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Comdex - Ellison backs off ID card plan, sees Q2 miss
By James Niccolai "I have never been for a national ID card," Ellison said during a press conference here Monday. "What I am for is taking existing government IDs - driver's license, passport, visa, pilot's license - and having a national standard for ID cards." Ellison became a lightning rod for critics of a centrally managed, national ID system after he floated the idea in a column published in the Wall Street Journal following the Sept. 11 attacks. He said Monday that people had misinterpreted what he said and turned him into an unwilling advocate. He remains in favor of creating a national database to keep track of individuals who receive ID cards, he said. The database would include biometric information, such as a thumb print or an iris scan, that would allow authorities to positively match an ID card to the person it was issued to, he said. He's also in favor of developing standards that would make ID cards harder to forge, like credit cards. But he said he never advocated a compulsory system in which all U.S. citizens and visitors would be required to carry a single, government-issued card. States should be encouraged to adopt national standards voluntarily, he said. Critics of the plan charged that a centrally managed system would be a nightmare for the government to administer and could threaten individual privacy. They also accused the Oracle boss of trying to sell more databases to the government. Ellison also revealed that the company's profit for its current, second fiscal quarter will likely fall below analyst estimates, in part because large businesses are delaying software purchases. Asked during the press conference here if he thinks Oracle's profit will come in on target for the quarter at 11 cents a share, Ellison said probably not. "I think it's going to be difficult to achieve, more like in the area of 9 to 10 cents - which by the way, is still a billion dollars in profits," he said. He blamed the likely shortfall on businesses delaying purchases because of the poor economic climate. "Our large customers can delay by a quarter buying our software, they can delay two quarters," but eventually they will have to buy because they need the software to complete projects and build out their businesses, he said. Apply for your free subscription to Network World. Click here. Send this article to a colleague
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