*Why is the Economist telling me about this dreadful business? Millions of people must be silently suffering from these increasingly farfetched impositions... Why has no security bureaucrat lost a job through this harassment of the civil population?
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/01/secure_documents
(...)
"The new Californian driving licence carries the same information as its predecessor, but in a more machine-readable form. The driver’s date of birth and signature are embossed by laser engraving to make them sensitive to touch. Apart from two pictures of the driver’s head and shoulders, the licence contains other images that are visible only under ultraviolet light. In addition, visible images of Californian landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge and El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park are engraved on the front and back, along with various swirls and other banknote-like patterns.
"On the back of the card, a 2D bar-code along with a regular one and a magnetic stripe triplicate all the information on the front. And a tiny perforated outline of a Californian brown bear is visible when a light is shone from behind. Drivers under 21 years of age get a card that is formatted vertically, rather than horizontally, to make life easier for liquor-store owners and nightclub bouncers.
"The card is reckoned to be one of the most secure ID documents in America. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most difficult to manufacture. So much so that L-1 Identity Solutions of Stamford, Connecticut, the company that produces them for the state, was the only one willing (or able) to bid for the job. The contract requires L-1 to supply a driving licence within 48 hours of receiving an application, and to do so 8.25m times a year. As it is, 80% of new licences supplied on some days contain errors, requiring the whole batch to be sent back...."
