Beast System: Laying The Foundation Of The Beast

[oneofmany]

Implanted Chips in Our Troops?​

A Florida company wants to get under the skin of 1.4 million U.S. servicemen and women.

VeriChip Corp, based in Delray Beach, Fla., and described by the D.C. Examiner as "one of the most aggressive marketers of radio frequency identification chips," is hoping to convince the Pentagon to allow them to insert the chips, known as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips under the skin of the right arms of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen to enable them to scan an arm and obtain that person’s identity and medical history. The chips would replace the legendary metal dog tags that have been worn by U.S. military personnel since 1906.

The device is usually implanted above the triceps area of an individual’s right arm, but can also by implanted in the hand if scanned at the proper frequency. The VeriChip responds with a unique 16-digit number, which can correlate the user to information stored on a database for identity verification, medical records access, and other uses. The insertion procedure is performed under local anesthetic, and once inserted it is invisible to the naked eye.

The company, which the Examiner notes has powerful political connections, is "in discussions” with the Pentagon, VeriChip spokeswoman Nicole Philbin told the Examiner. "The potential for this technology doesn’t just stop at the civilian level,” Philbin said. Company officials have touted the chips as versatile, able to be used in a variety of situations such as helping track illegal immigrants or giving doctors immediate access to patient’s medical records.

On Monday the Department of State started to issue electronic passports (e-passports) equipped with RFID chips. According to reports the U.S. government has placed an order with a California company, Infineon Technologies North America, for smart chip-embedded passports.

The Associated Press said the new U.S. passports include an electronic chip that contains all the data contained in the paper version name, birth date, gender, for example and can be read by digital scanners at equipped airports. They cost 14 percent more than their predecessors but the State Department said they will speed up going through Customs and help enhance border security.

The company's hefty political clout is typified by having former secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, on its board of directors.

Thompson assured the Examiner that the chip is safe and that no one — not even military personnel, who are required by law to follow orders — will be forced to accept an implant against his or her will. He has also promised to have a chip implanted in himself but could not tell the Examiner when.

"I’m extremely busy and I’m waiting until my hospitals and doctors are able to run some screens," he told the newspaper.

Not everybody agrees with Thompson, the Examiner reported, noting that the idea of implanting the chips in live bodies has some veterans’ groups and privacy advocates worried.

"It needs further study,” Joe Davis, a retired Air Force major and a spokesman for the D.C. office of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, told the Examiner.

And Liz McIntyre, co-author with Katherine Albrecht of "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track your Every Move with RFID," said that VeriChip is "a huge threat” to public privacy.

"They’re circling like vultures for any opportunity to get into our flesh,” McIntyre told the Examiner. "They’ll start with people who can’t say no, like the elderly, sex offenders, immigrants, and the military. Then they’ll come knocking on our doors.”

In an e-mail to the Examiner, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote: "If that is what the Defense Department has in mind for our troops in Iraq, there are many questions that need answers. "What checks and balances, safeguards, and congressional oversight would there be?” Leahy asked. "What less-invasive alternatives are there? What information would be entered on the chips, and could it endanger our soldiers or be intercepted by the enemy?”

The company, the Examiner wrote, is also unsure about the technology. According to company documents, radio frequencies in ambulances and helicopters could disrupt the chips’ transmissions. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, VeriChip also said it was unsure whether the chip would dislodge and move through a person’s body. It could also cause infections and "adverse tissue reactions,” the SEC filing states.

But Philbin downplayed the danger of the chips.

"It’s the size of a grain of rice,” she said. "It’s like getting a shot of penicillin.”

 

[oneofmany]

They Want Your Soul

<embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=209842906347732903&hl=en"> </embed>

 

[oneofmany]

The Microchip

<embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=4347054309430076251&hl=en"> </embed>

 

[oneofmany]

AOL Autos | Who's Watching?

Who's Watching? - EDRs Mandatory in 2008​

Big Brother will be watching you for sure by 2008 -- the year a proposed requirement that Event Data Recorders (EDRs) become mandatory standard equipment in all new cars and trucks will become law unless public outrage puts the kibosh on it somehow.

