How do you feel about positive identification plans?

Ah what a change from a Brian survey to a Handle survey :)
Generally, a good idea. Of course, we must beware Big Brother, but if you've got nothing to hide, you don't have anything to worry about.

North: it's not true that if you don't have anything to hide, you have nothing to worry about. If someone gets ahold of your ID, they can do a lot of damage.

I had not heard the idea of a vouching agency before. It could, possibly, be useful, in the case of missing persons, but since I feel strongly that a central positive ID database is a bad idea in government hands, then I think a private one in the US is a bad idea. The US government seems to be able to subpoena any information it wants.

North79- you may have nothing to hide this week, but suppose next week some aspect of your belief system that you hold dear is proclaimed as heinous to the general population?

I'm all for it, especially if it helps to catch criminals quicker and easier !!!

I am much less concerned with the government gathering data on me, than I am of marketing people and private corporations. In most cases the government is not trying to make a fast buck of my information. Marketing groups are looking for money and I get nothing in return except junk mail and commercials that I don't watch.

Currently there is a company that is buying the license information from the states in the US and entering this information into a system that they are designing that will then have a picture id of everyone who has a license. They want to sell this system to other companys so that when you walk into a store to purchase something with a check or credit card you picture can be pulled up and compared so that the store knows that it is really you who is making the purchase. Last time I checked I know that I did not ok my state to sell this information to a private company.

I can not remember the exact articles on this but there was a tv as well as a newspaper story on it.

I LIKE it when the cashier verifies my ID when I write a check or pay by credit card. I have refused to give my thumb print (when it was optional) and the government already has my full set of prints since i worked for DoD.

Resy: I have no problem with the cashier asking for an id. I just don't want the state selling my license information to an outside company so that they can make a profit off of information that I did not authorize them to have in the first place.

How about "Positive ID information in anyone's hands causes me concern."? To quote mojo nixon "I aint gonna carry no identification no more! hey there sucker, can't you see it's ME ME ME!"

I feel that having something that uniquely identifies me is GOOD, as long as people can't steal that identity, and use it to ruin my credit rating and my life.

I'd like a way to use fingerprints to verify my identity without allowing them to be used to establish my identity.

**topper..elaborate?

doom - it looks like I'm disagreeing with your comment in my first one (which, of course, I hadn't seen when I was writing it). I haven't heard of the system you described. I think that would be too much -- I purposefully do not wear name badges so that people who don't actually know me can call me by name because it makes me uncomfortable when that happens. If they can scan in your picture, seems easy enough for a hack to switch identities and totally curtail your shopping pleasure. I agree that no one should make a profit off of personal information you did not authorize.

You know what I think is creepy is when I walk away from Safeway and I paid for something with my ATM card or charge card and the clerk refers to me by name as they say goodbye. I HATE THAT.

I don't want people I don't know ,knowing anything about me but it is good if they do this sort of thing to people who have been in trouble before or in jail

How -else- is Big Brother going to keep track of his rapidly growing population of minions? Sheesh...

It should be optional, except in certain cases. High security jobs come to mind.