BOX ES.1
Nationwide Identity Systems

In the first report of the Committee on Authentication Technologies and Their Privacy Implications, IDs—Not That Easy: Questions About Nationwide Identity Systems, it was noted that many large-scale identity systems are in effect nationwide identity systems. In particular, driver’s licenses and even Social Security cards qualify as such. Such large-scale systems pose significant privacy and security challenges, which were elaborated on in that report. A follow-on discussion is located in Chapter 6 that includes the findings and recommendations below.

Finding: State-issued driver’s licenses are a de facto nationwide identity system. They are widely accepted for transactions that require a form of government-issued photo ID. (6.5)

Finding: Nationwide identity systems by definition create a widespread and widely used form of identification, which could easily result in inappropriate linkages among nominally independent databases. While it may be possible to create a nationwide identity system that would address some privacy and security concerns, the challenges of doing so are daunting. (6.6)

Recommendation: If biometrics are used to uniquely identify license holders and to prevent duplicate issuance, care must be taken to prevent exploitation of the resulting centralized database and any samples gathered. (6.3)

Recommendation: New proposals for improved driver’s license systems should be subject to the analysis presented in this report by the National Research Council’s Committee on Authentication Technologies and Their Privacy Implications and in the earlier (2002) report by the same committee: IDs—Not That Easy: Questions About Nationwide Identity Systems. (6.4)