Altered-License Penalty: Use a Magnet, Go to Jail

The “Consumer Affairs” column, “Driver’s License a Road to Loss of Privacy?” (June 21), made me view the new licenses differently. Although I do not have one, I knew they had magnetic strips. I was not bothered by the thought of the police using readers to obtain information about me from my license.

However, I am extremely bothered by the thought of businesses demanding to process my license through a reader. That could too easily give businesses and other private parties information about me which only I and the government have a right to know.

However, I think I have a solution to this problem. Merely take a small bar magnet--the kind sometimes used to post items on a refrigerator door--and wipe the magnetic strips on the license clean. Of course, this would also make the strips unreadable by the police, but I normally drive in a manner that would not cause them to stop me.

Since I have heard of many cases in which the magnetic strips on credit cards have been accidentally erased, I cannot see any penalty for having a driver’s license with an unreadable magnetic strip. What do you think?

DAVID E. ROSS

Agoura

S.J. Diamond responds: The penalty for altering a driver’s license in any way is a misdemeanor in California punishable by up to six months in county jail and a fine of up to $1,000.