Does the PASS ID Act Protect Privacy?
Posted By Jim Harper
I've written about PASS ID here a couple of times before - first on whether or not it's a national ID [1] and, second, on the politics of this REAL ID revival bill [2]. Now I'll take a look at whether it fixes the privacy issues with REAL ID. Privacy is complicated. Buckle up.

The day the bill [3] was introduced, the Center for Democracy and Technology issued a press release [4] giving it a privacy stamp of approval.
"The PASS ID Act addresses most of the major privacy and security concerns with REAL ID," said Ari Schwartz, Vice-President of CDT. The release cited four ways that PASS ID was an improvement over the bill it's modeled on, REAL ID.
Interstate Data Sharing?
First, CDT said, PASS ID "[r]emoves the requirement that states 'provide electronic access' allowing every other state to search their motor vehicles records." It's technically true: The language from REAL ID directly requiring states to share information among themselves came out of PASS ID. But the requirements of the law will cause that information sharing to happen all the same.
Like REAL ID did, PASS ID would require states to confirm that "a person submitting an application for a driver's license or identification card is terminating or has terminated any driver's license or identification card" issued by another state.
How do you do that? You check the driver license databases of every other state. Maybe you do this by directly accessing other states' databases; maybe you do this indirectly, through a "pointer system" or "hub." But to confirm that you're talking about the right person, you don't just compare names. You compare names, addresses, pictures, and other biometrics.
Click here for complete article:http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/07/07/does-the-pass-id-act-protect-privacy/print/