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Technology Stocks : Identix (IDNX) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ron Ohio who wrote (25740)	4/1/2004 9:43:47 PM
From: steve	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26039

Locke signs biometric license bill 04/02/2004 Associated Press Washington residents worried about identity theft may someday be able to link their drivers' licenses to a fingerprint or other biometric identifier. Gov. Gary Locke signed a law Thursday creating a voluntary program and increasing the civil penalty for identity theft from $500 to $1,000 or actual damages. But he downplayed the importance of the biometric element, saying he had concerns that people would put too much faith in it. "People can still get an original license in a fake name," Locke said. "They can forge a license." The bill directs the Department of Licensing to install a biometric matching system by the beginning of 2006. The system could use fingerprints or some other identifier, such as a mathematical representation of a person's face. The system would only be used to verify the identity of someone applying to renew or replace an existing license or identity card. People who wanted to participate in the system would pay a small fee. The final version of Senate Bill 5412 was substantially scaled back from the original proposal by Sen. Dale Brandland, R-Bellingham, the former sheriff of Whatcom County. Brandland's bill would have required every person seeking to acquire or renew a license to submit such an identifier, an idea that appealed to banks and retailers hurt by identity theft, but alarmed civil libertarians. The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington argued that such a system was unrelated to the purpose of a driver's license and could lead to thousands of people being wrongly accused of trying to fraudulently acquire licenses. "On principle it still gives us pause," said Jerry Sheehan, the ACLU's lobbyist. `We certainly intend to bird-dog it very closely." kgw.com steve