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On biometrics and the politics of a national ID card

I find myself in total agreement with Bert Knab at the Glass Houses blog on why a national ID card is a bad idea and biometric identification won't stop employers from hiring illegal immigrants. Go read what he has to say.I'd add an observation I've been stressing for many years on Grits: that biometrics are generally bad identifiers for ID purposes, precisely because they can't be altered if a thief gets hold of them. If someone steals your password or your credit card number, it can be changed. However if biometrics like your thumbprint or iris scan (which to a computer, after all, is just information: ones and zeroes) are used as identifiers, once they're stolen you can never mitigate the damage.

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on March 14, 2010 (boomark / email).