November 2001 - VOLUME 22 - NUMBER 11
An Interview with Chris Hoofnagle
Chris Hoofnagle is legislative counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). He concentrates on government and consumer profiling.
There have been both public sector and private sector proposals for a national identification system. The most ambitious proposals have come from companies such as Oracle. |
Multinational Monitor: What kind of national ID programs have been
proposed in the United States since the September terrorist attacks? In order for the national ID system to be better than the standard drivers
license, it would have to carry some kind of biometric identifier
some kind of unique variable about a persons body. This is typically
a fingerprint, but it could be a scan of an eye or palm geometry. This raises many difficult issues. Obviously, it means maintaining a
master database of all those biometric identifiers. But who will have
access to that database? How will it be audited? Will it be vulnerable
to malicious intrusion or government abuse? Then there are questions such as whether the identifier will be stored
in the card or just in the central database. That is, when a data subject
presents a national ID, will the machine reading the card only match the
subjects biometric to the card, or will the reader have to match
the biometric to one stored in some central database? Alternatively, the
system could require the subject to match information on the card and
in the database simultaneously. In any case, there still needs to be the
rather enormous 260 million person national database. Countries with national ID also have provisions in law that enable police
to demand presentation of the ID. Under current law, a police officer
can demand an ID, but an individual can lawfully refuse unless the officer
has probable cause to arrest the subject. So its likely that a national
ID proposal will contain within it certain provisions that will enable
both the private sector and government to demand presentation of the ID
for instance, when people board a plane or behave suspiciously.
Ultimately, uses of the card will creep in. Today, government will demand
the card for boarding a plane. Tomorrow, businesses will demand the card
for basic services, such as a video rental account. The social security
number creeped in in a similar fashion and is in fact now required to
obtain a fishing license. MM: What kinds of proposals for a national ID have come from government
officials? Here they are saying theyre only going to require non-citizens
the politically weak to use it. But down the road, the system
would likely be expanded to others without political clout. For instance,
welfare recipients could be the next group required to use it in an effort
to stem fraud. Soon, it begins to be issued to children and then it becomes
a national ID for Americans. MM: Do any of the proposals have political momentum? Larry Ellison has been using the events of September 11 as an opportunity
to spring national ID on Americans. Well before the attacks, he was trying
to sell the same product to the government for a different purpose
as a unique identifier under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act (HIPPA), which calls for a national health identifier. Now hes
using Septembers events to propose the same system. Perhaps he has
the most momentum, but nothing has been introduced embodying his ideas
at least not for citizens. MM: What exactly is the technology that Oracle is pushing? MM: What other technologies have companies proposed since September
that might be a threat to privacy? The first drafts of the anti-terrorism legislation would have eroded
consumer privacy protections for cable subscriber records. Cable provisions
are some of the strongest privacy protections in the United States. Back
in 1984, before interactive cable was even possible, lawmakers recognized
that television subscriber data could be used to spy on television subscribers.
As a result, they made opt-in provisions for cable records, so that cable
companies couldnt sell the fact that you were watching a certain
show or subscribing to a certain channel. The first drafts would have
enabled cable companies to profile users for commercial purposes based
on subscriber data. Fortunately, those provisions were removed. The next round of legislation will create new freedom of information
act exemptions that will allow industry and government to keep critical
information out of public view. If passed, this exemption will be used
to hide information about embarrassing security breaches. MM: What about face-recognition technologies? Their publicity stunt worked. Their stock prices doubled very quickly,
and it appeared as though different public transportation centers would
adopt the technology. In fact, Oakland International Airport has. One of the problems not revealed in the press releases is that face recognition
technology has never caught a terrorist. In the U.K., they have 3 million
cameras spying on citizens, and the system has never caught a terrorist.
Its used for petty crime. So face-recognition is another technology
thats justified by extreme events like the terrorist attacks of
September, but often ends up just being used as a tool in the drug war
or for petty crime and voyeurism. When face recognition was applied at the Super Bowl, police said, Were
going to use this to recognize terrorists, but in fact thats
not even on the table. What it was used for was the apprehension of petty
criminals ticket scalpers in this case. One has to be wary of the reasons for which law enforcement employs new surveillance tools. Officials always demand new surveillance authority for the interdiction of serious criminals, but the powers are almost always used for prosecuting the drug war or for common, blue-collar crimes. |
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It�s likely that a national ID proposal will contain within it certain provisions that will enable both the private sector and government to demand presentation of the ID. | ||