Very interesting thread.
From photocopies / laser printing with micro-encoding to 9/11.
At the risk of being shot down again, perhaps a lesson learned from our past.
My wife was American, at it amazed me how liberal she and her friends were in sharing their SSN, social security number. Later, I worked for a US company, and they used the SSN number for identification within IT, security access, etc. I have also seen it where the number was requested during loan applications, and even when purchasing something frmo a store - with cash! This makes sense from one perspective since everyone has only one SSN -- there are no duplicates, and you have the same number for life -- you wont forget it.
This still amazed me since the SSN is so critical to taxation, salary, banking info, etc. I gre up in an environment where the taxation number was not shared except only to those who had a business need to have the number -- banks (taxes on earning, retirement savings, etc), government and the employer -- nobody else.
That was then. Now people have learned that by sharing such an important and very personal number, they leave themselves vulnerable to identity theft. While I worked for the US company, towards the end of my term, there was a sudden turn in policy where the SSN number was not used. (Another argument I won after 3 or more years)
...Movin on
Things change. The problem with a policy or procedure is that it is cultivated out of a current need. For example, old laws still on the books for days gone by. (Hand turn signals while in a car because way back when, there were no turn indicators.) But people may forget the history or culture which lead to a certain dicsion -- made sense then, but unless you have an idea of what lead to the decision, the decision may seem very weird.
The other thing that changes is how people take advantage of policies or procedures that were adopted for one reason way back when.
Using the SSN identification number as an example, it made sense to use this unique number to identify a person. But as time moved on, the number was then used for a different purpose.
I feel the threat for finger printing visitors to a country, or the use of other biometrics has the same risk. Yes, a finger print uniquely identifies me. So does my iris pattern. But my passport with photo or a requried visa also identifies me.
I know, you say that a passport can be forged. Well, crooks and other nasty's have also learned to forge bar codes, duplicate magentic cards, etc. If finger printing becomes important to identification, the nasty's will then turn their attention to forging this too. Maybe not today, but much sooner than you may think.
So I have three complaints about this approach.
- I personally feel it is an invasion of my personal privacy. My finger print is mine. I am not a crook and I have not done anything wrong to be treated like one. This makes me shudder with thoughts of "1984" by George Orwell.
- What ever is used to identify a person for transportation or finacial purposes will become a focus point for forgery. I would personally not want a "part of me" to be forged.
- Would this finger printing be used for other purposes? For example, by using finger printing, let say in the future, stores could perform their market surveys by seeing who touched what display model followed by a successful purchase.
...Moving on.
The original question was about micro-encoding laser printing. I do not have a problem with this since...
- It is not a personal part of me. I may print a report for management, photos for the in-laws, or birthday invitations for my kids. These could be public documents -- it would not bother me. (Now early love letters would be another matter, so I will hand write these;-)
- I have nothing to be afraid of since I do not break the law.
- For the time being, it may help incriminate some bad guys "out there" before the bad guys figure a way around the technical problem.
![[thumbsdown]](/data/assets/smilies/thumbsdown.gif "[thumbsdown] [thumbsdown]")
