The head of the U.S. Homeland Security Department's visitor tracking program on Tuesday called for the creation of a "global ID management system" to make travel easier while enhancing security.
New high-tech passports may never provide the hoped-for level of protection against terrorists because the key technology - facial recognition - requires technologies that even proponents say are difficult to implement and not yet reliable.
Bruce Schneier counters the arguments that mandatory identification cards would help identify terrorists.
Responding to the threat of terrorism, the federal government is taking steps to establish a more reliable nationwide identification system, despite protests from some that privacy and civil liberties are threatened.
U.S. State motor vehicle authorities are working on a plan to create a national identification system for individuals that would link all driver databases and employ high-tech cards with a fingerprint, computer chip or other unique identifier.
The U.S. is providing funding to a small company that is trying to build a national database of driver's license photographs. Congressional leaders who helped make those arrangements envisioned using the photo file to combat terrorism, immigration abuses and other identity crimes -- applications that appear to go beyond recent company claims the database would only be used to prevent check and credit card fraud.
For the first time since authorities began snapping photographs of drivers for licenses, state officials have begun selling the images wholesale, another example of the growing availability of rich troves of personal information via modern technology.