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A wide variety of groups have become involved in the controversy over a national ID. Below are some highlights.
Congressman Bob Barr / Congressman Ron Paul
Congressmen Barr and Paul have both been very vocal on the subject of national ID's.
Bob Barr's July 1998 The Camel's Nose Under the Tent shows how standardization of drivers licenses will lead to more loss of privacy. More articles are available on his National ID page.
From his July 1998 Texas Straight Talk column, Ron Paul says that the Integrity of Social Security Number must be maintained, and it should not be used as a national ID number. Paul also discusses his legislation to eliminate the existing national ID programs.
Independent author Claire Wolfe is one of the most outspoken critics of a national ID system. She is the author of a 1998 book entitled I Am Not A Number: Freeing America from the ID State.
She has also collected a number of complementary articles on her website:
An organization devoted entirely to fighting against "Identification Cards, Biometrics, Social Security Numbers, and Database Tracking of Individuals." They are one of the best online resources available.
Among their valuable offerings: State by State Analysis of Current Driver's License Laws and Requirements: Which States are Promoting the New "National ID" Standards?
Their newsletter, Scan This, is free and can be subscribed to from here.
(The "Halt! ID Check Point" image for this Spotlight is being used courtesy of Scott McDonald and Linda Muller of Fight the Fingerprint.)
American Civil Liberties Union
The ACLU opposes National Identification Cards because of the potential for abuse of personal information. They have issued an Action Alert to support efforts to repeal the legislation.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
EFF offers a Privacy - ID Systems page. Among the highlights:
The August 27, 1998 issue was focused on Privacy Matters. In it, John Lumpkin looks at the pros and cons in Finding a Balance Between Privacy and Safety, and Robert Gellman looks at government collection and identification of health data in Feel Like a Number.
A July 1998 press release from the LP of Alabama asks Are Your Papers in Order? They discuss the national ID proposal, as well as a recent victory over fingerprinting in Alabama.
The national party takes on the Unique Health Identifier in an August 1998 press release called Don't "suspend" health ID number plan; end it completely.
A set of Talking Points on the issue of national ID cards from April 1995 is also available.
From the September 1998 Phyllis Schlafly Report, Big Brother Is Monitoring Us by Databases looks at the ways that the government is trying to collect personal information about every citizen and resident.
The July 1998 issue also looks at National ID and Health Databases and the Feds Grab for Medical Records.
Among the highlights from the Privacy International ID Card Page:
National Organization for Non-Enumeration
NONE is entirely devoted to providing information on how to live without using or even having a Social Security number, and fighting against its use as a national ID number.
Members are provided with a Survival Kit which includes phone support to help overcome the limits of not using your ID number.
They provide over the Internet the answers to common situations where Social Security numbers are requested, and how best to avoid providing them.
Civil Liberties site by J.D. Tuccille
Our own J.D. Tuccille, author of the Free-Market.Net Media Spotlight and editor of LibertyNow, operates his own civil liberties website. He offers a section devoted to Privacy Rights, and a subsection on Mandatory Identification.
Tuccille's 1997 article Papers, Please! examines the requirements for standardized drivers licenses and the stealth legislation that created them. An August 1998 article is entitled They've Taken Away Your Name.
An issue paper from this Colorado free-market think tank looks at Protecting Social Security Number Privacy: How States Can Protect Their Residents from Identity Theft. In it, Robert Ellis Smith shows the possible consequences of including Social Security numbers on drivers licenses, and how states can exempt themselves from having to do it.
The institute's Center for Personal Freedom discusses the destruction of medical privacy in a Briefing on Lifestyle Control.
British academic, author, and activist Sean Gabb has authored two excellent resources on ID cards. Identity Cards: Some Brief Objections is a pamphlet originally published by the Libertarian Alliance. A Libertarian Conservative Case Against Identity Cards is a longer, almost book-length, piece with an extensive bibliography.
Links
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
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