National ID System Woes (632 of 714)

Newhouse News Service published Database Flaws Could Hamper Any National ID System… by Margie Wylie about the data-integrity problems that existing large databases contain. For example, the large database used to generate credit reports is rife with errors:

<q> … A 1998 study by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group found that 29 percent of credit reports contain serious errors — for example, false delinquencies — that could cause credit to be denied. Some 20 percent of credit reports failed to include information for loans that could help prove creditworthiness, … And 26 percent of records listed closed accounts as active. Overall, 70 percent of the credit reports contained mistakes of some kind, the study found.</q>

Another study is named wherein “93,274 Florida civil service job applicants [were checked] against the FBI’s nationwide criminal database”. It generated 5.5 percent false positives and “11.7 percent escaped detection by giving false information”. The FBI claims that this can be decreased to 1 percent using fingerprints. However:

<q>Even at 99 percent accuracy, “if 300 people go to board a 747, that means that three people,” on average, will either be misidentified or go undetected every time, …</q>

The report goes on to discuss national ID systems in other countries and their degrees of success implementing them.