Personal data security

Federal agency prepares new crackdown on US travelers

Driver's licenses from at least nine states are likely to be rejected as identification for the purpose of air travel in the United States, according to reports citing officials in the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration. The DHS and TSA are moving toward enforcing the 10-year-old Real ID Act that sets down strict federal requirements for state-issued driver's licenses.

Among other things, the Real ID Act requires that applicants for state licenses provide documentation of their identity, including Social Security number and immigration status, and that the licenses issued have "machine readable" technology such as a chip or bar code that stores personal information in electronic form.

Most states have either failed to issue licenses that conform to the Real ID Act or have flatly refused to do so out of concern that such standardized licenses would become a de facto national ID card. The TSA has issued a series of waivers, allowing passengers to use state driver's licenses as ID for the purposes of air travel, but the waivers for nine states are set to expire January 10, 2016. Those states are Alaska, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Carolina and Washington. The total population of these nine states is 90 million people, according to the most recent Census estimates.