U.S.-China Surveillance

Although there hasn’t yet been official confirmation, it appears that the U.S. government’s REAL ID system is going to be outsourced to a private data management company. The system, which was launched with the passing of the Real ID Act of 2005, standardizes requirements for data on state driver’s licenses and requires states to share their motor vehicle databases with other states. Citizens of states that do not comply with the Act will be barred access from Federal buildings and not allowed to fly on commercial airlines.

Blogger Bill Scannell of UnReal ID claims to have obtained an official DHS document which outlines three possible ways to facilitate data sharing across states. The first option, which Scannell’s government source said was dismissed out of hand, was to have the states develop their own ways to share data. The second option was for DHS to create their own centralized database. The third, which Scannell says was personally approved by DHS director Michael Chertoff, was to use a third party, like a private company, as a clearinghouse.

Homeland Stupidity blogger Michael Hampton claims that this private company has already been chosen and that it is the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA).

It’s hard to know what to say about this until more information comes out, but if the document that Scannell was talking about is the same one that Wired posted today, it may be incorrect to say that the database itself will be maintained by a private company. The document, contrary to what both Scannell and Hampton report, states clearly that no new databases will be created in either the second (which it calls the federated) or third (clearinghouse) options:

The clearinghouse would not store data about applicants; instead, it would determine which databases and systems to search and then would provide the relevant information once the data is assembled about that applicant….

The “federated” and clearinghouse alternatives are focused on the infrastructure among systems, and would not act as a substitute for the databases that hold the actual information (i.e., the databases would not “dump” into the clearinghouse).

This is a pretty crucial point, which I guess won’t be sorted out until the official DHS announcement. In the meantime, bills are being proposed in some states, such as Montana and New Hampshire, which would reject participation in Real ID.