The following report is by Biometric Update:
A logical idea in the U.S. to get more people enrolled in a trusted digital ID program has become proposed legislation.
The history of biometric identification in the United States has been one of half-measures, programs created by individual states and isolated agency efforts. Whether it is the result of national leaders accepting the technology or its need, the legislation could result in greater digital security for ordinary Americans.
A more strategic digital ID bill, also introduced this year, would overlie the new legislation, which is more about service delivery.
The new bill, introduced by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, has only just been introduced and its fate is anyone’s guess. Postal Service officials have sometimes proved resistant to security upgrades even downstream from breaches of its systems.
It already has one apparently enthusiastic backer. Jeremy Grant, an attorney and the coordinator of the Better ID Coalition, said in a written statement that he is “thrilled” with the legislation.
Enterprise identity vendor Okta‘s head of federal affairs, Michael Clauser, also issued a statement, saying that the bill would “unlock a trusted new option for in-person identity verification in an age of deepfakes and AI-driven identity fraud.”
It is important to note that the Post Office Services for Trustworthy Identity Act would only give the postal service – the most trusted unit of the federal government – permission to create an in-person program.
But if officials choose to create the service, the act would allow the U.S. postmaster general, who owns logistics and freight companies that compete with the postal service, to charge a fee for digital ID services, include a physical security device for subscribers and other options.
Subscribers would not be restricted to only using a post office biometric ID account.
Postal Service officials have trialed in-person proofing – including the collection of biometric identifiers with the General Services Administration and the FBI.
(The Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement branch of the Postal Service, has experience with biometrics. An analytics program uses facial recognition to further criminal investigations.)
The GSA, which oversees the function of other federal agencies, has its own identification and verification program, called Login.gov, which it is shopping around to all corners of the government. The program does not use biometrics.
An inspector general report last year said there are many advantages to a plan like this. Today, 17,000 retail postal outlets provide in-person proofing – comparing documents to the person presenting them. These customers submit to proofing to get a post office box or to enroll in a program such as Informed Delivery.
And since 1975, the post office has provided proofing services for the State Department’s passport operations. The report says it is feasible that the USPS could gradually roll out biometric data collection to the 4,800 offices that are involved in that program today.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
While this bill is just a proposal, it once again demonstrates United States’ ambitions to release a digital ID, in concert with the rest of the world. The postal service, as we Americans know, is a complete and utter joke. I question how successful this would even be at the post office, but what do I know?
What we do know is if the U.S. and other countries are pushing hard for digital IDs, it means we are closer to CBDCs than the central banks care to admit.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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The ineptitude of the postal service lies in its crony socialist status of ‘can’t fail’ and always being propped up by gubmint monies (real or crafted out of thin air). They get presumptuous. Wicked Pelosi and her husband play post office real estate rental games as part of their corrupt statist empire of corruption. Meanwhile, other delivery services without that golden shoe/silver spoon weight dragging them down, & freer, have challenged them because real world business & activity just don’t work that way….and truth is truth. Could be a silver lining & reprieve in that as far as forced digital id’s go, with an alternative for a time & leading up to the time of that final antichrist judgment after he who letteth is removed. Time will tell.