Serious concerns about a national identification system, including how privacy would be protected and how misuse would be prevented, should be addressed before such a system is created, a National Academy of Sciences committee said.
Calls for a national ID system emerged after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but the debate lacks a clear definition of the goals and use of such a system, the committee said in its report. Moreover, it is not clear what information would be collected or how the government would deal with failure or misuse of the system, the report said.
"People have been throwing these terms around," said committee member Deidre Mulligan of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. "Any move towards any sort of national ID raises tremendous technical and social issues that must be considered."
The committee also questioned whether a national identity system would be constitutional. "The constitutional limitations of an agent's ability to require presentation of IDs, along with the limitations on the ability of Congress to enact a nationwide identity system, should be explored before any such enactment," the report said.
A national ID system would require not only cards, but card readers and a corresponding database as well, the report said, and procedures for checking the authenticity of the cards would have to be established. All of that could be expensive.
"The technical challenges, the expense, and the strong potential for infringement on the civil liberties of ordinary citizens demand that any proposed identity system undergo strict public scrutiny and a thorough engineering review," said Stephen Kent, committee chairman.
The report will be delivered to the Office of Homeland Security and to Congress. A final report is expected near year-end.
At least 11 of the hijackers in September used false identification or obtained driver's licenses fraudulently, but, the report said, "no one really knows if a nationwide identity system could deter or detect terrorism, although several arguments have been advanced."
The White House has said it is not considering a national ID card. Congress has studied several proposals, including requiring foreigners to use ID cards to enter the United States, and centralized national databases for noncitizens. Other suggestions include linking together state motor-vehicle departments and establishing a "trusted traveler" program for airports.
Civil-liberties and consumer groups are particularly critical of a plan by state motor-vehicle officials to link the driver databases of individual states. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators also wants cards that verify identification through fingerprints or another unique factor.
The Academy of Sciences report characterizes that proposal as a "nationwide identity system," but the administrators said it would simply strengthen the security of the driver histories that states already maintain.
The opponents have also raised concerns about draft legislation by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) that would, among other things, create uniform standards for licensing drivers. "The questions that the report brings up are relevant to the debate," said David Field, Durbin's press secretary.
Some of those issues, he said, will be addressed in a Senate committee meeting next week.
By setting a nationwide licensing standard, the proposed legislation would create a de facto national ID, said Chris Hoofnagle, legislative counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "It is not simply a strengthening," he said. "It would standardize information collection, so information sharing would be easier."
