You can read the rest of my article over at The Daily Censored.

While many people love the idea of one card that does it all, very few look at the privacy risks involved. They instead see the convenience factor of having to only carry one card instead of several forms of identification. Three years from now, Russians will be using just such a card.

The UEC, which will be a kind of Swiss army knife of plastic cards and serve as a combination of a state electronic ID, driver’s license, car insurance and migration cards among other possible perks, should be available to Russians by 2014, according to the federal law.

Banks are not so sure there will be a benefit to them, so the Russian government must get them to change their minds in the next three years.

Another danger of introducing such a card is the potential for identity fraud, which often plagues countries that have introduced systems of electronic identification and rely heavily on cards similar to the UEC, experts say.

This is especially the case in Western countries, said Timur Aitov, executive director at the Association of Russian Banks. “Until recently, we have had nothing to steal,” he said.

But introducing a card that would hold comprehensive data on citizens could put them at high risk of identity theft.

Medvedev confessed that, to date, the government has not found a good answer to the question of protecting its citizens’ data and he admitted that personal information often circulates on the Internet.

While Medvedev promised that the new card “will improve the lives of tens of millions of people” by cutting through the red tape and allowing Russians to do everything from paying their gas bills to making a doctor’s appointment online, experts see ample potential for the card to turn from a magic wand into a weapon that can be used against its owner through fraud and identity theft.

Cases of fraud involving plastic debit and credit cards in Russia, according to experts, run as high as 1 percent to 1.5 percent of all cards, and not all of them are reported.

ID fraud is becoming more and more of a problem as countries continue to move towards universal IDs.  Many countries do not think thoroughly about the security and identity implications before moving ahead with their schemes.  Russia has three years to ensure that their IDs are as secure as possible.  If they only concern themselves with interoperability between numerous agencies, they will, inevitably, ignore the security risks, harming the very people they aim to protect.

Since there are little details on how the card will be made, we will have to take Medvedev’s word that they will, in the end, only cost $9 each. There are many obstacles to overcome in such an endeavor and taking care to protect individual privacy and identities is a huge task that needs to be overcome before anyone can trust such a card.

From FlyerTalk Day One and Day Two:

1. He was not disorderly. Mere questioning of the TSA does not rise to the level of illegality, and the only people raising their voices were the TSA and the police.

2. He was not required to identify himself if he was not breaking the law. That charge really depended on the others.

3. He did not refuse to obey a lawful order because he was not given an opportunity to obey the order before being instantly arrested. He gave every indication that he would have obeyed if given a chance.

4. He was not trespassing because he had a valid reason to be at the airport. Anyway, trespassing and disobeying a lawful order were essentially the same alleged crime.

New Canaan already has GPS and video cameras on all their buses, but is only exploring being part of an experiment testing such tracking. Under the program, students would be carrying an ID card with radio frequency strips. It pinpoints a student’s location, be it in the classroom or off grounds in nearby downtown.

As usual, the company that would provide the tags has brought out the old standby that they would be useful in an emergency.

“In an emergency they would be able to take attendance and know which students were where in a matter of seconds,” he explained.

As has been pointed out numerous times before, these devices are easily defeated. This idea isn’t new and it will fail.

July 10, 2010, marks EFF’s 20th anniversary! To thank you for your support over these two decades, please enjoy this new animation created especially for us by celebrated cartoonist and free culture activist Nina Paley. This short cartoon highlights some of the reasons why EFF is here.

The Ugandan ID is set to include data on tribe, clan, village, and parish, as well as information on spouses. There will also be a provision of up to four wives plus children.

Turkey introduced biometric IDs that will have a digital picture, but no fingerprints on June 1st. Regular passports will be red, while diplomatic passports will be black.

Mozambique introduced their biometric ID in April after a short delay. The Belgian firm, Semlex, fixed the problems that they created with spelling errors and the prevention of Mozambican names from fitting on new biometric passports. The Belgians, however, can’t seem to hang on to their own ID cards, with more than 200,000 people losing them last year. Most of these were in the 18-25 year old range. Girls were particularly susceptible since they left their ID in open handbags

Zambia has introduced a multipurpose electronic national registration card. Kenya is set to employ a similar measure. The cards can be used for voting, accessing banking services, and as driver’s licenses.

Algerian passports now require women to remove their hijab for photographic purposes. A full face is required to meet international standards on their new biometric passports and many men are livid at this decision. The government has said they will not back down on the decision. Many believe it is the politicians objecting to this and not the women themselves.

While not quite a national ID card just yet, voters in Nepal are now required to have photographs and fingerprints taken, which will then be placed on a card with a unique ID number. The information will be stored on a national civil registration list.

Russia is fingerprinting, photographing, and licensing migrant laborers. If you are a highly skilled laborer, however, you will be excluded. Ah, the elite are above the system again.

The Philippines’ new scheme will be run by the postal service. Foreign residents in Saudi Arabia will soon be required to register their fingerprints to access any government service

Bulgaria’s biometric ID system, which is made by Siemens, won’t scale properly. If all the printing stations across the country are running, the system gets blocked. Instead of fixing the software problem, Bulgaria is, instead, running half the systems in consecutive shifts. The system is, essentially, broken and many people cannot obtain their biometric passports. People are waiting months to get their ID. Under the new system, IDs were supposed to be issued within 30 days.

In the United States, there are numerous fights against ID systems every day. There are major fights over a national work ID. Known as The Biometric Enrollment, Locally-stored Information, and Electronic Verification of Employment (BELIEVE) System, it is being pushed by politicians in Washington. It’s riddled with privacy and civil liberties concerns. There are also concerns that, if Americans are forced into a national ID, the US Supreme Court will like the idea, leaving Americans out in the cold.

The United States will also be issuing new green cards. First, they will actually be green. Second, holographic images, and laser engraved fingerprint information will be stored on them. RFID chips will also be used so that customs and border patrol agents can read the card at a distance. Naturally, no one has given a thought about how easy it is to clone a card you can read from far away.

The former airport Clear ID program is back up and running. It is now known as Alclear. The company also wants to expand the ID program to more places than just airports, including places of work.

Biometrics may be here to stay as an accepted practice. IEEE has created a Certified Biometrics Professional program. We learn of new biometric ID schemes every day, from many different countries. While the UK may be scrapping theirs for now, the USA is still fighting to implement one. Its citizens, however, vow to keep protesting against a national ID.

Britain and America may still end up with a national ID. It seems inevitable with so many people willing to line up and give their privacy away just so they can feel better about themselves and claim that they helped a bit with security. Too bad most of it is security theater and they willingly give away hard fought civil liberties in the process.

High-security drivers licenses will soon be an option for Nevada drivers. That’s the word from Department of Motor Vehicles Director Edgar Roberts, who told a Legislative panel Monday the controversial “Real ID” program will no longer be mandatory. In January, Governor Jim Gibbons made the program mandatory in Nevada by executive order. But the high-security licenses have caused long lines at DMV offices, and sparked criticism from opponents who say the program intrudes into personal lives. Lawmakers could endorse Roberts’ plan by the end of the month. Nevada has spent about two million dollars to implement the “Real ID” program, and so far, 46-thousand drivers have opted for the high-security cards.