Radio chip coming soon to your driver's license?
Homeland
Security seeks next-generation REAL ID
WorldDailyNet
March 6 2009
Bob Unruh
Privacy advocates are issuing warnings about a new radio chip plan that ultimately could
provide electronic identification for every adult in the
The proposal, which has earned the support of Janet Napolitano, the newly chosen chief
of the Department of Homeland Security,
would embed radio chips in driver's licenses, or "enhanced driver's licenses."
"Enhanced driver's licenses give confidence that the person holding the
card is the person who is supposed to be holding the card, and it's less
elaborate than REAL ID," Napolitano said in a Washington Times report.
REAL ID is a plan for a federal identification system standardized across the nation
that so alarmed governors many states have adopted formal plans to oppose it.
However, a privacy advocate today told WND that the EDLs
are many times worse.
Radio talk show host and identity chip expert
Katherine Albrecht said REAL ID earned the opposition of Christians
because of its resemblance to the biblical "mark of the beast," civil
libertarians opposed it for its "big brother" connotations and others
worried about identity theft issues with the
proposed databases.
"We got rid of the REAL ID program, but [this one] is way more
insidious," she said.
Enhanced driver's licenses have built-in radio chips providing an
identifying number or information that can be accessed by a remote reading unit
while the license is inside a wallet
or purse.
The technology already had been implemented in
But there are other agreements already approved with
Napolitano, as
"She's coming out and saying, 'OK, OK, OK, you win. We won't do REAL
ID. But what we probably ought to do is nationwide enhanced driver's
licenses,'" Albrecht told WND.
"They're actually talking about issuing every person a spychip driver's license," she said. "That is the
potential problem."
Imagine, she said, going to a First Amendment-protected event, a church or a
mosque, or even a gun show or a peace rally.
"What happens to all those people when a government operator carrying a
reading device makes a circuit of the event?" she asked. "They could
download all those unique ID numbers and link them."
Participants could find themselves on "watch" lists or their
attendance at protests or rallies added to their government
"dossier."
She said even if such license programs are run by states, there's virtually
no way that the databases would not be linked and accessible to the federal
government.
Albrecht said a hint of what is on the agenda was provided recently by California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger. The state's legislature approved a plan banning the
government from using any radio chips in any ID documentation.
Schwarzenegger's veto noted he did not want to interfere with any coming or
future federal programs for identifying people.
Albrecht's recent guest on her radio program was Michigan State Rep. Paul Opsommer, who said the government appears to be using a
national anti-terrorism plan requiring people to document their identities as
they enter the
"The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative was … just about proving you
were a citizen, not that you had to do it by any specific kind of
technology," Opsommer said.
But he said, "We are close to the point now that if you don't want RFID
in any of your documents that you can't leave the country or get back into
it."
Opsommer said his own state sought an exception to
the growing federal move toward driver's licenses with an electronic ID chip,
and he was told that was "unlikely."
He was told, "They were trying to harmonize these standards with
WND
previously has reported on such chips when hospitals used them to identify
newborns, a company desired
to embed immigrants with the electronic devices, a government health event showcased
them and when Wal-Mart
used microchips to track customers.
Albrecht, who has worked on issues involving radio chip implants, REAL-ID,
"Spychips" and other devices, provided a
platform for Opsommer to talk about drivers licenses
that include radio transmitters that provide identity information about the
carrier. She is active with the
AntiChips.com and SpyChips.com
websites.
Opsommer said he's been trying for several years
to gain permission for his state to develop its own secure license without a
radio chip.
"They have flat out refused, and their reasoning is all about the need
for what they call 'facilitative technology,' which they then determined was
RFID," he said during the recent interview.
According to
the U.S. State Department, which regulates international
travel requirements,
Documentation could be a
The rules are being promulgated under the outline of the WHTI, a result of
the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which requires
travelers to present a passport or other identity documents on entry into the
While
the government has expressed confidence that no personal or critical
information will be revealed through the system, it also says drivers will
need special information on how to use, carry and protect the radio-embedded
licenses as well as "a shielded container that will prevent anyone from
reading your license."
But Albrecht, the author or co-author of six books and videos, including the award-winning "Spychips: How major corporations and government plan to
track your every move with RFID," warns it goes much further.
"This must be nipped in the bud. Enhanced DL's
make REAL ID look like a walk in the park," Albrecht said.
"Look, I am all in favor of only giving drivers licenses to U.S.
citizens or people that are otherwise here in this country legally," Opsommer said, "But we are already doing that in
Michigan. We accomplished that without an EDL, as has virtually every other
state via their own state laws.
"But just because we choose to only issue our license to
Opsommer further warned the electronic chips
embedded in licenses to confirm identity are just the first step.
"Canadians are also more connected to what is going on in Britain with
the expansion of the national ID program there, and have seen the mission creep
that occurs with things like gun control first hand … Whatever the reason, as
an example, just last week the Canadian government repatriated a database from the
U.S. that contained the driver's license data of their citizens," he said.
"Someone finally woke up and realized it would not be a good idea for
that to be on American soil … I think it is only logical that we as state
legislators really understand how the governments of
But Opsommer said Big Brother concerns certainly
have some foundation.
"So if EDLs are the new direction for secure
licenses in all states, it just reinforces what many have been telling me that
DHS wants to expand this program and turn it into a wireless national ID with a
different name," he said. "We'll wake up one day and without a vote
in Congress DHS will just pass a rule and say something like 'starting next
month you will need an EDL to fly on a plane, or to buy a gun, or whatever.'"