Interns working on Capitol Hill this semester may be required to hand over extra information and carry a government-issued ID card under the new DC One Card program.
Students who sign up for the card must disclose basic personal information, including their name, address, telephone number, gender, date of birth and the last four digits of their Social Security number, according to the privacy policy posted to the DC One Card Web site.
The new ID, dubbed the D.C. One Card, has been given to over a thousand summer interns already, according to The Washington Post.
Out-of-state interns here for the school semester would submit their name and address to a D.C. government database.
The government is not placing restrictions on employment or access to buildings, but students who choose to get the card can use it to take a dip in the public pool or to check out a library book.
“The DC One Card is not a requirement for access to a government building and or facility at this time,” said Ayanna Smith, a spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Technology Office in D.C.
Public middle and high school students will be required to get the card to attend school. The cards are also a requirement to attend the District’s Summer Youth Employment Program.
The cards are part of a larger program called the Citizen Interaction and Relationship Management, which will consolidate information and call centers across the many D.C. government agencies.
Parker Williams, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences who interned for the Office of the Historian in the House of Representatives, believes that a universal D.C. ID would be beneficial.
“It is useful to have a card just so you can have all the information in one location,” Williams said. “Being an intern in the city, it can be very flustering to have to go to all these different resources just to know how to check out books. I think it could be useful.”
Matthew Herrmann, an adjunct professor who teaches Political Policy in the Electronic Age at AU, said he worries about how the information will be used.
“It’s putting a lot of trust on them,” he said. “You’re leaving a lot of leeway for the bureaucrats in the D.C. government and how they utilize that information.”
The D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer has posted a privacy policy on its Web site, stating that the office will not use that information collected to obtain any other data about that user.
Herrmann said he is skeptical about the wording of the policy.
“Their privacy policy is lacking,” he said. “I noticed that it is very broad, and I wouldn’t be confident in how they would be using the information if I obtained a card.”
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