CNET news wrote about U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff discussing the mandated REAL ID cards identity cards. The plans are vague and ill-defined except to require ‘physical security features’. This idea has been widely criticized by many privacy and security experts such as Bruce Schneier.

One such problem is the idea of feature creep; how many different ways will this one ID be used beyond its original purposes? Australia looks like they’ve got the right idea and I think the US should follow suit. Many bars here in the US already take down and store information from your license by scanning it, under the guise of preventing underage drinking. If these ID’s move forward as planned, the government needs to take a stand and prevent other people from using their ‘secure’ ID for other purposes, or else we’ll be back to the same story of businesses keeping your private information when they have no actual business purpose.