I should've known that
posting something
about ID cards would spark a number of reactions. In fact, I
did—which is one of the reasons why I posted that; nothing like a
bit of discussion every once in a while.
Brian M. Carlson writes:
The difference between the US and Belgium, for example, is
that Belgium has comprehensive privacy legislation.
Well, yes. Obviously, ID cards require some privacy legislation in
order to prevent abuse of said cards. In Belgium, only the police is
allowed to
require me to show them my ID card; everyone else
can ask, but I can tell them to go screw themselves. Of course they can
then also refuse to provide me with a given service, but I may be able
to sufficiently prove my ID with other means. The point is, whether or
not a designated ID card exists does not impact the need for privacy
legislation; if you want to protect your privacy, you need such
legislation anyway, ID or no ID. The fact that you don't have an ID card
does not mean in any way that people can't ask you to prove your ID; and
the existence of an ID card does not mean that all of a sudden all other
ways for me to prove my ID are null and void.
"Anonymous" writes:
You seem to take as a given that we need an official
government-issued ID card, and from there you draw the fairly reasonable
conclusion that if we need one it ought to exist separately from a
driver's license. I agree that your assumption leads to your conclusion,
but I disagree with your assumption.
Well, no, I do not assume that we need an official government-issued
ID card. I
know we do. That's not to say we need
government-issued ID in
all cases where we need to provide
proof of ID; but
when we do, there should be a way that does
not overload some document into something which it was never intended to
be.
"bignose" writes:
You miss the main complaint of a national ID card system: that it
would be *mandatory* for a person who wishes to operate in the country.
That's the important part that is not true for a driver's license: not
having a driver's license does not make the person an
unperson.
It is not necessary for me to have an ID card to "operate" in
Belgium. There are a few things where the ID card is indeed required;
e.g., the last time I personally
had to use my ID card was
during the last elections. If I would have had an encounter with the
police in that time, they could have asked for it, too; but that didn't
happen. Also, when doing my tax declaration online, I used the
electronic keys on the ID card, so that I could only update
my
tax declaration—and not, say, my neighbour's. But that's only
doable when you have an electronic ID card system, which is not
necessarily a good idea (in contrast to plain old paper ID cards, I
do have privacy concerns with electronic versions—details
on request)
Of course, the fact that I can "operate" in Belgium without the use
of an ID card does not mean it is legal for me to walk around without
one; but that is not entirely the same thing.
There were some more comments to my previous blog post, but I don't
disagree with those.
![[image]](http://evan.prodromou.name/images/amita_bed.jpg)
After that, I watered my new lawn. The grass seeds I spread on Tuesday are coming up in teensity-tinesity leaves. Huzzah!
Then I turned my attention to the ![[image]](http://evan.prodromou.name/images/amita_brenda_muskoka.jpg)
tags: