The National ID Card Revisited
It has been quite some time since I have written about a topic which carries a strong pain point amongst the citizens of the world (well, of course, it depends upon the country you are talking about). And that is, as the title of this section suggests, has to do with the National ID Card. There was a time when this was a real hot button topic, I think back in 2009. That was the day when I felt like I was writing something about it almost every day. At that time, there was a plethora of countries rushing to adopt some sort of system for a National ID Card infrastructure.
But, now it appears that phase may have died down, as countries are more interested in adopting the e-Passport (yet another hot topic area). But today, according to a news wire I came across, life in the National ID Card may be brought back to life yet once again (and of course, which will mean more subsequent Postings here). A very well known market research firm for the Biometrics Industry known as “Acuity Market Intelligence” has just published a report entitled “The Global National eID Industry Report”, which forecasts a stronger than expected demand for the National ID Card.
Here are some specifics about it: “The number of Electronic National IDs issued annually will grow by 54% from 424 million in 2010 to 655 million in 2015 according to Acuity Market Intelligence. This rapid growth from 29 to 82 Electronic National ID issuing countries represents an increase from 29% to 66% of all countries that issue National IDs . . . Global circulation for all National IDs climbs from 2.6 billion in 2010 to 3.2 billion in 2015, while the global circulation of Electronic National IDs rises from 1.5 to 2.6 billion during the same period.” (SOURCE: http://www.findbiometrics.com/articles/i/8910/).
Final Thoughts On Today’s Posting
To summarize some of the statistics, as you can see from the above quote, the demand for the National ID Card is expected to go up 37% or so by the year 2015. Although 2015 is still some time away, this is still, in my view, a rather substantial piece of growth rate. But it is very important that a key differentiation be made here. This market research talks about the National ID Card and a National Electronic Card. I am assuming (and this is a huge, blanket assumption), that the former refers to the citizens of a country in possession of plastic card of some sort, and that the latter probably is utilizing an e-Passport like infrastructure.
Given this differentiation, it appears that the demand for the National ID Card in general will reach to 3.2 Billion cards issued by 2015, and further, the demand for the e-National ID Card will be at about 2.6 Billion devices at the same time period. Again, I am expecting that a bulk of this demand will stem from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Rim. Why do I say this??? Well, in these geographic places, the citizens of these countries are not as much worried about the violation of Civil Liberties and Privacy rights, and if their own governments are going to be tracking their every move. From my knowledge, the people of these countries want and very much desire a system so that they will be counted as individuals, and not just kicked underneath the dirt by their own governments.
To many people living in these places having a National ID Card in their possession means they have a right to vote, and have a right to the entitlements and benefits which are bestowed upon them. Will we ever see the National ID Card here in the United States??? In my view, probably not. And if it does ever occur, it will not be for a long time, at least not in my lifetime. I mean if we as a society cannot even accept Biometrics as a viable Security Technology, how can we even fathom the existence of the National ID Card??? This is so because Biometrics is at the heart of the National ID Card system. There will be considerable debate and discussion on the Hill before anything like this takes off on our own soil. And even if it does, it will just be frought with technical difficulties, like other Federal Government programs which have adopted the use of Biometrics.
Yes, you can tell I am very much the critic of our own United States Government. But to those countries who are in full swing with adopting some sort of a National ID Card infrastructure: Good for you!!! Perhaps the people of the United States could learn a lot of from you when it comes to addressing the issues of Civil Liberties and Privacy Rights. But from a technical standpoint, here is another idea: Why not combine the e-Passport infrastructures you may have, along with the National ID Card infrastructure, and make it into one???
For those countries who could be reaching near deficit levels from an economic standpoint, this makes perfect sense. And by combining the two together, you will be able to streamline any bureaucratic channels you may already have in place for issuing Security cards, documents, etc. Something all for the politicians and elected leaders around the world to think about . . . (plus think about the economic stimulus involved here, more demand for government services, new Security infrastructures which rely on Cryptography, etc.).
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