National Identification Cards

There are many reasons why countries, small and large, are reviewing the needs for national identification cards. Many of the reasons have to do with immigration, border control and some are simply economic. When considering national identification cards for a country, it’s fairly simple to understand the perceived need to clearly identify someone’s nationality for reasons from employment to citizenship benefits. Even when reviewing who should receive medical or any other service offered by a government to its citizens and to protect these services so they are not abused by individuals whose citizenship is with another country.

Many countries that are examining the possibilities for such needs are doing so because the only form of national identification that anyone has is a printed piece of paper. These documents are simple to forge and do not have a picture or other identifiable marks that would indicate who it belongs to other than the holder. Documents like these are easily stolen or duplicated by people in order to enter countries or receive citizenship benefits. Simply controlling the cost and reducing the abuse of these types of services is economic reason enough to introduce a national photo identification card system. Because of the needs mentioned here it’s clear that some of the requirements of ID cards would include biometric information from a simple photograph to the characteristics of the individual including height, eye color and sex. Some countries have incorporated finger prints and even retinal scan information into the national ID cards as well as into the national database.

Many of the countries that have started or are considering this process do not have an accurate account of its current citizenship nor any relevant or reliable census information. Starting a national identification process and implementing identification cards into a country in this situation has many other benefits such as border control, tracking citizenship benefits, criminal records and even military service. Currently some of these countries have systems to track these issues but in most situations these systems are independent of each other. Creating a national identification card and system would allow the creation of a database that would merge all of this information into a much simpler solution.

Outsourcing has also been a topic of discussion as governments review their best solutions. For many countries, undertaking the mammoth task of capturing data, taking pictures and providing identification cards to every citizen is too large for an administration to handle with their existing resources. A few companies have been providing solutions for governments and FullIdentity.com is one of them. Beyond providing identification cards, this company has been providing tracking solutions along side of ID card implementations for over seven years. In many cases systems have been created for countries that are not only easy to employ, but also offer a financial benefit to the nations implementing these solutions. In laymen’s terms, when outsourcing the ID card needs of a nation to a third party, the expenses are less than they would be if the government were to take the burden of deploying a solution internally. Due to the discounted costs, the government can charge the citizens less for the identification cards and still have a financial gain to the country. Initially, a country can profit by implementing a national system while protecting its resources in the long run.

Ultimately, when looking at the issue of implementing a national identification card system into a country from the prospective of the government, it is hard to find an economic reason not to move forward. Yes, there are and will be advocates that claim that "big brother" is taking away our privacy and our rights. And yes, privacy about our criminal records, border crossings, and military records is lost but shouldn’t these things be monitored by someone? Shouldn’t a nation protect its citizenship benefits for just its citizens; or should it allow anyone to benefit from the government regardless of their own nationality?

About the Author:
Allen Richardson is the founder of Virtual Tournament Director, a company handling registration and ID cards for amateur sports participants around the nation, and http://www.fullidentity.com a company that provides similar services to the business community. He also serves as consultant to Southwest Airlines, Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railway as well as several other companies in the United States. Additionally, he is the author of Personal Discipline: Tools for Consistent Success.