National ID Numbers, good or bad?

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Are National ID Numbers a good thing or a bad thing?

Whether we like it or not, technology is going to make it possible to assign every person on this planet an "Absolute" identity. With only slight advances in the current technologies of Face Recognition, Retina Scan, Finger Prints and Genetic Sampling, we will soon be living in a world in which our identities will be recognized immediately by the networks we interact with on a daily basis.

ATM cards, credit cards, drivers licenses, Social Security Numbers and Birth certificates will all be redundant, replaced by simply being who you are and having centrally stored records of your basic organic essence.

The good news is that you won't have to worry about losing your bank card, and identity theft won't happen any more.

The bad news is that everything you do will be retrievable by a single data element which can be shared by all network systems (which will all be linked at ultry high speed). Here's a colorful example Smile

The question here isn't whether we're going to have national ID numbers, because like it or not, inevitable advances in technology are going to make that happen. The question is whether the result will be better for everyone, or worse.

What do you think?

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I have heard that there has already been developed somewhat of a GPS implant for humans and that the American government plans to pput them to use sometime in the near future.

This is bad, but I don't doubt that one day, implementing them into humans will be a normal procedure at birth.

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We don't need id numbers. With computer technology, we can use our eyes, fingerprints or facial features for id.

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I agree with cicerone. If we choose to use certain entities, a fingerprint should be sufficient. Having a personalized
ID Card like you're suggestiong rosborne, would be too much
of a control device for my taste.

Lets say, you'll buy a new car, spend a bit over your budget
and vacation one time too many, than the next thing you
know, the IRS is in your neck since things don't add up to
their scale. No. no, this country still represents freedom
in many ways, just lets keep it that way.

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Nevertheless, your avatar is very beautiful rosborne.

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Agreeing with calamity...

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Having a unified national ID number (or identifying mean) seems good in theory, IF some highly unlikely safeguards/guarantees were put in place.

For instance, who gets access to which parts of my digitally stored personal essence?

Big marketing analysis firms are already making quite creepy inroads into slicing and dicing information they dig up on us based on our shopping records or other financials, or any information that is constantly being gathered on us.

I agree with you (rosborne) that this will be inevitable soon, meanwhile I don't follow when you say 'identity theft won't happen anymore'. I feel it becomes even easier.

(also agree with CalamityJane on your avatar)

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gravy, I'm sure you have already heard about the hijacking of personal data from the credit agencies, right? Nothing is sacred; even the banks, gpvernment, CIA, universities, and business computers have been accessed.

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c.i.
It is quite alarming. Just on thursday, 3 different news items revolving identity theft surfaced in the news.

I am not sure if having a centralized identification system will help the public, or streamline access of information for people with dubious intentions. I don't think they need any more help.

On the other hand, a nationalized identification system could be envisioned with a not-for-sale regulation, and proper privacy measures implemented (utopia, I guess, as the market economy demands exploitation of information).

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I can see that your current Social Security card has your
biometric data to better protect you from identity theft,
however this information should be purely for identity
reasons only.

If you apply for a credit card and the social security # you've
given doesn't match the biometric data, you won't get that
credit card.

Yet this should only pertain to credit cards, driver licenses,
bank loans or any other financial transactions. Let's face it,
identity theft ist soley tied to financial gain and only there
should be biometric data implemented.

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I'll vote against it if given any choice.

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cicerone imposter wrote:

We don't need id numbers. With computer technology, we can use our eyes, fingerprints or facial features for id.

You didn't read the whole post, did you CI ? Smile

(you basically restated the main idea of my whole post)

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cicerone imposter wrote:

We don't need id numbers. With computer technology, we can use our eyes, fingerprints or facial features for id.

Very true. I think that this is a great idea. Then we will have some "safe" time from identity theft...at least until someone comes up with a way around that too.

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CalamityJane wrote:

Nevertheless, your avatar is very beautiful rosborne.

Thanks. Yours in pretty nice as well Smile

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gravy wrote:

I agree with you (rosborne) that this will be inevitable soon, meanwhile I don't follow when you say 'identity theft won't happen anymore'. I feel it becomes even easier.

Identity theft is when someone else has the information necessary to pretend to be you. But with BioMetric security, that won't be possible any more.

Instead, what will be possible is malicious or accidental damage to the database which holds all your information. This might actually be worse depending on how strongly the society begins to rely on, and believe, that information.

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rosborne,

You are right, what I am worried about is the second paragraph. It is "essence theft" or something that comes after identity theft. I think consolidating all the information under one system doesn't help/hurt that prospect either way. or?

Also, instead of social security#, credit cards and bills, will we have to worry about stolen blood samples, eyeballs and fingertips in the future? (a la 'Gattica' or 'minority report' or....)

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gravy wrote:

rosborne,

You are right, what I am worried about is the second paragraph. It is "essence theft" or something that comes after identity theft. I think consolidating all the information under one system doesn't help/hurt that prospect either way. or?

People may fight to have their database records erased at some point. kind of like identity bankruptcy.

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That would open an entirely new bag of worms. Wink

In essence, ID cards are bad!

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We already have national id numbers -- social security numbers. And they are already being used for identification purposes even though they are not supposed to be. So I think that day is already here.

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Yes FreeDuck, but they don't contain biometric data yet,
and that's what rosborne was asking for initially, if
it would be a good idea to have these.

No, no, no!

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National ID Numbers, good or bad?

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