And, if you want to FOOL the authorities, leave your card at home!
Thom Q
VirgilT7@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 6/26/98 8:23:18 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> daugh@home.msen.com writes:
>
> <<
> This is NOT radical right-wing paranoia. Most of the elements of the new
> proposed national ID system are already in place NOW. The next step is
for
> all information to be coordinated and completely accessible to any and
all
> bureaucrats for their arbitrary and capricious abuse.
>
> The national ID card itself (which you will be required to carry) will
have
> a magnetic strip (or chip) which is imbedded in it. That means YOU (when
you
> have your mandated national ID card on your person) could be tracked
> wherever you go. Privacy will be an anachronism.
> >>
>
> Other cards that have magnetic strips: credit cards, ATM cards, hotel
keys,
> appt keys, et al. The magnetic strips can't be used to somehow follow
your
> movements. But the author of the article seems more interested in
propogating
> a juvenile kind of paranoia than paying much attention to the benefits of
such
> a system or to the fact that the system really doesn't add any new powers
to
> the government but only makes the government more efficient. In any
immensely
> large and complex society such as ours a standardized identification
system
> makes perfect sense. And the presence of it simply has nothing to do with
> government encroachment of anyone's rights. It DOES have to do with
making
> the government more efficient. The place to protect rights, however, is
in
> the courts and the legislatures, and NOT upon the assumption of
governmental
> inefficiency in enforcing its laws.
>
> Andrew