Real-ID-NPRM

Washington State, enhanced Driver's Licencse

http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/washington/stories/NW_032307TRBlicensepassportKC.d707c88.html

This is a link to the article on Washington STate enhanced drivers' licenses.

Winter Storm-Identity Interoperability Demonstration and New Jersey Attorney ID Cards

There is some interesting work underway in several different areas to create credentialing systems.  Here is a link to information about the Winter Storm Identity Interoperability Demonstration, http://www.smart.gov/iab/presentations/NCRfirstResponderInitiative.pdf.  This seems to be a very important community to serve with necessary identity functions and the demonstration seems interesting. Download winter_storm_aar03_21_07_final_2.pdf 

On the other hand there is the work in New Jersey on establishing a separate credentialing system for New Jersey attorneys to get into NJ Courthouses quicker than the rest of the public. See the whole article here, Download nj_attorney_id_cards.pdf.

It was decided that each County Sheriff's office would issue the cards, $11,000 per office for equipment to produce the cards that are, "similar in appearance to New Jersey drivers' licenses but with the heading 'NJ Attorney Identification,' the cards include the lawyer's signature, photo, year of admission, date of birth, height, weight, eye color and sex. ...and would facilitate the establishment of separate courthouse entrances for lawyer."

"(State Bar President, Wayne) Positan said that in counties that don't have a separate line or entrance for lawyers, the new card will make it easier for county bar associations to negotiate new arrangements for courthouse entry.

He said he's not bothered by those counties that are sitting out the new ID program. 'I'm not looking to sell it, he said. If it helps 300 attorneys make their day a little easier, I'm happy."  It seems that not every New Jersey Citizen agrees.

When Public Information is too Public?

On February 28 the EC3 Real ID Workgroup had an excellent presentation and discussion concerning public records.  Here is a link,  http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012221&pageNumber=1 ,to a story now unfolding in Texas with versions and variations occuring across the U.S.  The Texas Attorney General has issued a ruling that the practice conducted by county clerks (and by extension other government personel) of publishing on the Internet various public documents that include personal information, such as social security numbers,  "is a criminal offense punishable by jail time and fines."  The ruling does not say that the information is not public, that access to the information should be restricted nor that changes be made to the information included in these records, etc., just that it is illegal to publish public information in this particular manner and that the clerks in this case have a responsibility for the content.

It is worthwhile to reference www.cspra.org website and read The Public Record: Information Privacy and Access--A New Framework for Finding the Balance by Richard Varn and Fred Cate to understand another point of view on this topic.  Broad societal naivete and misunderstanding of what information is and is not public energizes a large proportion of the discussion related to the Real ID Act.  A first step to conducting a productive discussion on the potential effects of Real ID on privacy and personal information is to understand what information is or is not private.  It seems misguided to to blame the Real ID Act for making public information less private.  by Dan Combs