--To elaborate on the database issue, I'd like to point out that the fact
that every database is hackable does not stop people from submitting highly
personal data to other people on a daily basis. Every time I use my credit
card, visit my doctor, or pay my taxes I run the risk that somebody will
either hack in or gain authorized access for an impermissable
purpose. However, unlike a few of the most vocal people in this debate,
that knowledge does not paralyze me with fear, because I am able to balance
the (very low) risk against the (very high) benefits. Moreover, I think
it's silly to think that the DMV databases will become permanent targets of
hackers, since under our proposal those databases will contain no more
information than is currently written on the front of the card you flash
every time you want to buy a beer, plus an encrypted "ephemeral" biometric
that is of no use to anyone because it cannot be recreated
latently. Moreover, we call for strict privacy prote!
ctions for driver's liscence data, including a prohibition on DMVs from
selling any information stored on the card.
--As for using smart ID cards to track your movements, I would point out
that upgrading the card does not change the rules under which The
Government (whatever that means) can ask to see the card. The Government
can track your movements today using a pen and paper to jot down your
driver's license number (or SSN, or license plate, or library card), but
that has not turned the U.S. into the dystopia that so many privacy
advocates bemoan in Cassandra-like agony. Moreover, even contactless cards
will not give out high-powered signals they way the toll booth transponders
do, so the idea that The Government can track our movements using remote
sensors is almost as paranoid as the idea that The Government would ever
bother to do so; after all, the red light cameras only catch the license
plates of red light runners, not every car that passes through the
intersection. If you're that worried about it, however, I suppose you can
keep The Government from tracking your smart ID card b!
y storing it under your aluminum foil hat.
I believe that the debate over public policy needs to take place in the
real world, where costs and benefits are weighed. If we use ludicrously
unlikely worst-case scenarios and logical extremes as definitive reasons
not to do something, we would never do anything. The fact that Politech
readers use computers and connect them to the Internet (no system is
unhackable!) shows that they have some ability to weigh reasonable risks
against reasonable benefits. I'd expect to hear some of these arguments
from heavily-armed militia members who don't use the toilets in their
trailers because they think public sewers are a U.N. conspiracy, but it
irks me to hear them from people who should know better. If you and your
readers think that makes me dismissive of privacy concerns, fine. But it
doesn't make me a Nazi.
Regards,
Rob Atkinson
Rob Atkinson
Vice President, and
Director, Technology and New Economy Project
Progressive Policy Institute
600 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E.
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20003
202-608-1239
fax 202-544-5014
email:
[email protected]web: www.ppionline.org