For years, sci-fi buffs have joked that one day robots will have fingerprints that look like bar codes. Now, in the Philippines, bar codes will digitally represent citizens' fingerprints on new Social Security ID cards.
Immediately after Philippine President Fidel Ramos announced the new National Computerized Identification Reference System this week, he was slammed by politicians, lawyers, and privacy advocates calling the system an "Orwellian nightmare."
"We’ve been having difficulty checking the identity of people making Social Security claims, and the problem with a photograph is that a person’s looks may change," countered May Ciriaco, chair for the technical committee of the government group that’s planning and overseeing the implementation of the NCIRS.
"The only way to ensure the uniqueness of a person is through fingerprints,” Ciriaco said.
When a citizen enrolls for Social Security, he or she will visit one of 200 planned registration sites around the country where an index fingerprint will be scanned into a computer. An algorithm identifying the print will then be generated and converted into a bar code to be printed on the ID card, which also features a photograph of its owner.
The ID cards will be available to all citizens - even those too young to register for Social Security - because the cards can be used as valid identification at voting polls, banks, and other institutions, Ciriaco said. Also, the magnetic stripe on the card may eventually be accepted at ATM machines.
"The whole idea is to create a reliable form of identification, so you can use this one card instead of having to carry several cards in your wallet," Ciriaco said.
Ciriaco estimates that the ID cards will each cost US$1. Bids for the manufacture of the cards and system are still being accepted.
