Rand Paul announced the "Protect Our Privacy Act" Amendment to block national biometric IDs
Sen. Rand Paul announced the introduction of the as amendment to the Senate's Immigration Reform Bill. This amendment would prohibit the issuance of a national identification card system. In the wake of the IRS scandal and NSA wiretapping revelations, Sen. Paul believes that his amendment is necessary to protect the privacy of all citizens.
"A National ID card violates our right to privacy by helping to consolidate data and facilitate the government in the tracking of individuals. President Ronald Reagan opposed this idea, as did President Bill Clinton. They believed, as I do, that American citizens should not be forced to carry around a National Identification Card as a condition of citizenship, because the card offends any reasonable basic concept of freedom. While identifying and documenting immigrants is necessary for proper reform, implementing a mandatory identification registry for all citizens is not," Sen. Paul said.
The Protect Our Privacy Act does the following:
Prohibits the Department of Homeland Security from interpreting the immigration reform bill to permit a national identification card or system
Prohibits the Federal or State government from requiring photographs or biometric information without probable cause;
Prevents the provision in the bill titled "Photo Tool" from allowing the government to force all citizens to provide a photo;
Prohibits a "biometric social security card" for citizens; and, Forbids a "de facto national registry of citizens."
http://www.paul.senate.gov/files/documents/1333.pdf
EPIC opposes DHS biometric collection:
EPIC has submitted commentsto the Department of Homeland Security, staunchly opposing the agency's border biometric collection, facilitated through the Office of Biometric Identity Management program.
Since at least 2004, DHS has collected fingerprint and facial photos from individuals entering the United States. DHS then disseminates this information to DHS agency components, other federal agencies, and "federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies," and the "federal intelligence community."
Currently, at least 30,000 individuals from federal, state, and local governments access the data contained obtained by DHS's biometric collection program. DHS shares this biometric data with foreign governments, including Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. In its comments, EPIC urged the agency to cease collecting biometric information without proper privacy safeguards in place.
Should the agency continue to collect this sensitive information, EPIC recommends that DHS: (1) impose strict information security safeguards on its biometric information collection and limit its dissemination of biometric information; (2) conduct a comprehensive privacy impact assessment on the biometric collection program; (3) grant individuals Privacy Act rights before collecting additional biometric information; and (4) adhere to international privacy standards.
http://epic.org/2013/06/epic-opposes-dhs-biometric-col.html
