Obama Eyeing Internet ID for Americans

CBS News | CNet ^ | 1/7/10 | Declan McCullagh

[LibWhacker]

STANFORD, Calif. - President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said here today.

It's "the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to centralize efforts toward creating an "identity ecosystem" for the Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said.

That news, first reported by CNET, effectively pushes the department to the forefront of the issue, beating out other potential candidates including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

[Greysard]

I can think of many senerios where the Chinese would very much care about certain individuls web activities

They can care all they want, but they don't have means to tie an IP address somewhere in the USA to an individual. The US government can do that easily, perhaps even instantly. It's just another database of the sort that they aren't allowed to have; this means it's probably already in place.

[nitzy]

90% of all email is spam. Scams and fraud run rampant. Identity theft is an enormous problem. Wouldn't it be beneficial to have some system where people could voluntarily register their name, email address, IP address, password, etc... with Verisign or some other security/certificate company? Businesses or individuals could (if they wanted to) filter their email to only accept mail with valid certificates. If an individual or business wanted to do a transaction with another person or business on the internet they could insist the other party had a valid certificate.

I agree that this shouldn't be organized or run by the government but in itself is not that bad of an idea and is something that I have advocated in the past.

[Ron H.]

"1984"

[Freedom56v2]

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

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Exactly.
So might we say that altho this is not Constitutional, it may very well be Biblical :(

[catnipman]

Not to worry. The Commerce Department is one of the most ossified and useless bureaucracies in the federal government. Clinton turned over all of his initiatives related to the Internet to Commerce during his administrations and absolutely nothing was done. Everything simply death-spiraled into an infinitely deep bureaucratic black hole, never to be heard from again.

You can expect the same thing to happen here.

[opentalk]

Wonder if Goldman Sachs getting involved with facebook is related to this.

[Cyber Liberty]

Interstate Commerce. They’ve used this clause in much more tortured fashion than this.

[NonValueAdded]

Brilliant!

[JPG]

This is total crap and on the suckness scale rates a 10. The GOP House better be all over this like flies on you know what. Barry wants a fricken’ police state. NO WAY!!

[Ron H.]

[RetiredArmy]

Another sign of the coming mark of the beast.

[Syncro]

That’s why I am hoping that a court declares it unconstitutional

I totally agree, it's invasive and quite unconstitutional.

No one has the authority to mess with God given rights spelled out in that great document.

[takenoprisoner]

"We are not talking about a national ID card," Locke said at the Stanford event. "We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities." ____________________________________________________________

BS BS BS! If a web surfer can't remember his passwords, what business is it, for the govt to be involved? NONE! So the purpose of the project has to be to monitor and control the web.

Hi,
we are the govt, and we are here to help you with your passwords, we will remember them for you.

[MissMack99]

Great, now they’ll know where Barney Frank orders his sex toys.

[Nabber]

“Jack-wagon!”

[MichiganConservative]

I think I speak for all FReepers when I say that I have nothing to hide, so I have nothing to worry about.

I know this is just about national security and keeping me safe, so I’m fine with that as my safety and security is the paramount thing in life!

I, like most FReepers, know that what I want government to do when I think they’re keeping me safe or punishing those I don’t like will never be used against me.

If you don’t like this, what have you got to hide? Are you a closeted hate-America-firster who wants to have a homosexual relationship with Osama bin Laden.

[Dengar01]

This must be passed on to friends, family, facebook, twitter, ect...

This is the road to 1984.

[mewykwistmas]

Let me repeat my answer: “That’s why I am hoping that a court declares it unconstitutional”

[Dengar01]

I hope your post was sarcastic.

This has NOTHING to do with "nothing to hide".

This is about shutting down opposition speech (Free Republic). They want to shut down FR, Drudge and bloggers who are critical of Zero just like China and Venezuela does!!!

And as far as nothing to hide goes. If you go to a terrorist website or a kiddie porn website I believe you can be caught by your IP Address which is YOUR PRIVATE ID that is traceable.

I am a small business owner with a website and I can see who visits my website via their IP Address. This is how JR and the Mods zot trolls. They block the troll's IP Address.

@Admin_Moderator can you verify my statement about banning trolls via their IP Address I am 99.9% certain but I don't want to make a false statement as to how you and the rest of the mods deal with the various trolls we get.

[PeterPrinciple]

Let’s be clear. We are not talking about a national ID card. We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities.

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And of course it will be voluntary. Except it will be required for all govt business and the govt controls everything...........