Monday, March 10, 2008

CONTACT: Alessandra Soler Meetze, Executive Director, ACLU-AZ at 602-418-5499 (cell) or 602-650-1854 (office)

PHOENIX – The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona will host a town hall meeting on Thursday, March 13 featuring national privacy experts who will discuss the interplay between cutting-edge technology and individual privacy rights.

Entitled: "From REAL ID to RFID: An ACLU Town Hall on Threats to Privacy," the free town hall meeting will specifically focus on the civil liberties implications of tagging Arizona driver’s licenses with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips and creating the nation’s first-ever de facto national identity card system through REAL ID.

The featured speakers are: Katherine Albrecht, RFID and Consumer Privacy Expert, Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies, Cato Institute, and Noam Biale, Advocacy Coordinator, National ACLU Technology and Liberty Program.

The event will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 13 at the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix Biomedical Campus, Virginia G. Piper Auditorium, 600 E. Van Buren Street, in downtown Phoenix.  Free parking is available off 7th Street, between Van Buren and Fillmore. The event is free and open to the public.

Passed by Congress in 2005, the REAL ID Act essentially transforms driver’s licenses into federal identity papers. The Act creates a 50-state database of critical personal information – such as Social Security numbers, photos and copies of birth certificates – that could expose Arizonans to identity theft, one of the fastest growing crimes in the country. In fact, Arizona has topped the Federal Trade Commission's list of states with the most identity-theft complaints for several years in a row now.  The Arizona Department of Transportation has estimated that the full implementation of the REAL ID Act will cost Arizona more than $60 million.

In December, the ACLU criticized Governor Janet Napolitano for entering into an agreement with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to implement the enhanced driver’s licenses with the RFID tags. The ACLU argues the privacy risks posed by new RFID driver’s licenses are significant, especially considering the controversial chips can be read from up to 30 feet away and the information stored on them can be accessed by touching the chip with an inexpensive handheld electronic reader.  Even if the personal data, including name, home address, date of birth and social security number, is linked to a key or unique identifying number, it can still be accessed by people who can do serious harm. ________________________________________

WHAT:       From REAL ID to RFID: An ACLU Town Hall on Threats to Privacy

WHEN:       7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 13, 2008

WHERE:    UA College of Medicine-Phoenix Biomedical Campus, Virginia G. Piper Auditorium, 600 E. Van Buren Street, in downtown Phoenix. Free parking available between Van Buren and Fillmore Street.  Free event open to the public.

WHO:         Katherine Albrecht, RFID and Consumer Privacy Expert, Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies, Cato Institute, and Noam Biale, Advocacy Coordinator, National ACLU Technology and Liberty Program.