri became one of the first states to require motorists to be licensed in 1903. Steps taken by states since Sept. 11, 2001, are just the first round of changes to upgrade the security of driver’s licenses and state-issued ID cards for non-drivers. States began taking action after discovering that 18 of the 19 hijackers used valid state-issued driver's licenses or ID cards to board the airliners they crashed.
Unless Congress grants states’ request for a delay, every state will be required by May 2008 to use advanced technology in issuing driver’s licenses and to verify the identity documents of all applicants to spot scam artists, terrorists and illegal aliens. If a state doesn’t comply, its citizens would not be able to use their driver’s licenses for federal identification purposes, such as boarding an airplane or entering a federal building.
The changes are mandated by the 2005 federal Real ID Act, a homeland security measure that for the first time would impose federal standards on state-issued driver’s licenses. Lawmakers in more than a dozen states are rebelling because they say the law usurps state’s traditional authority over motorists and imposes an estimated $11 billion in costs on states. Congress has appropriated only $40 million to assist states in making the changes, which will require the re-issuance of all 245 million driver’s licenses.
The Montana House voted overwhelmingly Jan. 30 to reject the Real ID Act and refuse to comply. On Jan. 25, both chambers of the Maine Legislature passed a non-binding resolution protesting the law and urging Congress to repeal it. Maine’s U.S. senator, Susan Collins (R), has introduced a bill that would give states two more years to meet Real ID’s requirements but does not authorize any more money to help states revamp their licensing procedures.
State legislatures in Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming also are considering resolutions protesting Real ID.
“States don't object to making licenses more secure, but they don't want to be saddled with the costs of creating what is essentially a national identification card,” said David Quam, a lobbyist with the National Governors Association.
States are awaiting specific rules on how to comply with Real ID from the White House Office of Management and Budget, which plans to release them by early April.
Despite the delay of Real ID specifications, states are upgrading driver’s licenses anyway. Shirley Andre, director of Iowa’s Motor Vehicles Division, said that her state is upgrading its technology for “the same reason anyone is doing it – to have the best available opportunity to make sure people are not becoming victims of identity theft.”
Iowa signed a contract with Digimarc Corp. of Beaverton, Ore., to employ facial-recognition biometric technology.
Biometric technology allows motor vehicle agencies to capture physical characteristics – facial features, fingerprints, handprints or iris scans – and feed them into a database. The data is processed by a numerical algorithm to create a digital template of the physical feature. Once a driver’s face or thumbprint is in the database, the motor vehicle agency can match his or her true identity against that of anyone who might try to get a license using stolen personal information.
While biometric technology is aimed at stopping identity theft, digital watermarking targets counterfeiting.
“Digital watermarking allows the state to imbed digital information into the driver’s license itself that you and I can’t see, but when I scan the document and process it, I can get information,” said Scott Carr, executive vice president of Digimarc.
Iowa joins Alabama and Colorado in using both digital watermarking and biometric technology to secure its driver licenses, getting what could be a head start on new federal rules, depending on what’s required.
States are awaiting specific rules on how to comply with Real ID from the White House Office of Management and Budget, which plans to release them by early April.
So, what's the hold up? Are things just really, really busy there in the Office of Management and Budget? ;^)
"Driver’s licenses across the country are going high-tech, with invisible features to stop identity thieves scheming to commit credit card fraud or just hoping to buy a beer before turning 21."
What a Joke. They stores don't even check ID's when taking credit cards. Most of them never even handle or look at your credit card anymore. You just swipe you card in the reader and put it back in your pocket.
"States began taking action after discovering that 18 of the 19 hijackers used valid state-issued driver's licenses or ID cards to board the airliners they crashed."
So the licenses were valid....Not forged. So how does this act help anything?
"Biometric technology allows motor vehicle agencies to capture physical characteristics – facial features, fingerprints, handprints or iris scans – and feed them into a database. The data is processed by a numerical algorithm to create a digital template of the physical feature. Once a driver’s face or thumbprint is in the database, the motor vehicle agency can match his or her true identity against that of anyone who might try to get a license using stolen personal information."
Very Bad. Once this information is stolen then it cannot be changed. You are who you are. If you have not committed a crime then the States have no right to this information.
And it is a national ID card for suckers who don't see it for what it is.
Of course By the looks at the comments I see lately Then I would say we have been hopelessly Sheeplized in our society anyways. Even here at FR. Bahhhhhhh
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So how do these things help stop terrorism? Nothing. Just gives the feds another way to accuse us of being somewhere we never were.
Hello? And what did the 19th one use? A secure Blockbuster card?
The more these are said to be "foolproof" the more easily someone can frame an unsuspecting dope. Did you kill her? Your secure RFID tag said you were there. It's your word against the federal expert witness.
"using computer software to digitally map an applicant’s facial features to prevent thieves from using multiple identities to get real driver’s licenses."
Although I tend to favor some of this techology for VOTE FRAUD prevention, the scene in '1984' where the exercise instructor demands that Winston participate more enthusiastically comes quickly to mind.
Some other folks were pointing out that these "Real ID" schemes would likely make identity theft even more of a problem than before. I hope that this program lasts about as long as the alien and sedition acts.
I like those touchpad/stylus credit card things. "Please sign the digitizer, please, to prove that you signed."
Now that your signature is digitized, and we have your credit card on record, we regret to inform you that a hacker logged that data and bought some shovels and ice picks from a Home Depot in Palm Beach County. Sorry for the inconvenience, but we really do need to interview you regarding a murder case here. Nothing to worry about. Very standard procedure. Whhere WERE you by the way on the night in question?
Those digital signature things record completely illegible signatures anyway if a signature is required at all. I seriously doubt that a handwriting analyst would ever be employed to figure out whether a credit card transaction is legitimate or not. Credit cards may rely on a little more than just the number on the front of the cards these days, but I expect it's a band aid solution that doesn't really reduce fraud all that much.
Cue Ben Franklin quote...
So if the digitizer is crappy, why did they go to the expense of adding it to the transaction?
Either they think it helps them, or they think it makes you feeeel better about a totally insecure transaction.
Precisely. Kind of like all those government-supervised baggage checks you undergo at the airport.
Also reminiscent of the Lentz Card. Jacobus Lambertus Lentz, collaborated with the Nazis in 1941 to improve the existing ID cards and data processing systems.
August 17 (1941), Lentz devised a unique tamper-proof personal identification card that could not be forged. Translucent inks were employed to print key words that disappeared under a quartz lamp. The stamp franking was acetone-soluble. Photos of the individual were affixed front and back through a window transparently sealed and adhered with permanennt glue. A fingerprint of the person's right index finger was then impressed upon one of the photos so it always displayed through a small window. The individual's signature on watermarked paper completed the document, which included personal details.
Having created an ID Card, Lentz then anticipated the occupying Nazis demands for censuses and lists of Jews and non-Jewish slave labourers (categorised by skills and education), which were used for the mass arrests and deportations, through his IBM Hollerith punched card analyses.
Agreed.
Also note that once your biometrics are stolen then there is nothing you can do to change them. They were what you were born with.
"People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word."
http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/col-1984quotes.htm
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." ~ Benjamin Franklin
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