FC: Weekly column: Moving closer to a national ID plan?

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://news.com.com/2010-1071-984792.html

   Perspective: Closer to a national ID plan?
   By Declan McCullagh
   February 17, 2003, 4:00 AM PT

   WASHINGTON--A little-known company called EagleCheck is hoping to
   provide a standardized identity check technique that governments and
   corporations will use to verify that you are who you claim to be. 
   
   EagleCheck, a privately held firm in Cleveland proposes that whenever
   someone uses a driver's license or a passport for identity
   verification, the ID's authenticity will be checked through
   EagleCheck's network that is tied to state motor vehicle and federal
   databases. The databases will respond by saying whether the ID is
   valid.
   
   I ran into David Akers, EagleCheck's president, last week in a Senate
   office building where he was hawking his system to a crowd of
   politicians understandably nervous about Threat Level Orange, Osama
   bin Laden, and possible terrorist attacks sparked by a loominginvasion
   of Iraq. Stacked on a table were brochures warning in stark crimson
   letters that "EagleCheck could have flagged" 14 of the 19 terrorists
   who hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001, because some had used expired
   visas and stolen passports.

   [...]



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