Digital IDs Will Lead to ‘Surveillance-based Technocracy,’ Critics Warn
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As more states push digital driver’s licenses obtainable through digital wallets, critics warn that the digital ID document system will give the federal government access to personal data, including real-time, remote access to people’s phones.
California recently joined a growing list of states offering digital driver’s licenses through “digital wallets” including Apple Wallet, Google Wallet and California DMV Wallet, Tododisca reported.
The development comes amid a national push to encourage U.S. citizens to acquire REAL ID-compliant documents by May 7, when the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will begin REAL ID enforcement for domestic air travelers.
The REAL ID Act of 2005 established security standards for state-issued ID cards, in response to the 9/11 attacks and the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. In the intervening years though, its implementation has been delayed, most recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Proponents of state-level digital ID documents and REAL ID cite factors such as the convenience of digital documents and national security concerns that necessitate the collection of biometric data to verify people’s identities.
In January, former President Joe Biden issued an executive order offering guidance for digital ID documents.
But for Twila Brase, co-founder and president of the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, REAL ID and digital ID may allow the federal government to usurp state’s rights and assert unprecedented control over people’s lives.
“The real ID is meant for much more than flying,” Brase said. “It’s meant for your life, for all the things you might need an ID for in the future. … It is meant for federal control overall, your identification and all your transactions.”
According to Brase, REAL ID represents a backdoor means through which the U.S. can implement a national ID system, similar to many other countries.
“It’s the end of driver’s license in this country. They may look like it, people may talk about them like it, but it’s really this new national ID card,” Brase said.
James F. Holderman III, director of investigative research with Stand for Health Freedom, said, “The widespread adoption of Digital IDs and digital wallets lays the foundation of a surveillance-based technocracy.”
Such a system “will almost certainly be used to destroy the last remaining vestiges of individual liberty, freedom and privacy in this country,” Holderman said.
A national ID system could enable the rollout of a national vaccine passport or implementation of a national social credit scheme, Brase said.
REAL ID gives feds real-time, remote access to your phone
According to Tododisca, “Digital IDs make it easier to verify identity at security checkpoints, retail stores, and other institutions without carrying a physical license.”
Brase cited 2008 remarks by former Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who said REAL ID “creates a national ID card.”
“The REAL ID is a federal ID,” Brase said. “It’s under federal control and states that have conformed with the REAL ID law have said essentially that they will abide with any changes Homeland Security or TSA makes in the future,” Brase said.
This could include “situations like access to medical care, buying a gun, getting married, opening a bank account, whatever it might be that Homeland Security would deem necessary for national security or for whatever purpose,” Brase said.
Speaking March 6 on the “One Dream Podcast,” Brase said REAL ID will also give the federal government unprecedented access to people’s personal data.
“Once the government gets access to your phone through your identification credential, they put the REAL ID credential on your phone, they have remote real-time access to it, then they’ve got access to your phone,” Brase said during the podcast.
According to Brase, REAL ID was intended to serve three purposes — “access to certain federal buildings, access to nuclear facilities, access to commercial flight, and any other purposes as deemed necessary by the Secretary of Homeland Security.”
However, a 2014 U.S. Department of Homeland Security rule also allowed REAL ID to be used for “any other purposes as deemed necessary by the Secretary of Homeland Security.” Brase said this rule “essentially eviscerates the state’s driver’s license if it is fully imposed” by placing driver’s licenses under federal control.
The introduction of a national ID card, albeit by backdoor means, “intrudes on the sovereignty of the individual and the state,” Brase said. She argued that this would violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures, and the 10th Amendment, limiting the powers of the federal government.
“What this is, is an unconstitutional federal takeover of identification in this country,” Brase said — one that could lead to vaccine passports or a social credit system.
“A U.S. vaccine passport — there was a push to do that … You can see that by digitizing, it would make it so much simpler to go towards a global identification and control system,” Brase said. “If the state DMVs and potentially even the federal government could have access to your identification credential … they can shut it down, they can put constraints on it.”
