Monday, January 10, 2011

Newsmax:

Obama Eyes Internet ID for All Americans
Monday, 10 Jan 2011 10:40 AM
By Rick Pedraza

Government monitoring of what Americans are doing in cyberspace has moved a bit closer to reality, as President Barack Obama announces plans to hand over authority to create an Internet ID for all Americans to the U.S. Commerce Department, a White House official tells CBS News.

The plan, touted as the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, is raising eyebrows about privacy issues over concerns that creating a centralized database is an infringement on Americans’ rights. It is expected to be released in the next several months.

Calling it an “absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to create an "identity ecosystem" for the Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said Friday during a business and academics forum at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research that issuing digital identities for web usage to all Americans will reduce cybersecurity vulnerabilities and improve online privacy protections.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke agrees. "We are not talking about a national ID card,” Locke said at the Stanford forum. “We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities."

Schmidt added that his office will work with the Department of Homeland Security and the General Services Administration to implement the Internet ID strategy.

3 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Hi.
The plan for the internet ID is not a recent one.It started i think 7 -6 years ago when Bill Gates saw the new Belgian micro chipped ID cards.At the time he stated he would like to see such a card used to log in to a pc,like this even on public computers the Gov would always know who's on the pc.One more thing already a number of PC makers are starting to make laptops without hard disc .All data will be stored on the google servers!Step 2 of big brother!So hurry to buy that "Old Fashioned" pc!
Will.

Benue said...

And what happens when the ID's get hacked? I mean, it's not like the gov't hasn't been careless with personal information before.