Government starts testing online ID program, also often referred to as Online Driver´s Licence

Are You Ready for a Driver’s License for the Internet?

State officials in Michigan and Pennsylvania have been awarded roughly $2.4 million in federal funds to test an online ID system that’s been called a “driver's license for the internet," and it could soon exist from coast to coast.

The "National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace” program has been in development for years, but it’s about to finally be rolled-out to a degree in two locales in order to see if using government-certified IDs on the web is something worth considering on a much larger scale.

In theory, the program would also help curb a major problem rampant within both the worldwide web and the federal government: abuse. The United States government loses billions of dollars a year due to fraud, Neal reported, and the White House thinks that number could be drastically cut if a new system was implemented to authenticate the people that use government programs and websites alike.

rt.com...

From an article in NY times two years ago:

The plan, called the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace and introduced earlier this year, encourages the private-sector development and public adoption of online user authentication systems. Think of it as a driver’s license for the Internet. The idea is that if people have a simple, easy way to prove who they are online with more than a flimsy password, they’ll naturally do more business on the Web. And companies and government agencies, like Social Security or the I.R.S., could offer those consumers faster, more secure online services without having to come up with their own individual vetting systems.

If the plan works, consumers who opt in might soon be able to choose among trusted third parties — such as banks, technology companies or cellphone service providers — that could verify certain personal information about them and issue them secure credentials to use in online transactions.

www.nytimes.com...

Generally, speaking it is hard to tell how this system will be implemented, so it is hard to say, what effects it might have. Everything depends on the implementation. On first glance, seems as a positive development, at least I would believe so, if it was similar to what we have here.

Round here, somewhat similar system has been in effect for years already and personally, I am more than satisfied with it. As a document, every citizen here is required to have an ID-Card, which is also a smart-card, chip in it. These cards can then be used wherever you need to authentifiy yourself. For online banking, I just put the card in the reader, put in my password and can login securely. You need both card and a password. These are used widely everywhere round here - you can digitally sign paperwork, voting online during elections, logging in to any national website(a´la e-country or e-school or e-business-register, as well as company websites, who provide such service (like banks as before described), in shops, who have the system use it as client cards (discount), library card etc etc. At least for myself, makes life much easier, especially when working from home. No need to go to all the offices to get stuff done. Log in and do it, whether I want to make a transaction, start a company or vote. So far there have been no problems with identify thefts, as the password also needed besides the card and forging the cards is basically impossible (too much security holograms and other mechanisms to stop it, so far after quite a long time of a nation using it, I have yet to hear of any forgeries)

a reply to: Cabin

Oh dear God I hope this doesn't roll out like Obamacare.

Lets see..

Fraud..... Personal information.... the Internet....

yup.. nothing can go wrong there.

it looks like the federal ID initiative repackaged.

Yeah, I'll pass on this one. ID theft is a big enough problem, all this says to me is "theft goldmine" once someone worms their way in. Kind of like that massive SS breach everyone seems to have forgotten about.

I'll pass on this too. At the end of the day it's all about control. It will start out to "fight" fraud and id theft. Next thing we know, we can't go online without it. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Maybe if i lived in a small country where my government doesn't spend billions every year spying on it's citizens. I could maybe trust a system like this not be abused.

a reply to: Cabin

I'm good with this as long as authorities can absolutely guarantee privacy protection and provide unqualified protection against identity theft. Until then they can GFT.


F&S

It's hard enough to repair problems caused by fraud and identity theft.

Imagine how hard it's going to be once the bank can say "well, it was you're official government ID that was used so you're SOL pal".

This isnt about protecting us because we all know anything and everything can be altered, hacked, stolen, manipulated.

This is about protecting the banks and the bureaucrats by giving them the power to say "government ID = officially infallible so there is no more fraud and your claim of fraud is a lie."

That and law enforcement will have "government ID = infallible so you're ass is going to prison for having your ID attached to whatever crime."

Things are bad enough for us now when bureaucrats can say "well, the computer says....." Once that computer becomes "official government Internet ID" we're boned and nothing we say will ever override whatever the bureaucrats say.

Yeah. I'll just bet it's going to be optional once they get to where they want to be and dig in. Obamacare was going to be optional too. Until Obama was the president and there was nothing anyone could do to stop him.

Optional my ass.

You know what it sounds like to me? The telescreen demanding your papers.