| About InfoWorld : Advertise : Subscribe : Contact Us : Awards : Events : Store |
 |
||||
|
||||
 |
||||
 |
|
|||
 |
||||
|
|
|
||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 COLUMN
Should we worry about national ID cards? I do I discussed ethical theories several columns ago and some people wrote to me, floating the idea that the benchmark of making a good ethical decision is whether you can sleep soundly at night. I disagree.
These days I'm worrying about national identity cards. They have some powerful champions, and the idea seems to make a lot of sense to a lot of people. On one level they make a lot of sense to me, but on a much deeper level, I have unanswered questions. Will they work? I'm not questioning whether the technology is equal to the task. I want to know if these cards will achieve their goal. It wouldn't be the first time we've tried a technological solution only to find that it was more technology than solution. Here we're giving up a lot of freedom and hoping to get something in return. What is the probability we'll actually get that something we're looking for? And do we realize exactly what we're giving up? We should be looking for a proportionality between benefit and burden. Is that there? Do I trust the technology? OK. Now I'm questioning whether the technology is equal to the task. Proponents say that it is, but I wonder whether we'll be into Version 4.3 before they work out all the bugs. What happens when the system crashes? I was in Europe last summer and on my way out, the airport computers crashed. There were three flights leaving from my gate within two hours and no way to check in passengers. There was a near riot. Can we anticipate similar situations with national ID cards? How secure are they? I want to know whether they could be forged easily. The proponents say no, but what do they know? I once lived in a college town where 19-year-old kids had the technology to make phony driver's licenses so accurate they had the DMV stumped. So, I have to wonder. I'd hate to give up a lot of privacy to the government, only to find out that any tinhorn terrorist can buy an ID card at a flea market. Do I trust technology in general? I've been around technology long enough not to trust it completely. Things go wrong. We need to understand that. When a medical company inadvertently mails private patient data to a large mailing list, we have a problem. I recently received an e-mail from a group that advocates online privacy. Someone screwed up and the e-mail addresses of all the recipients were listed in plain sight. They sent a follow-up note apologizing, but that cat was already out of the bag. If people who are often described as "paranoid" can do that, what can we say of civil servants suffering from ennui? Also, in case anyone doesn't remember (why is our memory so short?), during the flurry to get into Y2K compliance, we sent at least a jillion lines of code off-shore to be written in code shops over which we had no security control. Can anyone say with any degree of certainty that we're not sitting on a powder keg of backdoors and Trojan horses that will make identity card systems vulnerable to terrorist intrusion? Do I trust the president, Congress, or the military? I don't necessarily mean the current government, but future leaders. Once we've instituted the program, undoing it will be extremely difficult. We've found out how the super-efficient Hollerith sorting technology and a detailed national census allowed the Nazis to carry out the Holocaust with chilling efficiency. But, of course, that can't happen here -- or could it? How sure are you? Is there a possibility of misuse? We'll be told that the uses are severely restricted, and we won't need to use the card for trivial things. I was once told that about Social Security numbers, and now everyone wants mine -- especially the identity thieves. What will happen if they can successfully forge my national ID card? Is this a slippery slope? What's next? The idea of national ID cards is being pushed while we're under a state of "national emergency." If the cards come to pass, what will we do during the next "national emergency," or the one after that? Change the conditions under which the cards can be used -- until you can't cross town without showing your ID card at a series of checkpoints? Will the government be checking up on what you eat -- because you have to use your ID card at the grocery -- or what you read -- because you have to use it to buy books? Will they know how many guns you have and where you keep them? But, of course, that can't happen here. Is this a false sense of security? Until Sept. 11, many people flew on airplanes believing tight security rules were in effect. We call those people tourists. They flew once a year or so. Those of us who flew frequently knew that security was a joke handled, in most cases, by people who were paid less and trained less than the clerks who sell you gum at the convenience store. I kept waiting for the airport security guard to check my laptop for explosives and then ask me if I wanted fries with that. We let our guard down. Will national ID cards give people that same false sense of security and allow us to lower our guard, operating under the illusion that the government has everything well in hand? Am I just being paranoid? I ask myself that all the time, and then remember the saying, "Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you." About three years ago -- while working for a different publication -- I wrote extensively on the threat to buildings and their occupants from chemical and biological terrorism. The idea was to get people to begin securing their facilities and protecting their employees and tenants. I was told then I was paranoid and was accused of being a sensationalist. Even colleagues who were friends of mine wanted to know if I was planning a career in the tabloids. Most people didn't take the necessary steps when they had the luxury of time. They're taking them now in a state of near panic. Sometimes I really hate being right. Do you worry about the same things I do? Write to me at ethics_matters@infoworld.com. Carlton Vogt is the senior editor in charge of InfoWorld's e-mail newsletters. He holds graduate degrees in philosophy and theology, and has taught ethics at the college level. He also has an extensive background in technology journalism. Discuss this article in our online forums MORE > SPONSORED WHITE PAPERS 
SPONSORED LINKS
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