EDRs are "black boxes" -- just like airplanes have. They can record a wide variety of things -- including how fast you drive and whether you "buckle-up for safety." The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) wants EDRs to be installed in every new vehicle beginning with model year 2008 -- on the theory that the information will help crash investigators more accurately determine the hows and whys of accidents.

But EDRs could -- and likely will be -- used for other purposes as well.

Tied into GPS navigation computers, EDRs could give interested parties the ability to take automated ticketing to the next level. Since the data recorders can continuously monitor most of the operating parameters of a vehicle as it travels -- and the GPS unit can precisely locate the vehicle in "real time," wherever it happens to be at any given moment -- any and all incidents of "speeding" could be immediately detected and a piece of paying paper issued to the offender faster than he could tap the brake. That's even if he knew he was in the crosshairs, which of course he wouldn't. Probably they'll just erect an electronic debiting system of some sort that ties directly into your checking account -- since the paperwork could not keep up with the massive uptick in fines that would be generated.

If you think this is just a dark-minded paranoiac vision, think again. Rental car companies have already deployed a very similar system of onboard electronic monitoring to identify customers who dare to drive faster than the posted limit -- and automatically tap them with a "surcharge" for their scofflaw ways. While this inventive form of "revenue enhancement" was challenged and subsequently batted down by the courts, the technology continues to be honed -- and quietly put into service.

Already, 15-20 percent of all the cars and trucks in service have EDRs; most of these are General Motors vehicles. GM has been installing "black boxes" in its new cars and trucks since about 1996 as part of the Supplemental Restraint (air bag) system. Within a few years, as many as 90 percent of all new motor vehicles will be equipped with EDRs, according to government estimates -- whether the requirement NHTSA is pushing actually becomes law or not.

The automakers are just as eager to keep tabs on us as the government -- in part to keep the lawyers who have been so successfully digging into their deep pockets at bay. EDRs would provide irrefutable evidence of high-speed driving, for example -- or make it impossible for a person injured in a crash to deny he wasn't wearing a seat belt.

Insurance companies will launch "safety" campaigns urging that "we use available technology" to identify "unsafe" drivers -- and who will be able to argue against that? Everyone knows that speeding is against the law -- and if you aren't breaking the law, what have you got to worry about?

It's all for our own good.

But if you get edgy thinking about the government -- and our friends in corporate America -- being able to monitor where we go and how we go whenever they feel like checking in on us, take the time to write a "Thanks, but no thanks" letter to NHTSA at http://dms.dot.gov/

 

[mk23666]

Re: AOL Autos | Who's Watching?

interesting

 

[oneofmany]

Fingerprinting plan for pupils angers parents

Fingerprinting plan for pupils angers parents​

A PIONEERING comprehensive known for progressive, liberal policies has upset parents by seeking to fingerprint every one of its 1,500 pupils when they return from their summer holidays next week.
Holland Park school wants to build a database so that children turning up late can be identified and their time of arrival recorded in a “live register” by pressing a finger on an electronic pad.

The school has spent £4,500 on technology to build the database of pupils’ prints.

Parents and local councillors, however, have complained that the system to control truancy may breach the pupils’ human rights because the information could be passed to the police.

Voluntary fingerprinting has become widespread in schools, especially for taking out library books. Eton college introduced a fingerprint system last year to identify pupils old enough to drink in its Tap bar. Pupils aged 17 can drink one pint of beer if they buy food but they have to register with a fingerprint.

Holland Park school, which opened in 1958, was one of the first comprehensives in Britain and was once dubbed the “Eton of comprehensives”.

Many of its pupils come from rough council estates, while others are drawn from the liberal elite in the expensive streets of Holland Park and Notting Hill, for whom the school became a magnet in the 1960s.

Hilary Benn, the international development secretary, was sent there by his father Tony. Other celebrity parents have included Lady Antonia Fraser, the historian, and the late film director John Huston.

However, the school’s latest move is seen as far from progressive. It is believed to be one of the first schools to seek to fingerprint every pupil in an effort to monitor their whereabouts.

If late arrivals fail to press a pad at the gates or in a classroom, they will be recorded as absent.

Marianne Alapini, a local Labour councillor, said she had spoken to 15 worried parents. “We cannot understand the rationale behind this,” she said. “It raises all sorts of questions about human rights, data protection and child protection.”

