- TALLAHASSEE (AP) -- Electronically transmitted photographs from Florida's
driver's licenses could soon help businesses fight check fraud.
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- Technicians at the state Department of
Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles will begin work this week on a system
that can send images of people to thousands of cash registers in stores
across the state.
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- "It may sound like Big Brother",
said Fred Dickinson, the agency's executive director.
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- But the new process will benefit consumers
because it prevents people from using false identification to write checks,
he said.
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- The state will sell nearly fourteen million
driver's license pictures, along with basic information to Image Data,
a New Hampshire firm. Image Data will package the information and sell
the service to retailers.
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- When a customer presents a check to a
clerk, the clerk will slide the license through a reader. A picture will
pop up on a screen so that the clerk can compare the picture with the person
presenting the ID.
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- Image Data is paying $140,000 - 1 cent
a page for information including names, driver's license numbers, dates
of birth, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS and license types. The company will also
pay for each digitized picture.
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- The first elements of the new system
could be in place at some stores by mid summer.
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- The picture cannot be printed or stored,
and the information or picture can't be used for purpose other than preventing
fraud, said Sandy Lambert, director of the division of driver's licenses.
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