The year might not be 1984, but Big Brother plans on spying on you all the same, even if they have to push things back a bit. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security extended the deadline for the implementation of its Real ID program from 2008 to 2013. Somewhere Winston Smith breathed a sigh of relief.

Real ID is a digital identification card, which will be required in all 50 states and will effectively replace the state driver’s license. Don’t get too excited, though, it’s not going to wipe that DUI off your record. The purpose of the cards is to create a national database, cataloguing personal information on all 240 million licensed drivers. Seems just like your driver’s license, but on a national scale, right? Well, not quite. Hang on, cause here is where things get a bit totalitarian.

An imbedded barcode will make each ID scanable, purportedly to check it against the database. Never mind that it could essentially be used to keep tabs on where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing. An additional concern is that the information contained on the ID will not be encrypted … at all. Scanning it would be all it would take to make a record of your personal information. Yes ladies, that scary bouncer at the bar would no longer have work to quickly commit your address to memory. He’d already have it saved to disc. The cards may also include radio frequency identification technology as well. At the present time though, Homeland Security isn’t quite sure which sort of unsecure data collection they would rather go with.

So far there’s no getting around this either. Under the Real ID Act, which was passed by Congress in 2005, all states are required by law to implement the program. Individual states have until Oct. 7, 2007 to provide their compliance plan to the federal government. However, citing privacy concerns, several rogue states are currently drafting legislation in direct opposition to the Act and its measures. The price for keeping your information private could be costly though. The penalties for noncompliance include disallowing residents of that particular state to use other forms of identification to board planes, enter federal buildings or collect federal financial assistance.

[Via cnet]