Leon Neal: An ID thief’s dream

I agree 100 percent with your Jan. 24 lead editorial “Block the new license to snoop.” The federal Real ID Act seems to me to be more like an ID Act so that hackers can steal everyone’s ID.

Taking my ID things, like Social Security card, “certified” birth certificate (costs money), utility bill, to the driver’s license station and having someone see that I have these might be OK.

A better concept: A computer downloadable Word document on the DOT website with a text box to insert a personal photo and taking this form along with the ID documents to a notary. The notary could check boxes for the ID items I present – certainly not digitize these ID documents – and notarize the form.

I could then take this notarized page to the DMV, and they could copy that form. But to let any agency actually digitize all of these ID documents and put them into its computer is foolhardy and a hacker identity thief’s dream. No one should be required to do that.

I’ve never had a passport, but I suppose I could get one. They don’t digitize all that personal information.

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Leon Neal: An ID thief’s dream."