8.1 National Identity

Now this has a special place for me as it encompasses several issues in one blow, which is why I chose the essay, "Why Fear National ID Cards" to comment on.

I fear the national ID card and RFID and ID chips implanted in the body because it is another way our civil liberties can be reduced and minimized. It is how we can be controlled especially financially and how we can be tracked globally with GPS systems. I object to it because I am in a national database that I can not control the security of the computer system. All it takes is one unethical hacking employee to start changing information in the database under someone else's user ID or to plainly back door exploit and hack the system in the first place, to really mess things up for someone.

I half way favor it because it can track dangerous things such as guns. I do feel that if you need a license to drive a car you should have to register your gun so that police and FBI investigators can track it easier to find killers or to find out if it was stolen and help locate it for the owner. I favor a national ID card for all immigrants as it will tell employers who is eligible to work in the country and who is not and help reduce the illegal status of our immigrants (which by the way is another tangent and rant for another day as I do not believe in using the term "Illegal" to refer to an immigrant after all we are all immigrants with the exception of the Native Americans).

I do not favor the ID Card because it takes away our anonymity and a right to privacy. Anyone who swipes your card can find out everything from your credit report to how many traffic tickets you have to if you're possibly cheating on your spouse... well maybe not that but if you have other things in your background that no one else really needs to know.

I can see it for a passport or for government buildings, but for the general public I like sticking with my simple, everyday State Driver's License... well mine is still a learner's permit but I won't go there.