REAL ID Comments Close Tonight!

Let me let Bruce Schneier sum it up for you:

The Department of Homeland Security has published draft rules regarding REAL ID, and are requesting comments. Comments are due today, by 5:00 PM Eastern Time. Please, please, please, go to this Privacy Coalition site and submit your comments. The DHS has been making a big deal about the fact that so few people are commenting, and we need to prove them wrong.

Please people – for the love of God – send in a comment about how utterly wrong this whole idea is. Here is the letter I sent in:

Department of Homeland Security
Attn: NAC 1-12037
Washington, D.C. 20538
RE: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking DHS-2006-0030

Dear Secretary Chertoff:

Because a successful implementation of the REAL ID Act creates a de facto national identification system, I write to urge the agency to withdraw the regulations and seek repeal of the REAL ID Act. This attempt to create rules for the establishment of a national identification system is unlawful for the following reasons:

1. The law that created the Department of Homeland Security prohibited a national identification system. By trying to implement REAL ID, the Department of Homeland Security is breaking the law and violating the public trust.

2. The plan will create a massive national identification system without consideration for privacy and security safeguards. It will make it easy for identity thieves, stalkers, and corrupt officials to get access to such personal information as a home address, age, Social Security number, and a digital photo.

3. The regulations endanger the privacy of domestic violence survivors’ personal information, exposing them to stalkers in all 50 states.

Furthermore, it should be obvious that the intended purpose of the REAL ID Act, to “improve the security and lessen the vulnerability of federal buildings, nuclear facilities, and aircraft to terrorist attack,” cannot be realized through this legislation. Knowledge of IDENTITY does not give us knowledge of INTENT.

Respectfully submitted,

Keith M. Survell

Take action. Don’t sit on this. Make your voice heard – in this case, it can be! Don’t let the United States of America become a police state. A national ID is wrong and is counter to the principles upon which this country was founded. This act must be stopped!