Now .. I just read this from the WSJ somewhere the other day that said law makers are looking into way to ensure immigrants are legal to work in the US by implementing a biometric cards that applied to all people in the US - fingerprint, hand veins, iris recog, etc. and companies have to acquire the machine ($500-700) to verify the card before hiring to ensure compliance w/ the law and that person is legal to work in the US. Sources: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703954904575110124037066854.html What do ya'll think? Crazy?? I think so. It will invade our privacy and increase the unnecessary expense especially when we should be reducing our spending.
Why would it be an invasion or privacy? If anything, it would more accurately confirm your identity. Only those that don't want to have their identity confirmed will find this troubling. The government actually has the legal right to accurately identify anyone within it's borders. In the past, it was a hit an miss effort with a person telling authorities what his name was; this however, wasn't very reliable methodology as people lie all the time, and for a variety of reasons. We moved then to fingerprints (the first of many biometrics), which are not 100% accurate, though fairly close. Augmenting it with other biometrics amplifies the accuracy tremendously, making it very hard for people to then use false identities. That is not an invasion of privacy, it is accurate identification, which the government has every legal right to insist upon. Can the government use it to track it's citizens? Sure. But it doesn't need that. The government already knows where most of us are simply by where they mail our tax return checks each year. Do we need a national ID card? IMHO, of course we do. We are one of the only countries in the world who doesn't have one, and it's what made us such an easy target for terrorists. It is so easy to blend into the background.
That's your pov. To me, it's an invasion of privacy. Yes, the gov have the legal right to identify the citizens but the problem is for me is the security of the information. Access and abuse is something serious I can't ignore and you just can't trust the gov.
I actually mostly agree with you, that whilst the government has the right to the information, the lack of security can be worrisome and problematic. We've seen that with the social security system and the ever persistent levels of social security fraud. That said however, similar to how US passports (not perfect, but much less likely to be counterfeited) or US currency is produced, multiple levels of checks increases the fidelity of an identity's security. If every social security number was mandated to be used only with a photograph, fingerprint, and retinal scan; the amount of social security related fraud would likely drop to almost nothing. Eventually, I foresee rapid DNA scans as the ultimate identity check. That may be hundreds of years in the future, but it is probably the most unique biometric known to man at present. Again, the government has the legal right to identify anyone within it's borders, so I don't agree with your characterization that it's an invasion of privacy, as there is no right to such an expectation under US law for the purposes of identification. But what the government does, once it has obtained that information (how it's kept, used, or abused) is a totally different legal argument, and that is an issue where privacy concerns then become paramount. Semantics, I know, but there is that distinction.
^ yes they are two different issues but they are related nevertheless. whilst gov has the right to identify its citizens, we're not criminals. scanning of our hand veins, iris, etc .. that to me is an invasion of privacy .. it's like getting a body scan at the airport .. know what I mean? what's next? a scan of our heart size or length of our dick .. lol ... like you .. it can be your DNA someday .. it never ends .. we don't need to go to such an extend to identify one person and we shouldn't be subjected to this either .. this is a free country .. that's why i am here... like you said, there's no perfect system so this doesn't change much either beside increasing the cost of new techs for taxpayers. bad guys are bound to break the wall down one by one regardless .. just like fake passport, currency, etc... just a matter of time as for the security issues, that's just mean more $$ yet still leak and abuse from someone somewhere .. the cycle continues
