The prospects for effective identity policies

Abstract

When devising an identity policy, policy-makers often have a clear vision of what the resulting scheme will accomplish: just about everything. REAL ID was to prevent another 9/11; identity cards in the UK would combat identity fraud and benefits fraud, as well as terrorism and serious crime; biometric passports would prevent bad people from traveling around the world. All these years later it is often easy to look back with fondness at that era of simple solutions such as identity cards to complex problems like global terrorism.