Larry Ellison has gotten the Wall Street Journal’s attention with his crackpot ID card idea. See:
Smart Cards —
Digital IDs can help prevent terrorism.

Ellison thinks the “good news” is that we can all choose to throw both our privacy and our hard-earned tax dollars out the window and invest in a new series of completely untested database cross-referencing schemes that collectively impose a new identification system upon our own country’s domestic air travellers:

The good news is that a national database combined with biometrics, thumb prints, hand prints, iris scans, or other new technology could detect false identities. Gaining entry to an airport or other secure location would require people to present a photo ID, put their thumb on a fingerprint scanner and tell the guard their Social Security number. This information would be cross-checked with the database.

The government could phase in digital ID cards to replace existing Social Security cards and driver’s licenses. These new IDs should be based on a uniform standard such as credit card technology, which is harder to counterfeit than existing government IDs, or on smart-card technology, which is better but more expensive.

There is no need to compel any American to have a digital ID. Some Americans may choose to apply for a digital ID card to speed the airport security check-in process. Some states might use digital IDs for their next generation of driver’s licenses. Companies might want to replace their current hodgepodge of IDs with the new system. In fact, a voluntary system of standardized IDs issued by government agencies and private companies could prove more effective than a mandatory system.

So I get it, we can replace the current hodge podge of IDs with a new hodge podge of IDs…And Oracle can be at the center of it all. Great idea Larry!