strata

Addressing the Challenges of Identification and Authentication in
American Society

By Peter Swire, Cassandra Q. Butts, Center for American Progress, 2 Jun 2008

How individuals identify themselves in our country grows more complex by the
year. Just last month, 12 nuns were turned away from voting booths during
the Indiana presidential primary because they lacked state identification
(none of them drives), a stark reminder that the recent Supreme Court ruling
that upheld Indiana's voter ID law poses lasting consequences to our
democracy. And two years ago last month the personal identification data of
26.5 million veterans were lost from a government laptop, the latest in a
series of data breaches that threaten the integrity of everyone's
identification.

Those 12 nuns are among 20 million other voting age citizens without
driver's licenses, and they join those 26.5 million veterans and many
millions of other Americans who suddenly find themselves on the wrong side
of what we call the ID Divide-Americans who lack official identification,
suffer from identity theft, are improperly placed on watch lists, or
otherwise face burdens when asked for identification. The problems of these
uncredentialed people are largely invisible to credentialed Americans, many
of whom have a wallet full of proofs of identity. Yet those on the wrong
side of the ID Divide are finding themselves squeezed out of many parts of
daily life, including finding a job, opening a bank account, flying on an
airplane, and even exercising the right to vote. ...

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/06/id_divide.html

Full report (pdf)
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/06/pdf/id_divide.pdf

Identification and Authentication Resources page
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/06/id_resources.html

(Via RISKS-Digest, RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Sunday 8 June 2008 Volume 25 : Issue 19

ACM FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks)
Peter G. Neumann, moderator, chmn ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy

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