From Wiki:
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..." It is required to have physical security features designed to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or duplication of the document for fraudulent purposes.
It will use common machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements (the details of which are not spelled out, but left to the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Transportation and the states, to regulate)."
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"On January 25, 2007, a Resolution passed overwhelmingly in the Maine Legislature that refuses implementation of the Real ID Act in that state, and calls on Congress to repeal the law. Many Maine lawmakers believe the law does more harm than good, that it would be a bureaucratic nightmare to enforce, is threatening to individual privacy, makes citizens increasingly vulnerable to ID theft, and would cost Maine taxpayers at least $185 million in five years because of the massive unfunded federal mandates on all the states. The Resolution vote in the Maine House was 137-4 and in the Maine Senate unanimous, 34-0.<34>
On February 16, 2007, Utah unanimously passed a resolution that opposes the REAL ID Act.<35> The resolution states that REAL ID is "in opposition to the Jeffersonian principles of individual liberty, free markets, and limited government." It further states that "the use of identification-based security cannot be justified as part of a 'layered' security system if the costs of the identification 'layer'--in dollars, lost privacy, and lost liberty--are greater than the security identification provides":
"the "common machine-readable technology" required by the REAL ID Act would convert state-issued driver licenses and identification cards into tracking devices, allowing computers to note and record people's whereabouts each time they are identified"
"the requirement that states maintain databases of information about their citizens and residents and then share this personal information with all other states will expose every state to the information security weaknesses of every other state and threaten the privacy of every American"
"the REAL ID Act wrongly coerces states into doing the federal government's bidding by threatening to refuse noncomplying states' citizens the privileges and immunities enjoyed by other states' citizens"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REAL_ID_ActPerhaps they chose Delaware as a test-case scenario - because we're small - and they knew Rhode Islanders would never stand for it.
Forget whether or not I've done anything whereby I don't want to be tracked, you just know this will be used by advertisers and marketers who will start tracking our shopping habits -- this IS a consumer based economy now, right? Well, for as long as any of us 99ers can hold onto our jobs as we age. Even that's not the point though - IT'S JUST WRONG FOR WHAT WE ALWAYS THOUGHT OF AS AMERICAN PRINCIPLES FOR FREEDOM OF THE INDIVIDUAL.