The advantages and disadvantages or the need for a National ID Card

The advantages and disadvantages or the need for a National ID Card

Introduction

The topic revolves around the need, advantages and disadvantages of a National Identity card.

In any country, a national identity card is a small plastic card with printed or embossed information on it. The information contains personal details or we can say information related to identity of that individual. It is mandatory for people to carry the national identity card as means of proofing their identity.

After the World-trade-center tragedy, of September 11, 2001, countries that did not have a national identity card system have considered implementing it so as to differentiate terrorists from the general population. Few countries have even considered the use of biometric techniques such as fingerprint recognition to authenticate the identity of a card holder.

Discussion

History of National ID cards in America

In 1936, Americans introduced the Social Security Number after the rejection of the idea of introducing national identity cards. The use of Social Security number (SSN) did not fulfill the idea of creating a complete identifier. Officials made efforts to make it a universal identifier but every time the social security administrative task force rejected the idea. In 1973, the health education and welfare secretary's advisory committee and the federal committee rejected the idea of national ID cards in 1976 (Garson, p.171).

There were several other bodies as well who rejected the idea of national ID cards from time to time until the incident of World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. After this incident, the Americans started to consider the creation of National ID cards. Head of Oracle Corporation, “Larry Ellison”, offered to contribute the technology for the development of national ID cards system. He also proposed the design of the cards that would include digitized thumbprints and photographs of all legal residents of the United States. There are critics that have expressed potential issues in the formation of national ID cards system. An official mentioned it as getting into civil liberties issues.

President George W. Bush laid the foundation of national identity cards by signing an act in May, 2011.

Advantages of National ID Cards

The benefits of a national identity card depend upon various technical and organizational factors. These include the information used to establish identity and the authenticity of data. If an ID card system is formed with biometric information and real-time monitoring, it can also serve as a surveillance and authorization system (Chander, et. al. p.298). National Identity card also serves as the distinguishing feature for the general population from illegal residents. This is also a security benefit and it highly depends on the quality of data input into the system.

Apart from the above, there are numerous other advantages of a national ID card. The ID card system streamlines the usual law enforcement system. Official place where work requires paperwork in certain processes simplifies because the ID card number is used to gather data about ...