The main issue is if it's required. Not so worried about myself - I'm a veteran which means my fingerprints and DNA are already on file with the feds somewhere :), but US Citizens with no particular connection to the federal government absolutely shouldn't have to need a "National ID."
And yet, everyone suffers because of it. We have endless SSN breaches because at the end of the day, having a unique ID for people is really valuable! We could have something way safer, but we get stuck with the status quo which satisfies no one.
There are ways to solve that problem whilst still protecting privacy, but there's no benefit in that for the ruling class. Once the infrastructure is in place, we all know governments would eventually use it to track all sorts of additional information/activity about us.
> use it to track all sorts of additional information/activity about us.
They already do!
There is so many quasi-national tracking and gov approved monopolies that they already get what they need.
Everywhere is tracked with license plate scanners, so you can't go anywhere.
Everyone realistically uses VISA or mastercard, so you can't buy anything. If you don't you're still probably banked and connected to credit agencies, so you can still be tracked. Good luck getting cash without the gov knowing. Just look at the IRS data.
You register with the gov to drive, so your IDed already by someone.
NSA et al. track god knows what about you across the internet and abroad, and where they don't go some ad network goes.
I think the only thing that we don't track is guns... and thats probably something we should track.
I'd be perfectly fine with that. My ideal scenario would essentially be a national ID that's also a smart card with u2f/federation. I realize there's a ton of details with accessibility but like, we have the technology.
It's strange how all this stuff worked when the records were on paper and plenty of people had been born at home and rarely recorded. A world of endless danger which satisfied no one.
> the federal government absolutely shouldn't have to need a "National ID."
But every state has an ID system, and they're all known to each other, and tied to your SSN which is a national id number. We already essentially have all the parts, just messier.
> my fingerprints and DNA are already on file with the feds somewhere
Same. Probably same for lots of people.
> US Citizens with no particular connection to the federal government
One of the big issues with instituting an income tax is it changed the relationship of every citizen with the government. Other than the postal service, the average citizen almost never dealt with the federal government directly. Now, everyone knows and despises/fears the IRS.
who cares ? Thats not the world any significant group of persons have every lived in?
We first got an income tax during the civil war, and the 16th ammendment before the 1920s. Thats the relationship we've had with the government. How many people alive "almost never dealt with the federal government directly" at any point in their life?
Everyone is already issued a social security number. I'm not sure how a more modern, cryptographic ally secure version would be any more concerning in this regard.
We are so weird about this. We already have national "identifier" - the social security number. Pretty much everyone must use it because of both social security and taxes, but also due to private use cases. We should just admit this is the case and manage it better. The man-in-woods scenarios where one can opt-out are just not very realistic.
Now as a matter of authentication - verifying the identifier, we have left this up to the states in the past, with opt-in federal IDs for various purposes. Though with RealID this is being standardized. Login.gov is a way to have a digital equivalent.
We already need it. That's just the modern economy/world. So we get shitty ad-hoc solutions with bad security that waste tons of time and money, instead of a good one, because people are afraid of the good one. Not having a solution isn't an option.
> US Citizens with no particular connection to the federal government absolutely shouldn't have to need a "National ID."
Hard disagree. If you live in the US you have a connection to the federal government. I'm not saying everyone should have fingerprints or DNA on file but a national ID is something I'm fully behind. The shit show that is social security numbers, KYC, and other ways to identify a person are such a pain and for literally no good reason that I can see.
