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An identity document (also known as I.D. or ID) is a piece of documentation designed to verify aspects of a person's identity. If an identity document is in the form of a small standard-sized card, such as an ISO 7810 card, it is called an identity card.

What the identity document might include

Information present on the document — or in a supporting database — might include the bearer's full name, a portrait photo, age or birth date, address, an identification number, profession or rank, restrictions, and citizenship status.

New technologies could allow identity cards to contain biometric information, such as photographs, face, hand or iris measurements, or fingerprints. Electronic identity cards or e-IDs are already available in some countries such as Estonia, Belgium or Spain. Morocco is also planning to launch a new identity card of biometric type by January 2007.

Polish national ID card (front and back)

Arguments for and against identity cards

Identity cards are a source of continued debate. Their use is backed by law enforcement officials who claim that it can make surveillance and identification of criminals much easier. However, concern is also expressed about the extensive cost and potential abuse of hi-tech smartcards.

In the United Kingdom and the United States especially, state-issued compulsory identity cards are a source of debate as they are regarded an infringement of privacy and civil liberties.

Most criticism is directed towards possibilities of extensive abuse of identity documents because of the use of central databases to store sensitive data.

Arguments in favor

One can be identified in banks or at national borders without a passport.
Identity cards can be used to quickly verify ownership or eligibility to services; for example, a shopkeeper or cashier may request that an ID document be shown by a client paying with a credit card or cheque.
Crimes such as identity theft may be reduced in countries where identity cards are required to open a bank account. Of course, phishing and many other forms of identity theft will be unaffected.
Identity cards would be a useful administrative tool that could increase efficiency in dealings with both the government and private companies.
ID cards reduce crime. All banks require that ID cards be presented by customers, which increases security. Certain auction houses also require them from sellers.
Problems do not arise from one's identity card unless one has "something to hide."
In American states that don't issue identity cards, private companies require equivalent documents, such as driver's licenses, which are not properly suited for identification purposes.
Law enforcers can locate and identify people who either do not know their names and/or addresses (e.g., due to Alzheimer's disease or amnesia), or who claim names that are not consistent with the names on their identity cards (e.g., due to dissociative identity disorder, as in the case of Billy Milligan).
Cards may help reduce immigration service bureaucracy. In certain countries, the procedures for deporting illegal immigrants whose ages, identities or nationalities cannot be formally established are more complex than those for whom they can be readily asserted. This gives illegal immigrants more time to prepare their legal defenses. In some countries (Spain, for instance) it may prevent the immigrant's deportation altogether.
All humans already carry unfalsifiable personal identification, which cannot even be discarded: DNA. In lieu of identity cards, use of DNA sequencing hashes may soon become the preferred method for personal identification, even when interacting with private economic entities. The use of identity cards is arguably a lesser evil compared to the potentially gross privacy risks associated with daily use of DNA for identification purposes.

Arguments in opposition

Identity cards will impose a disproportionate burden upon citizens while empowering the executive, which is contrary to the maxim: "the government that governs best, governs least". Some have pointed out that extensive lobbying for identity cards has been undertaken, in countries without compulsory identity cards, by IT companies who will be likely to reap rich benefits in the event of an identity card scheme being implemented.
Cards could be used to track anyone's movements and private life, thus endangering privacy. The proposed British ID card (see next section) will involve a series of linked databases, to be managed by the private sector. Managing disparate linked systems using a range of institutions and any number of personnel is alleged to be a security disaster in the making.[1]
A requirement to carry an identity card at all times can lead to the inconvenience of arbitrary requests from card controllers (such as the police). This can lead to functionality creep whereby carrying a card becomes de facto if not de jure compulsory, as in the case of Social Security numbers, which are now widely used as ID.
Government claims that identity cards will prevent terrorism may not be based in fact. The former UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke conceded that identity cards may only be useful in the identification of bodies in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. Critics rely on the facts that the terrorists involved in 9/11 and the London tube attacks did have and would have had identity cards, respectively. As a strong presumption of identity is given in favour of a card holder, the identity card scheme might be an asset to potential terrorists.
Historically, totalitarian governments which issued identity cards to citizens used them oppressively. For example, Nazis made use of unique biometric identities by tatooing identification numbers on the arms of Final Solution concentration-camp detainees.
More recently, the apartheid-era government of South Africa used pass books as internal passports to oppress that country's black population.
In many cases, other forms of documentation such as a driver's license, passport, or Medicare card serve a similar function, and thus an ID card is not needed.

