National Id Cards
National ID Cards
The question of a national ID card is a controversial issue in our country today. Many people feel that a national ID card would make them safer and help prevent terrorist attacks. However, a national ID card would cause more problems than it would solve. Instituting a national ID card would create the need for a new database, the card wouldn't make Americans feel safer, and the government's standpoint on the issue is very unstable, making American's question the real intention of this new national ID card. Since the terrorist's attacks on September 11th, the United States has been in a state of fear, but instituting a national ID card would not ease the fear in Americans.
If a national ID card went into effect, there would be a need for a new database to hold all American's sensitive information. The cost of this new database could be anywhere from the millions to billions of dollars. In Margaret Carlson's essay, The Case for a National ID Card (513), she stated that Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle, would donate the pertinent software if the United States chose to go through with the idea. Supposing Mr. Ellison would follow through with his offer that would eliminate the question of how to pay for such a database. American citizens, though, would have to pay to receive their national ID. Larry Dzieza, budget director of the Department of Licensing, estimated that the fee for a national ID card would be around $58-$60 for one's first REAL ID. In Bruce Schneier essay, A National ID Card Wouldn't Make Us Safer (518), he stated that the creation of this new database would be incompatible, full of erroneous data and unreliable. Computers scientists do not know how to keep a database of this magnitude secure, whether form outside hackers or the thousands of insiders authorized to access it (Schneier, 520). What about the inevitable worms, viruses, or random failures that happen and the database goes down, what then (Schneier, 520)?
The question of a national ID card is a controversial issue in our country today. Many people feel that a national ID card would make them safer and help prevent terrorist attacks. However, a national ID card would cause more problems than it would solve. Instituting a national ID card would create the need for a new database, the card wouldn't make Americans feel safer, and the government's standpoint on the issue is very unstable, making American's question the real intention of this new national ID card. Since the terrorist's attacks on September 11th, the United States has been in a state of fear, but instituting a national ID card would not ease the fear in Americans.
If a national ID card went into effect, there would be a need for a new database to hold all American's sensitive information. The cost of this new database could be anywhere from the millions to billions of dollars. In Margaret Carlson's essay, The Case for a National ID Card (513), she stated that Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle, would donate the pertinent software if the United States chose to go through with the idea. Supposing Mr. Ellison would follow through with his offer that would eliminate the question of how to pay for such a database. American citizens, though, would have to pay to receive their national ID. Larry Dzieza, budget director of the Department of Licensing, estimated that the fee for a national ID card would be around $58-$60 for one's first REAL ID. In Bruce Schneier essay, A National ID Card Wouldn't Make Us Safer (518), he stated that the creation of this new database would be incompatible, full of erroneous data and unreliable. Computers scientists do not know how to keep a database of this magnitude secure, whether form outside hackers or the thousands of insiders authorized to access it (Schneier, 520). What about the inevitable worms, viruses, or random failures that happen and the database goes down, what then (Schneier, 520)?