Chipped ID cards are trouble

Inter Lake editorial

An old saying has it that "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you."

We are reminded of that bit of humor by the decidedly unhumorous AP story this week that revealed some of the consequences of the government's ever-expanding use of technology to keep tabs on the rest of us.

What is particularly scary is that most of us are completely oblivious to these changes that are under way all around us, so if you didn't read the story about radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags, listen up! It's important.

Turns out that in following its perceived mandate to become more and more efficient, the federal government has started to put RFID chips in identity documents. This is touted as a way to 'speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country," but it also has the dangerous effect of making the government into a "brother's keeper" (better known in modern lingo as Big Brother).

Once you have a chipped document such as an "e-passport" or the new, electronic PASS card - a credit-card sized piece of plastic with the bearer's digital photograph and a chip that can be scanned from 30 feet away, you are essentially "on the grid." You can be tracked and monitored and, some would say, spied upon.

Nor is it just the federal government which is putting chips in ID cards. So-called "enhanced" driver's licenses are available in Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York, with Texas and Arizona soon to follow.

The purpose of using RFID is not to identify people, says Mary Ellen Callahan, the chief privacy officer at Homeland Security, but "to verify that the identification document holds valid information about you."

Nonetheless, these chips WILL identify you, or even worse, will MIS-identify you if someone has stolen your ID card. Smugglers and others may be able to use the cards to sneak through unmanned border crossings or to confound security in other ways. That certainly puts the holders of these cards at risk as potential crime victims.

In addition, the information stored electronically on the cards can also be stolen by identity thieves, who can then pose as the innocent victim or use the stolen information in other ways.

Americans are free people, with a proud history of free movement and limited government. We are not numbers or blips on a radar screen, but if we want to keep that proud history alive, we had better be vigilant. Someone could be out to get us.