It's been a while since we've heard anything about the much-hated Real ID unified RFID national identification card, but that doesn't mean the Department of Homeland Security has been sitting still: New York, Arizona, Washington, and Vermont all agreed earlier this month to beef up the security of driver's licenses to comply with DHS' new Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. WHTI is the same fun law that requires US citizens carry a passport to travel to Canada and Mexico, and while it's not clear if it requires RFID licenses for states to comply, eWeek is reporting that both New York and Washington are headed towards including the tags anyway. Given the immense backlash Real ID came under for similar schemes, it'll be interesting to see how WHTI plays out -- but you can bet we're holding onto the janky laminated driver's license we got in college as long as we can.

[Via Autoblog]

Although it has been a tick since we've heard anything substantial on the proposed Real ID card set to take the place of individual state drivers' licenses, it seems like Maine legislature has had their wheels turning (and fists curled) for a good bit. While a majority of lawmakers have simply given a whimsical thumbs-up to the potentially voyeuristic plan, the folks in Maine seem to think the invasion of privacy (not to mention the $185 million in implementation cost for the state) is downright lame. Shenna Bellows of the Maine Civil Liberties Union derided the presumably RFID-based Real IDs as "a one-stop shop for identity thieves," and it was noted that several other states (like New Hampshire, Georgia, and Montana) just might bust out their true feelings on the matter now that Maine has broken the collective silence. Of course, Maine hasn't completely gone loopy and opted out of the process just yet, as the current protest is simply filed as a "resolution," but backers seem fairly serious in their attempts to "protect the people of Maine from just this sort of dangerous federal mandate." So, what about that iris database you guys are building, hmm?

[Via Wired]

As The Washington Post reports, a slew of fresh government initiatives are set to begin to take effect this fall, starting with new biometric-loaded ID cards for federal employees. In addition to requiring all employees to undergo background checks (don't they do that already?), the new standards developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology will require the cards to include fingerprints at a minimum, and likely also include magnetic strips, personal identification numbers, digital photos, holograms, and watermarks. That should cover some 10 million employees, but that's a drop in the bucket compared to what's really getting the biometric companies excited: the prospect of tricking out every driver's license in the country with biometric goodness (or badness, depending on your perspective). While standards for that have yet to been set, the Real ID Act has set mid-2008 as the cut-off date to settle on the format of next-gen licenses once and for all.