Biometrics: Freedom Stolen by Security.
America is the land of bravery and freedom. Americans bravely fought through the American Revolution to gain freedom and independence from England. This nation is looked at as powerful, brave, free, independent, and above all else, unique. However, in recent days, America has tried to make her nation more secure. Security is, "freedom from risk or danger" (American Heritage Dictionary). Ironically, in America, there has been a huge debate over whether or not security is taking away our freedom. One instance of security verses freedom is about the recent legislation regarding driver's licenses incorporating biometric technology. Biometrics is "the statistical study of biological phenomena" (American Heritage Dictionary) or more commonly known as "a technology that screens human physical features such as fingerprints and eyes to identify people ( Buckler). The Driver's License Modernization Act of 2002 ( Matthews) proposes using biometric technology on your driver's license to identify a person and even keep tabs on them. The use of biometrics in drivers licenses to allow the government to know our every move is a direct violation of privacy and is not worth giving up our freedom.
The biometric driver's license or "smart card" that is proposed in the Driver's License Modernization Act of 2002 is claimed to be the only card you will ever need. This card contains ATM information, credit card, employment id, library information, health records, a biometric identifier: such as a fingerprint or an eye scan, and just about any other form of identification you could think of (Matthews). This smart card would correct the inconsistent requirements between states to attain regular driver's license (Divis). These inconsistent laws allowed seven of the September 11th hijackers to carry Virginia state IDs and allowed five to obtain fake Social Security numbers (Rendleman).