Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Identity Card |
Identity CardNoun1. A card certifying the identity of the bearer; "he had to show his card to get in". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Synonym: Identity CardSynonym: card (n). (additional references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Where the identity card is issued by the State, it asserts a unique single civil identity for a person, thus defining that person's identity purely in relation to the State. Recent technologies allow identity cards to contain biometric information, such as face, hand or iris measurements, or fingerprints.
In many cases, other forms of documentation such as a driver's license, passport, or medicare card serve a similar function, identifying the bearer in a variety of contexts. However, possession of these documents is typically optional.
State-issued identity cards are a source of great controversy. Some people regard them as a gross infringement of privacy and civil liberties, whilst others regard them as uncontroversial.
Opponents of identity cards point out that totalitarian governments issue identity cards to their populations, and that they have been used oppressively by many governments. They point out that the issuing of unique biometric identities was taken to its logical conclusion within living memory by the Nazis, when they tattooed unique KZ- numbers on the arms of people taken to be processed by the Final Solution. (see ka-tzetnik).
More recently, the apartheid-era government of South Africa used identity cards as internal passports to oppress that country's population.
Proponents of identity cards regard these criticisms as paranoid, and regard identity cards to be a useful administrative tool that will increase government efficiency and cut down on crime. They use an argument which is often deployed against privacy advocates: "if you are against it, then you must have something to hide".
Some opponents have characterised vocal proponents of identity cards as social conservatives who wish to control the population tightly. They point out that extensive lobbying for identity cards has been undertaken in countries without compulsory identity cards by IT companies who will be likely to reap rich rewards in the event of an identity card scheme being implemented.
Economic liberals generally regard identity cards as a bad thing, on the principle that if society already works adequately without them, they should not be imposed by government, on the principle that "the government that governs best, governs least".
Compulsory identity cards were first issued in the United Kingdom during World War I, and abandoned in 1919. They were re-introduced in World War II, but were abandoned seven years after the end of that war in 1952, due to widespread public resentment.
Nevertheless, in 2003 the Home Secretary David Blunkett has recently stated that the British government intends to introduce a national identity card scheme based on biometric technology, to be made compulsory by 2013. This has met with significant opposition, as this followed a public consultation where the goverment ignored the overwhelming majority of those replying had stated that they did not want the government to issue identity cards. The government claimed that negitive online responses represented one lobby group so clamed them as one reply.
Arguments for and against identity cards
Identity cards in Britain
Identity cards in the United States
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Identity card."
Crosswords: Identity Card |
| English words defined with "identity card": card. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "identity card": LUMBER HANDLER, lumber piler, lumber racker, lumber stacker, lumber sticker ♦ TYPE COPYIST. (references) |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Children | Greece | During the year, the Ministry of Education reported that the illiteracy rate was dropping among Roma children: The school enrollment rate of Romani children increased by 17 percent, and the dropout rate decreased to 75 percent as a consequence of an identity card system, set up by the Ministry, which allows students to change schools more easily as their parents move. (references) |
Civil Liberties | Laos | However, in designated security zones, roadblocks and identity card checks of travelers are routine. (references) |
Rwanda | However, citizens must obtain a new national identity card when making a permanent move to a new district. (references) | |
Economic History | Spain | Necessary documents: a photocopy of C.I.F. (tax identification code) and identity card. (references) |
Haiti | A professional identity card, issued by the Ministry of Commerce, is required in order to engage in business. (references) | |
Human Rights | Tunisia | Police may stop anyone at anytime and ask for their identity card. (references) |
Minorities | Rwanda | It eliminated references to ethnic origin from the national identity card. (references) |
