Full text of the proposed regulation can be found at:
http://frwebgate1.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?WAISdocID=0780930967+26+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve

August 7, 1998

Docket Management
Room PL-401
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Nassif Building
400 Seventh Street, S.W.
Washington, DC 20590

Re: Docket Number: NHTSA-98-3945
Notice Number: RIN 2127-AG-91

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing on behalf of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in response to your Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding State-Issued Driver's Licenses and Comparable Identification Documents, which appeared in the Federal Register on June 17, 1998. EFF is a privately funded, nonprofit organization concerned with protecting civil liberties and promoting responsible behavior in the electronic world. We'd like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to comment on the Department of Transportation's (DOT's) Proposed Rulemaking.

As a civil liberties organization, EFF is very concerned with your proposal. We believe that DOT has overstepped its authority in requiring states to conform to its proposed standards. In the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, Congress simply stated conditions under which state-issued driver's licenses could be adequate for personal identification for federal agencies. Congress did not give DOT the authority to require states to collect any information on American citizens in order to provide them with driver's licenses.

While stating that DOT is opposed to creating a "national identification card," in fact, that is precisely what DOT is doing. In addition to our civil liberties concerns, we believe that mandating states to conform to federal requirements in order to issue state driver's licenses is an unconstitutional abrogation of states' rights under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution. It is obvious that these requirements create a "national driver's license," which can easily be used for other purposes.

The federal government should not be mandating standards for state identity documents. If the federal government wishes to produce a national ID document and require that citizens and other persons present it on demand or to access federal services, then such a proposal should be published straightforwardly and debated on its merits. This "back door" approach, attempting to accomplish the same result while pushing responsibility off on the states to do the dirty work, is unacceptable.

In addition, by requiring a Social Security number to be machine-readable on the card or in a database tied to the card, the proposal anticipates numerous non-federal uses that would be made of this information, once the federal government had required its collection and presentation. No longer would a citizen be free to reveal or withhold personal information in any context that traditionally requires identification documents, such as when cashing a check. The mere presentation of the state-issued document would violate the citizen's privacy by revealing information that the citizen did not wish to publicize. The fact that the proposal encourages the use of "electronic means" for conveying this information simply magnifies the problem.

Social Security numbers should not be used as a requirement for a state driver's license. Historically, Social Security numbers were never intended to be used as universal identifiers. Over the past 50 years, we have seen more and more pieces of information linked by Social Security numbers. These databases, once collected, do not remain private; history shows that more and more uses would be made of the information collected. Furthermore, the Social Security number system has proven to be extremely insecure and is riddled with duplicate numbers, false numbers, and other incorrect information.

We agree with your assessment that "The Immigration Reform Act was not enacted into law to prevent individuals who are legally in the United States from holding valid driver's licenses or identification documents. Rather, the statute was enacted to deter illegal immigration into the United States." As such, requiring American citizens to provide Social Security numbers in this context completely undermines the purpose of the Act and overrides numerous state policies that have opted to not key to Social Security numbers.

We ask that you eliminate the requirement that states collect Social Security numbers for state-issued driver's licenses from your proposal.

Thank you for your attention to our concerns. We would like to draw your attention to the comments jointly submitted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Privacy International on August 3, 1998. We are in full agreement with these comments, which do an excellent job of detailing our common concerns with your proposal. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss our concerns further, or if we can supply you with any additional information.

Sincerely,

 

Shari Steele
Staff Attorney

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