Back to my earlier post- any gov't issued ID card is subject to fraudulent replication and useage- here, our drivers licences are multicolour, with photo, hologram photo, imprinted signature (twice) and magnetic strip, but as I mentioned, was very successfully replicated with different photo in my son's case. The licence number was entered in incorrect format, but it was still accepted on multiple occasions. And who do you think is more likely to be carrying an ID card- the previously mentioned legal 80yr old dear with the loaf of bread, or the dreadlocked visible minority carrying the best forgery money can buy?
Credit card companies/banks have a very large economic interest in maintaining card security, but government does not- it costs them, and we've already seen opposition/complaints about said costs to taxpayers. BTW wrathmonk- I'm surprised that the US knew about chips/pins- we drive the US east coast many times a year and have never seen or heard of them there, nor have sales staff, although we have had them in Canada for years. Even Canadian subsidiaries of US firms often do not have chip card machines. As for signatures, I sign " Moooooo" for small amount charges and have never been challenged yet!
Increased random stops are a questionable means of security as illegals/bad guys are more likely to have 'good' ID, and if you have to stop 20 white-hat looking people to justify stopping 1 black-hat looking person, it wont be long before the public backlash will cut in.
IMHO all ID cards and random stops really do is to make the Government of the day appear to have done something.
Oh and I used to have an FIdent1250- that justifies this post on a milaviation forum!