Jordan | Their faiths are not recognized officially, and Druze and Baha'is are classified as Muslims on official documents, such as the national identity card. (references) | |
Political Economy | Sudan | Movement generally was unhindered for other citizens outside the war zones, but travelers who failed to produce an identity card at checkpoints risked arrest. (references) |
Political Rights | Senegal | ONEL also noted that national identity card applications were processed illegally in some instances. (references) |
Malaysia | Analysis by NGO's of the voting roll used in the national elections also revealed irregularities, such as deceased persons on the rolls, multiple voters registered under single identity card numbers, and other anomalies; however, according to most observers, there is no evidence that these irregularities significantly affected the results in more than a handful of races. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
international student identity card | 52 |
identity card | 27 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "identity card"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | letërnjoftim. (various references) | |
Arabic | بطاقة هوية (id). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | лична карта (identification card). (various references) | |
Czech | identita (id, identity), prùkaz totožnosti (id card), obèanský prùkaz, legitimace (card, id card). (various references) | |
Danish | identitetsbevis, Identitets kort. (various references) | |
Dutch | Identiteitsdocument, legitimatiebewijs (certificate, ID). (various references) | |
Finnish | Henkilökortti (badge). (various references) | |
French | Carte d'identité (id card). (various references) | |
German | ausweis (badge, card, certificate, exhibitor's pass, identification, papers, pass, proof, sign, token). (various references) | |
Greek | "ελτίο ταυτότητας, δελτίο ταυτότητασ (identity papers). (various references) | |
Hebrew | תעו"ת ז"ות (i.d. card), פ קס ז"וי. (various references) | |
Hungarian | személyazonossági igazolvány (credentials). (various references) | |
Italian | documento d'identit (identification), carta d'identit , Carta d?identit . (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | アイディア商" (Ainu, idealist, identification, identification card, identify, identity, idle capital, idle cost, idle system, idle time, idling, idol, novelty). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | アイデンティティーカード . (various references) | |
Manx | caart enney. (various references) | |
Norwegian | identitetskort. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | identityay ardcay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | identidade (idea, identity, sameness), documento de identidade, Bilhete de identidade. (various references) | |
Russian | удостоверение личности (credential, id card, identification card). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | lična karta (id card). (various references) | |
Spanish | documento de identidad, carnet de identidad (i.d.c.), cédula personal. (various references) | |
Swedish | identitetskort (id card, identification card), Identitetshandling, legitimationskort. (various references) | |
Thai | บัตรประชาชน. (various references) | |
Turkish | kimlik kartı (i.d., i.d. card). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | thẻ căn cước, giấy chứng minh (sea-letter). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-d-d-e-i-i-n-r-t-t-y" | |
-3 letters: certainty, dendritic, indicated, intercity, interdict, intricate, rancidity. | |
-4 letters: acridine, acridity, actinide, anticity, candider, citrated, ctenidia, cyanided, cytidine, daintier, dicentra, dictated, identity, indicate, indicted, indicter, indirect, interact, nictated, nitrated, nitrided, raticide, readdict, reindict, riddance, tenacity, tetracid, tetradic. | |
-5 letters: acidity, antired, ardency, aridity, attired, cairned, candied, cattery, cattier, ceratin, certain, cindery, citrate, citrine, cittern, creatin, crinite, cyanide, cyanite, dandier, denarii, detract, detrain, dictate, dictier, dietary, dineric, dirtied, dittany, drained, dratted, dryadic, edacity, identic, incited, inciter, indited, inditer, inedita, inertia, intreat, iterant, nattier, nectary, neritic, nictate, nitrate, nitride, nitrite, nittier, tacrine, tainted, tantric, tertian, tetanic, tincted, tindery, titanic, trained, tranced, triacid, triadic, trident, trinity. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)49 64 65 6E 74 69 74 79 43 61 72 64 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001001 01100100 01100101 01101110 01110100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01000011 01100001 01110010 01100100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)I d e n t i t y   C a r d |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0049 0064 0065 006E 0074 0069 0074 0079 0043 0061 0072 0064 |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)4370718086758691237678470 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Quotations: Non-fiction | 5. Expressions: Internet 6. Translations: Modern 7. Anagrams 8. Orthography | 9. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
