• In addition to a driver's license, residents would have a federal identification card under the Real ID Act."privacy is dead" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: striatic (hobvias sudoneighm) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  

Creates Obstacles for Felons

• The Real ID Act will prevent convicted felons from crossing state lines and obtaining another drivers license by using another name. It will allow police officers across the nation to obtain the same information about convicted felons.
  
  

Helps Law Enforcement

• According to Tim Richardson of the Fraternal Order of Police, the Real ID Act will help law enforcement officers to obtain accurate information of any person that they are contacting. The current complaint from law enforcement is that they do not have accurate and reliable data about convicted felons, because the information from the databases of each state and federal agency is not shared among them. As a result, the lives of the officers are at risk, since they do not fully know if the person they are contacting is convicted felon.
  
  

Keeping Us Safer?

• Because the Sept. 11 terrorists had in their possession various driver's licenses with false identities, some argue that the Real ID act will make us safer. It will take the power away from violent convicted felons and make us safer. Others argue that it would be easier for someone to steal a person's identity, and one breach in security in the national database could devastate many in terms of identity theft.
  
  It has not yet been determined if the Real ID will include a radio frequency identification RFID chip on the ID card. This could raise many privacy issues.
  
  

Effectiveness

• Convicted felons are extremely sophisticated and could potentially come up with a plan on how to get around the Real ID, and ultimately not let it affect them.
  
  

Opposition

• The Real ID Act does have its opponents. According to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano "...Real ID is producing very little progress in terms of securing driver's licenses ...Real ID is unrealistic."
  
  Additionally, according to American Civil Liberties Union Legislative Counsel Timothy Sparapani "...Real ID is expensive, it is invasive and it does nothing to stop terrorism."
  
  

Tracking Convicted Felons

• According to Robert Vamosi, Senior Editor of CNET reviews, we should test out the Federal ID by tracking convinced felons and determining if this will work.
  
  Most citizens are opposed the the Real ID Act because they feel it should be applied only to criminals and not to law abiding citizens. Law abiding citizens do not want their privacy to be invaded.
  
  

Supporters

• According to Congressman Jim Sensenberger, the original author of the Real ID Act, "Ziad Jarrah, one of the terrorists responsible for the plane crash in Pennsylvania, was pulled over two days before 9/11. Had Real ID been in place, he would have been discovered holding multiple licenses and red flags may have been raised. Instead, he was issued a ticket and sent on his way."