Immigration Laws

I've come across a few news stories that seem to be a central reason why some people are wary of implementing national forms of ID.

34,000 Hispanic students skip class after judge ruling to enforce following Alabama law:

"U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn ruled on Wednesday that Alabama can enforce the law’s requirements for schools to verify students’ immigration status and for police to determine citizenship and status of those they stop, detain or arrest. Police are allowed to arrest anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant during a routine traffic stop, under the law."


A German manager with Mercedes-Benz is free after being arrested for not having a driver's license with him under Alabama's new law targeting illegal immigrants

US Teen (possibly) mistakenly deported, returns to US

Countries — ID cards

This is just a wikipedia list of current forms of ID used in a number of countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_document

This is a list of countries that use forms of National ID and what the stipulations are for each of them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_identity_card_policies_by_country

National ID Card Pros & Cons

Some obvious pros and cons to think about. They list feasibility as a con, but I don't think it is. As Justin has been telling us we have the technology to do this. They also list redundancy as a con, but we are dealing with combining all these together I'm not sure why this thought did not cross their minds.

Pros/Cons

A post highlighting some of the pros and cons of National ID cards.

MyKad information

This article (http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/MyKad.html) gives a lot of insight into how the introduction of the Malaysian national ID card, MyKad, is going, what the security risks are/have been, and how the card might be used. Might be a good resource to check out if you want to consider more specific security risks.

RFID Chips

Here is an interesting article on RFID Chips. It is crazy to find out that these are in some products that we buy everyday.

MyKad — Malaysian National ID

The National ID of Malaysia, MyKad, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyKad, was introduced in 2001 as a scaling mandatory card — not fully required yet, but mandatory for anyone needing to update their ID information, until it rolls over into the de facto ID card for citizens over the age of 12.

Applications on MyKad

The MyKad project was developed was originally intended to have four functions:

Identity card, including fingerprints and photo
Driving licence
Travel document in Malaysia and several neighbouring countries. However, a conventional passport is still required for international travel: the card is aimed at reducing congestion at the border by enabling the use of unmanned gates using biometric (fingerprint) identification.
Storage of health information

Current applications

Four further applications were added before or during its initial release,

e-cash, an 'electronic wallet' system intended for low value but high volume transactions (the maximum limit[clarification needed] is US$ 500)
ATM integration[clarification needed]
Touch 'n Go, Malaysia's toll road tolling system and also public transport payment system
Digital certificate[clarification needed], commonly known as Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), only supported by the 64Kb version (implemented by the end of 2002)

At this time, most[specify] of the functions are still not widely used because they are not widely promoted[citation needed].
[edit] Future / proposed applications

The extensible design of the card may be leading to functionality creep.[citation needed] Further applications envisaged by the government include:

frequent travellers' card
a merge with the Payment Multi-Purpose Card ('PMPC'), giving the MyKad credit and debit card functions that will pave the way for other financial uses

Personal identification

MyKad must be carried at all times. Failure to do so may incur a fine of between RM3,000 and RM20,000 or jail term of up to three years.

No unauthorised persons, including security guards, are allowed to retain the MyKads (identity cards) of other people. Only those authorised by the National Registration Department, like the police and immigration officers, can do so, said National Registration Department director-general Mohd Abdul Halim Muhammad.
[edit] Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

MyKad PKI application allows for two digital certificates to be inserted into the MyKad. MyKad holders can apply and purchase the digital certificates from two of Malaysia's certification authority, MSCTrustgate.com Sdn. Bhd. and DigiCert Sdn. Bhd..

PKI allows for easy securing of private data over public telecommunications networks, thus allowing, secure electronic transactions over the Internet which include:

Online submission of tax returns
Internet banking
Secure email

MyKad as a travel document

Frequent travellers between Malaysia and Brunei can use MyKad as a travel document.[7]

As Malaysia stopped issuing and renewing Restricted Passports beginning on 1 January 2006, Malaysia considered negotiating with Singapore to allow frequent Malaysian travellers to enter Singapore using MyKad. However, Singapore rejected the use of MyKad by frequent Malaysian travellers to enter the country, citing security concerns.

REAL ID Act

The REAL ID Act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REAL_ID_Act) was passed in 2005.

This act has basically been ignored or indefinitely postponed by almost all the states, and required standardization of information on ID cards used today, which is basically the closest the U.S. has gotten to imposing a national ID card. It got a lot of backlash.

Ambient Experience Design

Philips has documented their vision for Ambient Healthcare Environments

Link 1
Link 2