@Paul
I never mentioned biometrics, on some occasions it might be necessary to biometrically prove you are the rightful owner of an ID card, however, in most cases (like installing piece of software for instance) just holding the card will be enough. The card will hand over certain information when the RFID is interrogated. None of this will be personally identifiable, which means we will all be represented by some kind of number or globally inique identifier.
Dongles have their own problems. IE
Different dongles for different packages,
No single source for checking if a dongle has been stolen,
Legal owner of the software has no proof if they lose their dongle
Can't download a dongle from a web site.
Picture this
1) Download installer from Web Site
2) Start install, system asks you to present your ID card to the reader.
3) System is not really interested in who you are, as long as it can register some kind of GUID it retrieves in response to it's querying of the card.
4) Installation continues with your GUID being stored locally and being the only one that can access that program.
By default everyone will use this system. So while you may be free to opt out of having an ID card, it will almost mean you opt out of living.
Now, occasionally cards will go missing, so there will be an ID clearing house that web sites etc can use. They send a GUID with some kind of card issue number (also available via the RFID) and the check site either gives a green light or a red light. Of course, having one global check site might not be politically acceptable for all nations, so maybe the GUID will be formed in such a way that the first x number of chars return the originating country so any checking can be referred to the correct site (but notice, this gives away where the user is from, and thus their privacy starts to be stripped away).
Maybe the check site will send a code that the web site should present to the ID card (via the user's machine/card reader), and based on the response it gets back will know if it is the genuine card or a clone of the publicly available info.
Initially, law enforcement agencies will be able to go to their nation's ID GUID check system and see all the companies that have carried out ID checks on it's citizens. Maybe inputting dodgy companies to find dodgy citizens. After a while someone (ITIL maybe?) will decide to encode the types of company and service, so reports on citizens can be sold to businesses. And all the time, those poor old citizens will be sold further and further down the river.
Ok, so maybe my imagination gland is a little overactive today, but think about it for a few minutes and you can see why so many politicians (control freaks) want ID cards and why we should all resist.