Identity cards worldwide

Countries with compulsory identity cards

According to Privacy International, as of 1996, around 100 countries had compulsory identity cards.

The term "compulsory" may have different meanings and implications in different countries. The compulsory character may apply only after a certain age. Often, a ticket can be given for being found without one's identification document, or in some cases a person may even be detained until the identity is ascertained. In practice, random controls are rare, except in police states.

Countries with non-compulsory identity cards

A number of countries have non-compulsory identity card schemes. These include Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland.

Countries without an identity card system

A number of countries do not use identity cards to verify identity. These include Australia, Denmark, India, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, and the United States.

India is currently piloting an ID card system, see Multipurpose National Identity Card (India)

France

France has had a national ID card since 1940, when it helped the Vichy authorities identify 76,000 for deportation as part of the Holocaust. Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben often underlines this, showing how anthropometry may be used by the state.

In the past, identity cards were compulsory, had to be updated each year in case of change of residence and were valid for 10 years, and their renewal required paying a fee. In addition to the face photograph, the card included the family name, first names, date and place of birth, and the national identity number managed by the national INSEE registry, and which is also used as the national service registration number, as the Social Security account number for health and retirement benefits, for access to court files and for tax purposes.

Later, the laws were changed so that any official and certified document (even if expired and possibly unusable abroad) with a photograph and a name on it, issued by a public administration or enterprise (such as a railroad transportation card, a student card, a driving licence or a passport) can be used to verify identity. Also, law enforcement (police, gendarmerie) can now accept photocopies of these documents when performing identity checks, provided that the original document is presented within two weeks. For financial transactions, any of these documents must be equally accepted as proof of identity.

The current identity cards are now issued free of charge, and non-compulsory. The current government has proposed a compulsory biometric card system, which has been opposed by human rights groups and by the national authority and regulator on computing systems and databases, the Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés, CNIL. Another non-compulsory project is being discussed.

The next generation of the French green card for the Social Security benefit, named "Carte Vitale",(which already includes a chip currently containing very little information) will include a digital photograph and other personal medical information in addition to health insurance elements.

United Kingdom

There has been no national identity card in the United Kingdom, but the Identity Card Act (effective 30 March 2006) makes one compulsory for anyone getting a new or renewed passport from 2008. Driving licences and passports are now the most widely used ID documents.

United States

There is no national identity card in the United States of America. All attempts to create one have not been realised due political disagreements over infringement of privacy. Driver's licenses issued by the various states (along with special cards issued to non-drivers) are often used as proof of identity and a national identification card is often required for boarding airline flights or entering office buildings. Recent (2005) federal legislation that tightened requirements for issuance of driver's licenses has been seen by both supporters and critics as bringing the United States much closer to a de facto national identity card system.

Note: As noted above, certain countries do not use national ID cards, but have other official documents that play the same role in practice (e.g. driver's license for the United States). While a country may not make it de jure compulsory to own or carry an identity document, it may be de facto strongly recommended to do so in order to facilitate certain procedures.

Identity cards in the United States may be issued by a state to a person who may not have a state-issued driver license. For example, in California may be issued a senior citizens identity card. [[2]]

Other non-sovereign state ID cards

Some Basque nationalist organizations are issuing para-official identity cards (Euskal Nortasun Agiria) as a means to reject the nationality notions implied by Spanish and French compulsory documents. Then, they try to use the ENA instead of the official document.

For the people of Western Sahara, pre-1975 Spanish cards are the main proof that they were Saharaui citizens as opposed to recent Moroccan colonists. They would be thus allowed to vote in an eventual self-determination referendum.

Non-national identity cards

Some companies and government departments issue ID cards for security purposes; they may also be proof of a qualification. For example, all taxi drivers in the UK and Hong Kong carry ID cards. In Queensland, anyone working with children has to take a background check and get issued a Blue Card.

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Spanish electronic DNI

External links

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 {{main|British national identity card}}
-There has been no national identity card in the [[United Kingdom]], but the Identity Card Act (effective 30 March 2006) makes one compulsory for anyone getting a new or renewed passport.  [[Driving licence]]s and [[passport]]s are now the most widely used ID documents.
+There has been no national identity card in the [[United Kingdom]], but the Identity Card Act (effective 30 March 2006) makes one compulsory for anyone getting a new or renewed passport from 2008.  [[Driving licence]]s and [[passport]]s are now the most widely used ID documents.
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