Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The New York Times reports:
Some have logged on late at night. Others have driven for hours. And some have just given up. All in the hunt for a coveted appointment for a Real ID.
Starting on Wednesday, travelers in the United States will need a Real ID, passport or other federally recognized document to board domestic flights, a requirement that has sent many Americans scrambling for the security-enhanced, star-emblazoned identification cards.
Perhaps nowhere is the search for appointments as intense as it is in New Jersey, where just 17 percent of state-issued IDs are Real IDs, according to a recent CBS News analysis of data from state motor vehicle agencies across the country. No other state had a lower compliance rate.
CNBC reports:
Real ID does not create a federal database of driver’s license information. Each state continues to issue unique licenses and maintains responsibility for recordkeeping. States also control who gets access to their records and under what circumstances, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Even so, concerns persist among privacy professionals that the next step will be a federal database of driver’s license information, which is bad from a privacy and cybersecurity standpoint, said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union.
Despite existing cybersecurity protocols, privacy experts are concerned about the ability of bad actors and others to potentially access personal information. In some cases, states sell personal information to outside companies such as insurance providers and private investigators.
USA Today reports:
Alexis Hancock, Director of Engineering at the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the program “pushes for regimes that strip privacy from everyone and further marginalize undocumented people.”
“While Real ID-compliant identification will soon be required to enter TSA checkpoints, there is no reason this can’t and won’t expand to include additional ‘official purposes’ with federal entities in the future,” she told USA TODAY in an emailed statement.
The American Civil Liberties Union has similarly said the law would facilitate data tracking on individuals if fully implemented. “By definitively turning driver’s licenses into a form of national identity documents, Real ID would have a tremendously destructive impact on privacy,” the organization’s website reads.
You can still fly with just a passport.