U.S. worker ID card being planned?
09 March, 2010
category: Biometrics, Digital ID, Government
U.S. senators are planning to meet with President Obama this week to propose a new type of ID card that would use biometrics to confirm eligibility to work in the U.S., according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R- S.C.) are pushing the card that would use biometrics to confirm worker eligibility. Schumer has suggested adding biometrics to the E-Verify system last summer. Now he is suggesting using either fingerprint or palm vein biometrics with the system.
Privacy advocated will most likely object to the program. “We’re not only talking about fingerprinting every American, treating ordinary Americans like criminals in order to work. We’re also talking about a card that would quickly spread from work to voting to travel to pretty much every aspect of American life that requires identification,” said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Read the Wall Street Journal article here.
A U.S. ID card was also discussed in the winter cover story of Regarding ID, which can be found here.