A National ID for the US (W3I)

Session Topic: A National ID for the US? (W3I)

Convener: Amanda Anganes

Notes-taker(s): Rick Campbell

Tags for the session - technology discussed/ideas considered: 

Discussion notes, key understandings, outstanding questions, observations, and, if appropriate to this discussion: action items, next steps:

url to notes also located: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xTC28EYXOE1Cs2sYtaXq7TmWlsxNXzgDDZey3kHkcUo/edit?hl=en_US

The following is an attempt to capture the flow of the conversation around “National ID for the U.S.?” in Day 2, Session 3 of IIW XIII.

Is the Social Security Number a national id? A bit of debate, then tabled.

When one changes their name, there are many places that you have to go to to make that change. Sometimes, things come up later that cause one who changed their names, where they have to keep revisiting the change.

Discussion of British National ID. Started as being beneficial to individual, then through “feature creep” it came to inspire controversy, e. g. no ID means no medical care

John Biccum suggested that state level vs. Federal level, means greater decentralization and more difficulty/friction for either by Federal or other information seekers. States, for example, can push back on, e. g. FBI requests using various means (54 different state and territorial constitutions).

The president of the national Governor’s association (Nepolitano) led an effort against Real Id, saying: we will not do this. Arizona prohibited any state employee from implementing any federal Real Id legislation.

Real Id has been optional. Cost estimates by the states for Real Id adoption was much higher than federal estimates.

Reasons not to adopt a National ID include:
 * Single point of failure
 * Single “choke point”. Once you move to ubiquitous, everyone can demand it.
 * (anecdote) Germany and Austria consider personal information to be government property. If you want someone’s birthday, you can petition the government for permission to read birthday from the id.
 * Germany has some data protection laws that are meant to prevent even the government from coordinate data.
 * Distinct ids separate out the aspects/facets in a way that’s harder to coordinate.
 * Google Belay (??) issues distinct ids for distinct contexts, similar to e. g. a Health Club id that simply says that you have Health Club membership

Reasons to adopt a National ID include:
 * Convenience - multiple ids are cumbersome
 * Accuracy - multiple IDs means multiple places that can be wrong, which must be addressed individually when there are errors or updates.

Is the current status quo sufficient? Generally, no.

First name, zip code, and date of birth, uniquely identifies 95% of the people in the United States.

Some of the claimed benefits of National ID can be accomplished through other means. Right now John’s Washington State Driver’s license is usable as an International Id in a number of contexts, e. g. traveling into Canada. Nexus card will work to get into France from US or back, without Passport and it’s not a National Id.

You can choose to prove age with Passport rather than Driver’s license.

Estonia National Id:
 * if you believe it’s a success, it’s great that you don’t need to buy a train ticket -- your national id gets you on. (and then billed??)
 * you don’t believe it’s a success, you might be creeped out by the government knowing your tram activity.
 * can tap on a parking meter and notify the government of your location, etc.

Individual companies get together and collude with multiple distinct IDs today, but National Id makes it much easier.

As time goes on, correlation of data, even without National ID, is becoming easier.

One of the things that Real Id asks of people is one driving record per person. For a long time, some people kept licenses in both states.

In the Netherlands, national ids and drivers licenses are explicitly linked.

Dave Burhop, Deputy Commisioner / CIO of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles notes that DMVs have historically pushed back on being an identity verifier, preferring to focus on certifying people as eligible to drive.

In Britain the public has been turned off, because of large scale identity theft that was explicitly facilitated by the use of the national id.

One argument for a national id might be if there were a private sector globally unique id that people used, and were comfortable with. Then people might be more accepting, however, currently polls suggest that most people are opposed.

A quick Google search found a 2003 survey that said that 65% were okay with a national id. Search: Public Perception of Nationa Id.

Of the first CIO of DHS, Dave asked: What do you think of a national id? Answer: We don’t need one. Through the networks that we have and systems that are hooked together, we effectively have one today.

Decentralization might hurt in cases like the No Fly List. Teddy Kennedy had to use the power of his position as a Senator to get him off of the No Fly List. His staff argued that you should not need to be a Senator. Now there is a redress number and you add it when booking a flight.

If we attach redress number to a unique national id, it’s easier for someone to get that number as well.

John Biccum described the story of Michael O. Hamiltons. One, a convicted cop killer (served and released), and one who never had a parking ticket, both of whom rode Harley’s in WA, and the troubles that ensued.