Mohammed Abdul-Saaka, vice-chairman of the borough’s police consultative group, who has raised the issue with Liberty, the civil rights organisation, said: “This has been done without any consultation and has opened a Pandora’s box of complications.”

Renate Stewart, 16, a pupil leaving the school after taking her GCSEs, said: “I think that the school does so many things to try to improve its image but they should be spending this money on things which inspire the students. That might make the students feel better about being at school.

“It does make you feel as if you are some kind of criminal.”

Conservative-led Kensington and Chelsea council, which runs the school, said pupils would have one finger scanned and this information would be converted into a code number that would be recorded and registered when a pupil placed a finger on the reader.

A council spokesman said: “This is not fingerprinting of the type associated with the police. The ability to record student attendance enhances the school’s efforts to ensure a safe and secure environment for all students and staff.”

He said no records would be kept of the scan and the data would not be shared. However, if the police asked if a pupil was in school on a particular day, the school would tell them.

 

[oneofmany]

New Vision Online | Police wants database on babies' fingerprints

Police wants database on babies’ fingerprints​

THE Police want to set up a database of all nationals’ fingerprints as a way of averting crime in society, an official has said.

Nelson Tasi Ndugu, a CID officer at Jinja Road Police Station, said the Police was making efforts to have all new born babies’ fingerprinted in an effort to have a record of all nationals.

“The problem we have is that we do not have fingerprints of all Ugandans. We only have those for criminals we have detained before. This makes our work difficult in case we want to trace other criminals,” he said.

Ndugu was on Saturday representing Jinja Road Police chief John Olupot at the opening of a nine-day annual Seventh Day adventist (SDA) camp meeting for Luzira SDA district at Luzira Lakeside College. Hundreds of Christians from Kampala attended.

The SDA southern Buganda station director, Pastor George William Kambugu, who is the camp guest speaker, castigated church leaders who are agents of satan.

“Some church members are involving in evil doings. Others come to church with hidden agenda but as Christians, you should avoid fighting battles from the opposition side,” Kambugu said.

Ndugu said three Police officers were currently facing the Police court over indiscipline and several others were in court over corruption-related crimes.
Ndugu, who first preached to the congregation, said this followed tough instructions from Police chief Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura for a zero-tolerance to corruption.

“You should report anyone who engages in corruption. It can also be within church. Both the person bribing and the one being bribed are liable to prosecution,” said Ndugu, who said he is saved.

He, however, warned the public against giving false information, adding, “There should be enough implicating evidence, lest you are arrested instead.”

 

[gene cisco]

WOW.

But for every technology there is a counter.

they put up those red light cameras 'for our safety', but you can use sprays and licence covers to beat that.

I hate the government and they little tricks. Just fix the roads and field an army.

I like cash, not plastic so you can track everything i do. I wonder how the poor bastards in the 70's and 80's lived without all this intrusion.....oh i remember just fucking fine.

Everything is for your safety humanoid. 1984 like a muthafucka good citizen

 

[oneofmany]

Customs IT chief is first Asian to have human RFID implant

Customs IT chief is first Asian to have human RFID implant​

t’s a technology that is "years ahead of its time" but Deputy Customs commissioner Alexander Arevalo is willing to become a guinea pig just so Filipinos – and perhaps the whole of Asia – can see the advantages that RFID (radio frequency identification) can deliver.

With this as a premise, Arevalo took the rare opportunity to have a RFID chip inserted into his body last May 9, 2006 in New Jersey in the United States – the first Asian to undergo the procedure.

RFID is a technology similar to bar code identification. However, it is superior in the sense that it has greater scanning distance and does not require the line-of-sight reading of the bar code.

The RFID technology works only if these two things are present: A transceiver that receives and transfer information, and a transponder or tag that contains the RF circuitry.

In the case of Arevalo, the device that was injected in his upper right arm was miniature transponder which can be read only by a proprietary RFID reader.

The RFID reader is a portable and non-invasive scanner which activates the RFID with low power, low frequency electro-magnetic field. It receives from the microchip a unique 16-digit number that can be used to access information from a secure database.