“A blockchain-based digital identity and, corresponding, digital wallet with instant, bi-directional information flow and containing countless types of ‘digital credentials,’ including without question an individual‘s vaccination status, enable an almost limitless system to coerce compliance for use by both the public and private sectors,” Holderman said.
Catherine Austin Fitts, founder of the Solari Report and former U.S. assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said this system, if implemented, would also be a “major step forward into the kind of control that can threaten and even take our personal savings and property and implement taxation without representation.”
“That’s what this is all about. It’s not convenience, it’s control,” Brase said. “What we’re seeing here is the possibility that we are paving the way to a China-like social credit system where outsiders can track us and control what we can and cannot do, and where we can and cannot go and how we can and cannot get there.”
‘The whole world is moving that way’
California’s digital driver’s license will allow state residents to streamline identification processes in several everyday situations where they are asked to present ID, Tododisca reported.
According to NBC San Diego, California’s digital driver’s license is already accepted at TSA checkpoints at the San Diego International Airport.
Other states and territories have implemented digital driver’s licenses, including Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and, earlier this month, Arkansas.
Several states have made their digital driver’s licenses available through commercial “digital wallets” offered by companies like Apple, Google and Samsung. Other states, including Louisiana, New York, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia, have opted to make the digital credentials available only through state-developed apps.
Tododisca reported that some other states are planning to unveil digital driver’s licenses, including Connecticut, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana and Oklahoma.
BiometricUpdate.com reported last week that Utah has introduced a bill that “enacts provisions related to a state-endorsed digital identity.” Recently, the Idaho House of Representatives passed a similar bill, under consideration by the state Senate. The Texas legislature is also considering a similar bill.
Illinois has announced plans to implement digital ID by 2026. According to Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, the state is moving forward with these plans because the “whole world is moving that way.”
Will REAL ID be required after May 7?
While a growing number of states are introducing digital driver’s licenses, the TSA plans to enforce a May 7 start date for enforcing the REAL ID Act for domestic air travelers.
According to the TSA, on that date, “every air traveler 18 years of age and older must have a REAL ID-compliant state-issued driver’s license, state-issued identification card or another acceptable form of ID to board a commercial aircraft.”
“REAL ID is intended to improve the reliability and accuracy of driver licenses and identification cards while inhibiting the ability of terrorists and others to evade detection by using fraudulent identification,” TSA stated.
Several media reports have presented May 7 as a deadline for people to get a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license if they intend to travel domestically by air on or after that date. For instance, Washington, D.C.-based radio station WTOP reported that “time is running out” for people to get a REAL ID-compliant ID card to travel domestically.
However, according to Brase, that messaging is misleading. “They are not changing the REAL ID deadline, but what they are doing is tacking on two years of progressive enforcement with progressive consequences. Despite what the stories are saying, on May 7, you will not need a REAL ID to fly. There are other options.”
In a commentary published in the Chicago Tribune earlier today, Giannoulias confirmed that May 7 represents the start of a “phased enforcement approach” of the REAL ID Act, “culminating with full enforcement by May 5, 2027.”
The TSA will continue accepting U.S. passports and passport cards, and permanent resident cards instead of a REAL ID-enabled driver’s license.
According to Brase, even that documentation is not required to fly domestically. She cited a 2006 ruling by the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Gilmore v. Gonzales, finding that domestic air travelers can submit to a search without presenting ID.
The Hill reported that REAL ID will remain optional to drive, apply for federal benefits such as Social Security, enter a hospital or federal facilities that do not require ID, or “participate in law enforcement proceedings or investigations,” including jury duty.
Yet, state DMVs and ID-issuing facilities have recently seen an influx of applications for REAL ID-compliant driver’s licenses. In Chicago, for instance, a “REAL ID Supercenter” opened in downtown Chicago last week, to meet growing demand.
Brase said that in all U.S. states except Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas and Wyoming, people can still obtain a standard, non-REAL ID driver’s license. She called on people to participate in a movement refusing the issuance of REAL ID.
Speaking on the “One Dream Podcast,” Brase said the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom is also “working with a coalition of state legislators that are working to extract themselves from conforming with the REAL ID Act.”
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