4 ms·

Not if you ask people who specifically don’t want the government tracking everything

loeg 1y ago
They are deluded if they think the lack of federal ID (ignoring Social Security) provides any privacy benefit, and the cost is immense.
tart-lemonade 1y ago
And the worst part is a federal ID would not enable tracking any more than your employers withholding wages for tax purposes and paying into Social Security does, but every time a federal ID has been proposed (which would be really useful as a way to keep SSNs from becoming something you have to disclose to everyone and their dog) it's been shut down by the "it's all a road to tyranny" crowd. I could get a Real ID that reads "1060 W Addison St" today. All I have to do is pirate Acrobat, change the addresses on PDFs downloaded from the websites of my bank and power company, and walk into an Illinois Secretary of State office, as that's enough for the residency portion of a Real ID. They do not double-check any of this information, and I know this works because I had to edit a power bill PDF so my SO would have a second document for proof of residency. All it would take is one phone call to find out I'm the only one listed on the account, but it was never verified. Why anyone thinks a federal ID would enable mass surveillance and tracking is beyond me. The NSA doesn't need a unified federal ID to track us, and law enforcement isn't exactly foiled by people who hold fake IDs or who have no IDs whatsoever (unless being undocumented or Amish is some magical "get out of jail free" card).
lxgr 1y ago
Ironically, lax to nonexistent data privacy laws and the ubiquitous use of SSNs as globally unique identifiers are achieving exactly the outcome that the lack of government ID verification purportedly achieves.
- kortilla 1y ago
  You don’t need an externally generated globally unique ID verified by the government.
  - lxgr 1y ago
    You definitely need a unique ID assigned by the government for pretty much anything involving money or healthcare in the US.
const_cast 1y ago
The government is already tracking things like your financial investments. Except now, they're doing it in a disconnected and sprawling way, centered around your SSN. Which is insecure. I'm very paranoid about tracking and privacy, but the reality is that identity verification is just a necessary part of some services. Like opening a brokerage account, or riding a plane. So, if we HAVE to do it, we should have a more secure way of doing it. There's no reason we should be relying on easily-gathered 9 digit numbers.
- kortilla 1y ago
  Riding on a plane doesn’t require centralized identification. Well at least it didn’t until real ID, but flying was perfectly fine without it before.
  - loeg 1y ago
    Actually, it does. They verify who you are before they let you board, even if you don't bring ID documents.

loeg 1y ago

They are deluded if they think the lack of federal ID (ignoring Social Security) provides any privacy benefit, and the cost is immense.

tart-lemonade 1y ago

And the worst part is a federal ID would not enable tracking any more than your employers withholding wages for tax purposes and paying into Social Security does, but every time a federal ID has been proposed (which would be really useful as a way to keep SSNs from becoming something you have to disclose to everyone and their dog) it's been shut down by the "it's all a road to tyranny" crowd. I could get a Real ID that reads "1060 W Addison St" today. All I have to do is pirate Acrobat, change the addresses on PDFs downloaded from the websites of my bank and power company, and walk into an Illinois Secretary of State office, as that's enough for the residency portion of a Real ID. They do not double-check any of this information, and I know this works because I had to edit a power bill PDF so my SO would have a second document for proof of residency. All it would take is one phone call to find out I'm the only one listed on the account, but it was never verified. Why anyone thinks a federal ID would enable mass surveillance and tracking is beyond me. The NSA doesn't need a unified federal ID to track us, and law enforcement isn't exactly foiled by people who hold fake IDs or who have no IDs whatsoever (unless being undocumented or Amish is some magical "get out of jail free" card).

lxgr 1y ago

Ironically, lax to nonexistent data privacy laws and the ubiquitous use of SSNs as globally unique identifiers are achieving exactly the outcome that the lack of government ID verification purportedly achieves.

kortilla 1y ago
You don’t need an externally generated globally unique ID verified by the government.
- lxgr 1y ago
  You definitely need a unique ID assigned by the government for pretty much anything involving money or healthcare in the US.

const_cast 1y ago

The government is already tracking things like your financial investments. Except now, they're doing it in a disconnected and sprawling way, centered around your SSN. Which is insecure. I'm very paranoid about tracking and privacy, but the reality is that identity verification is just a necessary part of some services. Like opening a brokerage account, or riding a plane. So, if we HAVE to do it, we should have a more secure way of doing it. There's no reason we should be relying on easily-gathered 9 digit numbers.

kortilla 1y ago
Riding on a plane doesn’t require centralized identification. Well at least it didn’t until real ID, but flying was perfectly fine without it before.
- loeg 1y ago
  Actually, it does. They verify who you are before they let you board, even if you don't bring ID documents.