[A4ET8a8uTh0]

What annoys me about realid is the time it takes to make it. It takes weeks ( as opposed to being able to get one the very same day at dmv ). So average user is told tuff noodles, while average person who uses fake, working id has criminals working 24/7 to ensure easy access ( https://www.fox5ny.com/news/shipments-of-nearly-20000-fake-d... ).

And when you point it out people say something along the lines "Well, that's why you need realid!". It gets depressing fast.

[atonse]

God... "CBP said most of the fake IDs were for college-age students. Many had the same photo but different names. But one alarming discovery was that the barcode on the fake Michigan licenses actually worked, CBP said. "

Yes I've been telling everyone who'll here this. The PDF417 bar code at the back is just plain text without any kind of digital signature. Anyone could generate a new one. There are apps that do it for you. Since there's no digital signature, there's no way of verifying that it is authentic. There's nothing ALARMING about this. The bar code is an open standard and anyone can generate a new one. It would be alarming if they faked the digital signature.

[esrauch]

I think the alarming thing is that it doesn't have a digital signature, meaning that scanning the barcode isn't a useful check if an ID is fake.

[atonse]

Yup to us techies it seems obvious that you should have a digital signature.

But for whatever reason, this wasn't done.

[ralph84]

You can't have digital signatures without all of the attendant PKI baggage. And if you're going to implement all of the PKI baggage, might as well go all the way and start issuing people smart cards.

[judge2020]

It doesn't need to be full PKI. Just link to some internal website ran by the State that spits out DB info about how "Joe's license, numberd 01010101 is valid". Georgia already does this for temporary license plates (Pardon the TLS 1.1): https://www.gada.com/index.php?module=FileShare&func=downloa...

[esrauch]

I think the issue is you'll only achieve restricting things to cloned licenses instead of arbitrary fakes (which might still be an improvement).

[atonse]

Sure, why not? What’s stopping us?

[kube-system]

Must be your state. I got my REAL ID on the spot at the DMV.

[tobylane]

Does that make it zip code lottery for your right to drive or fly?

[lavezza]

It just means that because this is a federal requirement that needs to be implemented by the states, we're going to see 50 different implementations. Some will work better than others.

[timeinput]

My state doesn't require real id and I see no reason the get the realid compliant id my state offers. I have a passport, passport card, and global entry which are all federaly issued and "real" ids.

Why is it so hard to just travel with a passport or passport card?

[0xffff2]

Because only 42% of Americans have a passport and that number is by far a record high.

[blaser-waffle]

Yeah not really a surprise. Most of the surveys I've read show something like 10-12% of people have never left their state, and 40% or more of Americans have never left the US.

HN is overwhelmingly technical, educated, well-off, and travels a lot -- most of the US (and other places, for that matter) aren't.

See also: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lealane/2019/05/02/percentage-o...

[riffic]

Arguably your right to drive does not exist (it's a privilege to operate a motor vehicle.)

Your right to cross state lines and travel freely (by common carrier flight) is stronger than a purported right to drive.

[henryfjordan]

Your right to cross state lines and travel freely does not include any right to a particular mode of transportation.

You would pretty much have to argue that interstate travel is impracticable without airplanes and that trains/buses/your feet don't suffice.

[monocasa]

The fact that trains/buses/your feet doesn't suffice has already been covered in Gilmore v. Gonzales, among other similar points in the same area.

[Reelin]

From the Wikipedia entry:

> there was no constitutional violation because air passengers could still travel without identification if they instead underwent the more stringent "secondary screening" search

I wasn't aware that I could decline to show ID at an airport security checkpoint in favor of undergoing a secondary screening. Does this actually work in practice?

(Also, I wonder how it squares with automated facial recognition and similar biometric technology?)

[Spooky23]

Exactly, you are free to walk between states.

Just keep yourself clean looking. Some towns don’t like vagrants.

[ultrarunner]

Why is it not considered a privilege to occupy space in a flight in state-controlled airspace? At what point does it become a de facto travel ban, e.g. one can of course travel, so long as they are walking, and of course not on private or government-owned land.

[kube-system]

Not really.

1. You don't need a REAL ID to drive.

2. State IDs aren't the only way to get a REAL ID. All federally issued IDs are already REAL ID compliant.

[Reelin]

Which is odd to say the least, because the documentation for a US passport (as of a couple years ago) was less stringent than that required by the REAL ID act.

[Spooky23]

It’s pretty much the same in terms what the feds want. Some states layer on their own requirements for their own policy reasons.

Places like South Dakota do things to enable them to make a few bucks from vehicle registration for out of state people.