![\"ID](\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1014\/1338707162_5861b638c1_m.jpg\")
<\/a>At every turn it seems like there are more requirements for “proof of identity,” or requests for ID. Somehow we’ve gotten it into our collective consciousness that being sure of someone’s identity removes all risk of fraud, theft, or crime – but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, stricter requirements for “proof of identity” are, largely, a complete and utter waste of everyone’s time.<\/p>\nConsider this example: the state where I currently live (New Jersey) has an insanely complicated “6 point system<\/a>” for getting (or even renewing!) a driver’s license. (This is due, at least in part, to the stupid REAL ID Act<\/a>, which I’ve written about before<\/a>.) You need “6 points” worth of identification, with different forms of identification being given different point values. For example, a passport is worth 4 points, but a drivers license from any other state is only worth 1 point. And it’s not enough to just get the 6 points you need – you have to have at least one document from each of several categories! And as if that’s not enough, you need another separate document “proving” that you are a resident, which gives you no points, but you need it anyway.<\/p>\n This obsession with “proving identity” seems to stem from the misguided belief that knowing who<\/em> someone is gives you some insight into what<\/em> their intentions are. This is obviously a fallacy. So too is the idea that somehow people with sinister intentions would be unable to prove their identity (because all “bad guys” have fake names and use fake IDs, right?). Although a 5th grader would probably understand all of the holes in this logic, somehow this has become our de-facto operating principle at both the large corporation and government level.<\/p>\n Part of this, I think, stems from CYA syndrome, otherwise known as “cover your ass” syndrome.<\/p>\n You see, by forcing everyone to prove who they are, you do establish some sort of paper trail that can be useful after the fact in solving crimes that have already happened. But this is a very small benefit for a hugely cumbersome system of identity verification and re-verification.<\/p>\n It is somewhat of a tangent, but on a personal level I find this constant need to “prove” that I am who I say I am very insulting. This constant doubt of your sincerity and trustworthiness is, frankly, wearisome.<\/p>\n While it’s true that there are some holes in the systems we use for identification, our obsession with identity hasn’t really addressed these concerns in any meaningful way. People continue to get fake IDs, and those who wish to commit crimes (or perpetrate acts of terrorism) will do so, regardless of whether they were able to get a driver’s license or not. So in the end, this obsession with ID is really, truthfully, and honestly a complete waste of time<\/strong>.<\/p>\n You trust me on that, right?<\/p>\n Photo “ID Card<\/a>” by Gareth Harper<\/a>, used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the past 10 years, we’ve developed an obscene obsession with “identity,” and for all the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[199,2,17],"tags":[19,279,89,18,65,392,80],"class_list":["post-3467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-opinion","category-politics","category-society","tag-government","tag-identity","tag-law","tag-new-jersey","tag-real-id","tag-society","tag-trust","entry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-TV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1101,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/05\/08\/online-identity-anonymity\/","url_meta":{"origin":3467,"position":0},"title":"Online Identity\/Anonymity","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This story over on Slashdot about how the Washington Post's online executive editor Jim Brady is arguing against anonymity sparked quite a lively little debate. The problem isn't really anonymity - it's identity. They don't want to know who a particular person is, they just want to somehow stop that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "society"","block_context":{"text":"society","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/society\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":492,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/05\/13\/real-id-summary\/","url_meta":{"origin":3467,"position":1},"title":"Real ID Summary","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 13, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Because most people are too lazy to read the bill itself, (and frankly, it's filled with so much legalese that most people can't understand it) here's an honest, unbiased breakdown of the bill's ID-relevant sections.","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":502,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/05\/06\/us-national-identity-cards-all-but-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":3467,"position":2},"title":"U.S. National Identity Cards All But Law","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 6, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Given the recent surge in Federalism here in the US (a.k.a. \"states rights\"), I wonder how people will react to this - as it is a huge violation of states rights by the Federal Government. Not to mention that the current Federal Government has absolutely NO IDEA on how to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":450,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/03\/14\/a-model-regime-of-privacy-protection\/","url_meta":{"origin":3467,"position":3},"title":"A Model Regime of Privacy Protection","author":"Keith Survell","date":"March 14, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Hmmm... this identity theft thing is getting out of hand, isn't it?","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/02\/24\/choicepoint\/","url_meta":{"origin":3467,"position":4},"title":"ChoicePoint","author":"Keith Survell","date":"February 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"If you don't take identity theft seriously, you should start NOW.","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":529,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/06\/07\/39-million-citigroup-customers-data-lost\/","url_meta":{"origin":3467,"position":5},"title":"3.9 Million Citigroup Customers’ Data Lost","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Need I say more? If you think your identity is safe in this new digital age - think again.","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}