The Face Of A New U.S. Driver's License?

摘要

The US state of Washington expects to begin issuing its combined driver's license and border-crossing ID card in January as part of a voluntary program but it may encounter a few obstacles in the road ahead. The pilot card is expected to be the nation's first driver's license to use a radio frequency-ID chip, under a project approved by the US Homeland security Department. It's being closely watched as one of the first large-scale tests of whether RFID-enabled ID cards can win the acceptance of the American public despite concerns about privacy, identity theft and accuracy. It's also being viewed as a possible litmus test for how states can make more palatable their licenses under the controversial Real ID Act of 2005, which sets national standards for driver's licenses and ID cards issued by states. Critics have called Real ID a stealth national ID, pushed by federal officials on a country that has already rejected calls for mandatory citizen cards and the databases that would back them up.