I remember reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley in high school. I think I picked it up because I was really into The Doors back then, and I read that they had chosen the band name after reading a quote by Huxley about The Doors of Perception. How I got there doesn’t really matter, what matters is that over the last ten years, the United States is getting closer and closer to the science fiction of Brave New World and 1984. Sure, we’re not all eating our Soma yet, but this new National ID Card is another step in the direction of government watching our every move.

It’s all in the interest of security right?

Wrong. I don’t know about anyone else, but the thought of the government having the largest database of names and address in the United States is scary. To top that off, local governments will keep copies of a whole bunch of your personal information.

Does that not sound like a wonderful place for hackers to have some fun?

I’ve already seen what happens when a mail merge goes back for a spam mail company. I had flyers with my name mailed to other addresses, while I was getting wrong names to my address. That was from an operator error. Lovely, right? What happens when some hackers decide to have some fun with the system?

All of this “security” is only good for the general population. It’s like securing a home. I can do everything in my power to secure it, alarms, locks, solid doors, etc. That keeps out or deters a ton of potential burglars, but a professional is going to get in and out if they want to get in and out.  The same goes for hacking.

And what about privacy you say? As Wired.com points out, the 162 page document doesn’t say a whole lot about it. States are free to pull down your information as they see fit. I guess we’re supposed to be happy that the “Real ID” doesn’t have an RFID chip in it? Maybe the government will figure out they can make a few pennies by selling our names to junk mail companies and solicters?

In reality, I know this probably won’t change my life on a daily basis. And from a technical standpoint, a lot of it makes sense. Warehoused data is a good thing, and Google probably already knows way more about me than the U.S. Government ever will, but where is the comment sense?