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encryption. Printing or embedding informa-

a card to the subject. Here, as in the second

tion in a card using cryptographic techniques

step, employers will not be terribly eager to dis-

can establish with a high degree of certainty

cover deception, such as someone presenting

that the information was placed there by a

the card of a person similar in appearance. A

particular agency and that it has not been

number of factors explain why the verifier

altered since it was placed there. This tech-

check is weak in the employment context.

nique can, however, conceal from the ID sub-

People are better at recognizing faces of their

jects themselves what is on the cards they

own race and familiar races than faces that

must carry and display. The photo-screening

look different. Strong social pressures exist--

tool pilot program is a very crude, noncryp-

from the fear of rudeness to the appearance of

tographic version of this kind of security,

racism--not to second-guess the picture on

showing that the photo on a card has not

the card a person has presented. The third step

been replaced or altered.

in the identification-by-card process is anoth-

The veracity of the information that makes

er weakness.

it onto a card may be the most challenging ele-

ment to improve. After all, the information on

The Ideal Fix? Cradle-to-Grave Biometric

identity cards is a collection of biographical

Tracking

data--name, date of birth, address, height,

Each of the steps can be shored up, of

weight, and such--that is not easily verifiable.

course, and some of them would be strength-

Names change or hyphenate, for example, as

ened in small ways by elements of EEV. But

people marry, divorce, and remarry.

the things necessary to make a system like

The way to ensure that accurate data are

this really impervious to forgery and fraud

found on a card is to abandon the current

would convert it from an identity system into

practice of allowing applicants for identity

a cradle-to-grave biometric tracking system.

cards to submit information about them-

Almost no way exists to do national EEV that

selves. Rather, identity information and

is not a step down that road.

records of important life events could be cat-

Let us take the identification-by-card

aloged from birth (or a person's first entry

process and assess what is necessary to make

into the country) using powerful machine-

it hold up against the frauds, forgeries, and

readable biometrics, all the way up to DNA, as

other weaknesses that undermine EEV:

"index card" identifiers. The photo-screening

Verification of identifiers, the verifier

tool is a step in this direction: it begins to

check that ties the card to the bearer, can be

make the dossier as important as the card.

strengthened and improved. Rather than

The things

Applicants for cards could submit some

relying on the fallible human perception

necessary to

of the information, but the core identity

used in verifying photo-ID cards, an "im-

information on each card would have to be

proved" EEV system would use modern bio-

make a system

tied to a central biometric identity reposito-

metric measuring of each American, such as

like this

ry--probably run by the government. Reliable

by fingerprint readers or iris scanners. Were

biographical information would have to be

every American biometrically registered, the

impervious to

collected and stored by this repository. This

biometric information embedded in their

forgery and fraud

system would deny potential fraudsters the

cards--retrieved from the card, retrieved from

would convert it

ability to submit false information to ID

the human, and compared by machine--

issuers, and it would suppress their frauds.

could provide much stronger assurance to

from an identity

This excursion into an "ideal" employment

verifiers that cards are about the people pre-

system into a

eligibility system shows where internal enforce-

senting them.

cradle-to-grave

ment of immigration law almost invariably

The security of cards against forgery and

leads: to a national, cradle-to-grave, biometric

tampering (the concern raised in the second

biometric

tracking system--a national ID and surveil-

ID-by-card step) can be improved vastly with

tracking system.

lance system. IRCA could be administered

a variety of techniques, especially by using

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