Why fingerprints for a license? How secure?

[inteller]

I recently got a new license.  I was aware of the gestapo law passed in 2002 in the wake of 9/11 that made it mandatory for license holders to get fingerprinted.  Oh sure they call it biometric scanning, but its fingerprinting without the ink.

I asked the license person what this was needed for.  They said it was to protect against identity theft.  Oh really?  so if someone steals my license, every place it is used for fraud they are going to check their fingerprints against mine?  I highly doubt that.  I also asked how this information was kept from falling into the wrong hands or being misused.  No answer to that one at all.  So it made me feel more secure about smoothing over my fingertips with superglue the night before.  That practice will continue until they can provide me the answers I demand.

I doubt anyone has had two licenses since this big brother law went into effect, but for those that have, do they take fingerprints every time?

Oh, and they were unable to provide me with an answer on why they now stick a categorizing letter in front of your license number.  I can only guess it denotes the order in which they will come and get you for the extermination camps.

Paranoid? Conspirisist?  Sure...if I cant get straight answers out of my government, why should I be trusting of them?

[sauerkraut]

When I got my Texas driver license I was finger printed back in 1980. I dunno if Texas still does that or not. Ohio does not finger print for a license- at least not yet. I'm surprised Oklahoma is doing that. That's a bad thing IMO.

[Steve]

My license issued in late 2005 does not have the letter in front of the license number.  I am curious about that too.

The fingerprint is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak.  Notice the bar codes on the back of your license.  Anyone (retailers, thieves, etc.) with a scanner can probably swipe the card and get personal info. about yourself.  At least OK no longer uses SSN for license number, but I don't know if SSN is included in the bar code information.

Talk about big brother, the federal govt./"homeland security" has passed a new law to go into effect in a year or so that makes driver licenses a standardized "national ID card" with certain requirements for all 50 states.  I read that the changes are going to cost Oklahoma upwards of $500,000,000.00 to implement.  The new requirements are causing lots of backlash among the states and may be repealed.  Here is a link I found that discusses the "Real ID Act" and its requirements and the backlash.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15130989/
or just Google "Real ID Act" for many articles on the subject.

[inteller]

just keep using super glue until you can trust your government.

[sgrizzle]

The fingerprints are taken so for license renewals & replacements, they can quickly verify you are you. That is what they mean by identity theft. From what I've read, the fingerprint information that is stored is not an image file of your fingers so it cannot be recreated, it is  merely enough data so it can verify in future scans. (one way encryption style, same way password hashes work)

Both the 2d and 3d barcodes on the back contain the information shown on the front. Nothing is in the barcodes that is not written in plain text. One of the purposes is that when entering a bar, using a check, or otherwise, you can "show id" electronically.

The licenses last 4 years and were not available to the general public until January of 2004. So none will have expired yet.

Supposedly, the cards issued since 2004 already meet all the requirement of the "real id act" as do many other states. Oklahoma's state id cards were one of the easiest to copy and needed to be updated anyway.