For the inquiring mind:
Although still in its infant development stage, this type of database has the potential to forever change how society is monitored---technology on this level would do more damage to the Constitution and personal freedoms than any political party could muster. Combining a database like this with law enforcement along with surveillance cameras would give government an unprecedented power to watch over the lives of its citizens.
Any future 'mark of the beast' that the Revelator John prophesied about long ago, will almost certainly include some sort of bio-metric integration.
--On this topic: Much of the world is ditching the metalic strip on credit purchases in favor of RFID technology. Can you see a world in 10 years using a combination of RFID and Biometric technology for everyday purchases? It seemed like science fiction 50 years ago, but today it doesn't seem so far fetched.
Illustration: National Institutes of Health
The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday
would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in
the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a
ubiquitous national identification system.
Buried in the more than
800 pages of the bipartisan legislation (.pdf)
is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo
tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of
Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers
and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or
other state-issued photo ID.
Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire in the database to verify that they match their photo.
This piece of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and
Immigration Modernization Act is aimed at curbing employment of
undocumented immigrants. But privacy advocates fear the inevitable
mission creep, ending with the proof of self being required at polling
places, to rent a house, buy a gun, open a bank account, acquire credit,
board a plane or even attend a sporting event or log on the internet.
Think of it as a government version of Foursquare, with Big Brother
cataloging every check-in.
“It starts to change the relationship between the citizen and state,
you do have to get permission to do things,” said Chris Calabrese, a
congressional lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union. “More
fundamentally, it could be the start of keeping a record of all things.”
For now, the legislation allows the database to be used solely for
employment purposes. But historically such limitations don’t last. The
Social Security card, for example, was created to track your government
retirement benefits. Now you need it to purchase health insurance.
“The Social Security number itself, it’s pretty ubiquitous in your life,” Calabrese said.
David Bier, an analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agrees with the ACLU’s fears.
“The most worrying aspect is that this creates a principle of
permission basically to do certain activities and it can be used to
restrict activities,” he said. “It’s like a national ID system without
the card.”
For the moment, the debate in the Senate Judiciary Committee is
focused on the parameters of legalization for unauthorized immigrants, a
border fence and legal immigration in the future.
The committee is scheduled to resume debate on the package Tuesday.
