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There is no safe system
When people advocate a national ID system for the US, it’s worth keeping in mind that massive databases of personal information have some easily foreseeable vulnerabilities. Britain has just learned that lesson again:
[Several years ago, a] private company, VFS, [was] contracted by the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to process the online visa applications of Indians wanting to visit Britain. It later won similar contracts in Russia and Nigera.
But in 2005 it became apparent that the system was chronically flawed. An applicant informed VFS and UK Visas, the government agency in charge of visa processing, that he was able to obtain confidential information – including passport numbers, criminal convictions, ethnic origin and travel details – about other users of the service. He also showed how he could amend other people’s visa applications online. But despite the warning, the system wasn’t shut down until May 2007.
Let’s recap: After the government and the contractor were told that people’s lives could be at risk[1] due to compromised data, the system was left up and running for another 18 months.
The answer here is not “Whoops, we hired an incompetent contractor. Better luck next time.” The answer is “Good God, what a disaster. Given that predictable political and logistical pressures always affect these type of projects, we should reconsider them entirely.”
Remember, if you’re an immigrant and someone obtains your personal details, it’s not like the minor hassle of a credit-card statement with $50 in fraudulent charges. In the US immigraton system, if there is even a hint of inconsistency (let alone criminal background!) in your application, it can be delayed for years or denied altogether, often without possibility of appeal. It is not an exaggeration to say that for someone on provisional status, as all non-citizens are, having someone hack into your official record and change it can literally send you back to your death in a home country torn by war or other violent social disorder.
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