Speak out against REAL ID

Over 40 organizations representing transpartisan, nonpartisan, privacy, consumer, civil liberty, civil rights, and immigrant organizations have joined to launch a national campaign to solicit public comments to stop the nation's first national ID system: REAL ID. (see list)

The groups joining in the anti-REAL ID campaign are concerned about the increased threat of counterfeiting and identity theft, lack of security to protect against unauthorized access to the document's machine readable content, increased cost to taxpayers, diverting of state funds intended for homeland security, increased costs for obtaining a license or state issued ID card, and because the REAL ID would create a false belief that it is secure and unforgeable.

Five states, Montana, Maine, Idaho, Arkansas, and Washington have prohibited cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security in implementing the national identification system.

Take action! To make your voice heard, submit comments against this flawed identification scheme. The deadline is 5:00PM EST on May 8, 2007.

Imagine all 50 states' identification cards as 50 keys. If hackers or terrorists hack into one of them, the other 49 are not affected. If all these states were combined into one federal database, this one key alone will make it more likely for hackers or terrorists to crack the security and have access to more than 240 million people's records.