From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 94 13:33:34 PDT
To: frissell@panix.com (Duncan Frissell)
Subject: National ID cards are just the driver's licenses on the Information
In-Reply-To: <199407142005.AA22075@panix.com>
Message-ID: <199407142033.NAA01489@netcom3.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



> >I basically agree with Duncan's noble sentiments. I just don't think
> >it likely  that the "What about the tourists?" argument will stop the
> >national ID juggernaut once it begins to move.
> >
> 
> The grim necessity of working for a living precludes a proper answer at this
> time.  For now though:

Since I no longer work for a living, I can respond now :-}. (I despise
smileys, but one seemed apropos here.)


> "You can buy heroin in maximum security prisons."  Controls don't always work.

Well, of course. But this doesn't make the prospects of "internal
passports" (as I think it was you who dubbed them...or maybe Sandy)
any less likely, or any less worthy of fighting.

While if I were in prison, I might indeed be able to score heroin, a
national ID card tied in to financial transactions, employment,
driver's licenses, etc.,--"once card fits all"--would be incredibly
bothersome and intrusive. And short of "going underground," with all
that that implies, or leaving the country, your words of comfort about
buying heroin in prison would do me little good.

I was mainly saying that the "What about the tourists?" rebuttal is
very weak, and is easily solved. Further, the solution for the tourist
problem is actually one of he main motives for a national ID card:
stopping illegal immigrants by "freezing them out" of routine
economic, school, employment, and other transactions.

Ditto for the point Duncan often raises, presumable semi-ironically.
To wit, answering ID card checkers with a flippant "But I'm an illegal
alien."

"Fine," they will say, "we'll take you down to the Processing Center."

(Yes, I acknowledge that local shopkeepers will not, for example, be
the enforcers....in case Duncan raises the issue of there not being
enough cops to do this work. But it is completely plausible that all
cash register transactions could require presentation of the ID card,
for various reasons (perhaps made more palatable by offering some
rebate on sales taxes paid, or a VAT). Claiming one lacks a proper
card will just result in a "No Sale," just as a refusal to pay the
sales tax usually results in a "No Sale."...don't tell me about how
some merchants will offer to eat the sales tax...try that at Safeway.
(I'm not claiming Duncan will make this argument, just trying to
anticipate the nitpicky wise-ass comments people often make; the fact
is, most people will follow the rules, and if an ID card is made part
of the economic system--as it already is for booze and cigaretters, a
la age credentials--then those without an ID card will be a Real Bad
Situation. Yes, anticipating rebuttals, black markets exist. But few
will argue that buying most items on a black market, complete with
stings, arrests, etc., is a pleasant way to live.)

I for one view this prospect with alarm, and have since I read "1984'
so many years ago, and then read "Shockwave" in 1975.

I don't consider it too soon to think about ways to monkeywrench it.
(And as an EFF member, dues all paid up, I have no hope that EFF or
any of its FLA brethren will oppose this firmly. At the risk of
angering our own John Gilmore, a founder of the EFF, I think EFF
management is so enamored of being inside the Beltway that it will
likely confine its role to providing "input" to the Gorewellian forces
putting this thing together.)

"National ID cards are just the driver's licenses on the Information
Superhighway." 


--Tim May


-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."