From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 05:02:44 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: DL in exchange for fingerprint
Message-ID: <ae66bb9816021004790c@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 12:23 PM 9/19/96, Jeff Barber wrote:
>Oh joy.  You no longer need to be arrested to get fingerprinted
>in Georgia.  On the front page of Wednesday's Atlanta Journal, under
>the headline "Now you can get driver's license in minutes":
...
>Just what I would have called it: a great idea.  Is it true that 31
>other states take your fingerprint as part of the license application?
>I feel sick.

California has it, so that's what about 20 million drivers have to put up
with. I'd expect all the states to have this within a few years.

(Yes, I disliked being thumb-printed, but I could see no viable
alternative. I'm sure Duncan has some scheme to declare himself a Botswanan
exchange student, but I decided being thumb-printed was the lesser hassle.)

By the way, the next rev of the California driver's license will reportedly
have one's *Social Security Number* printed on the card! So much for the
statement clearly printed on my card:

"For social security and tax purposes -- not for identification."

Paraphrasing that famous quote, just which part of "not for identification"
don't they understand?

(Indeed, I am asked for my SSN in many places. A few times I've refused to
give it. Once the clerk just said, "Fine, I have it here on my computer
anyway." Refusing to give it is probably no longer meaningful, due to
massively cross-linked data bases.)

Again, we desperately need an infrastructure of "credentials without identity."

--Tim May

We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."