The microchip, with a size slightly bigger than a grain of rice, was injected by Dr. Saquiba Syed through a chip inserter specially made by VeriChip.

VeriChip, an American firm, is currently the only company approved by the US Food and Drugs Agency (FDA) to manufacture human RFID chip. Dr. Syed, based in New Jersey, is one of the few physicians authorized to perform VeriChip implant operations in the US.

In an interview, the 47-year-old Arevalo said the implant cost him about 0 (R10,800). "I was on my way home from Geneva, Switzerland for the ASEAN Single Window conference when we had a stopover in the US."

"Since I was already there, I consulted with my two siblings who are also doctors and were living near the area. When they said it was okay, I finally decided to have the implant," he shares.

The chip, he says, was designed to have no adverse effect so the body wouldn’t reject it. "You also don’t have to declare it when going security check. Unless their scanner can read RFID information, then there’s no obligation for you to declare the presence of the chip in your body."

REGIONAL IMPLICATIONS

Arevalo’s milestone has regional implications because apart from serving as deputy commissioner and concurrent head of the ICT division of the Bureau of Customs (BoC), he is also the chair of the ASEAN Customs Directors for ICT.

In fact, it was during the group’s seventh regional meeting last May 23 to 25, 2006 in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) that Arevalo first revealed about his RFID implant.

He also goes around the region as chair of the InterAgency Task Force on the ASEAN Single Window initiative and as member of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Single Window Committee.

The Single Window program, as defined, is the "facility enabling the provision of standardized information with a single body to fulfill all import, export, and transit related regulatory requirements."

In the Philippines, the Single Window initiative is composed of Single Submission (to BoC), Single Processing (BoC checks clearances and permits with other government), and Single Decision Making (BoC releases shipment based in inter-agency coordination).

LONG TECH HISTORY

Before taking the microchip implant, the 47-year-old Customs official already had a long history of adopting cutting-edge technology in the agencies where he has been deployed.

A 1982 cum laude graduate of the Philippine Military Academy, Arevalo served as deputy executive officer of the elite Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) before he was recruited to the BoC. He was also assigned at Malacañang as Presidential Assistant for IT under Presidents Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada.

In between these jobs, he was able to pursue graduate studies. He finished his Masters in Business Management at the Asian Institute of Management in 1986 and Masters in Public Administration at Harvard University in 2000.

While in Malacañang, Arevalo spearheaded the adoption of modern technologies. These included computerized document tracking, hologram stickers (first and only in the world, 1999), bar codes (first in the world, 1993), digital document imaging (first in Asia and Philippines, 1994), and micro-filming of documents (1994).

Asked about the practical applications of RFID in humans, Arevalo says the availability of the technology now is a clear indication that instant and secure identification of people is becoming synonymous with the need for instant identification of cargoes that usually pass through Customs.

"Ten years from now, I’m expecting that human RFID will replace the ID system that we currently employ," he said, adding that it is faster and more secure than biometrics. "What if your finger gets cut? Then you can no longer be identified."

He stressed, though, the crucial role that a database plays in the adoption of human RFID technology. "It’s just an ordinary chip sitting uselessly in your body if you don’t have an information database that will give meaning to the data contained in the chip."

So instead of having multiple IDs, Arevalo says a person can just have a RFID chip in his body that will store his or her reference number. The database, in turn, can be managed by the government so when person transacts with any government office, it has ready information at hand.

He admitted that, as of now, the cost of employing the technology is still high. "But the cost can go down if countries adopt it on a mass scale. After all, no country has ever become progressive without using technology."

Arevalo’s optimistic of the RFID technology even if some people doubt its immediate application.

"Definitely, RFID is years ahead of its time. But the bar code technology was also ahead of its time when it was first deployed. Look at it now. It’s becoming obsolete."

 

[GET YOU HOT]

1984, Good, but still, you must know how to counter everyday threats like these... Many, can't be attributed solely to identity theft...

[FRAME]http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/Datathefts.php[/FRAME]

 

[oneofmany]

Finger scan for school lunch worries some parents

[frame]http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-16/1156793352299350.xml&storylist=orlocal[/frame]

 

[oneofmany]

Europe pushes for study of biometrics to screen passengers

Europe pushes for study of biometrics to screen passengers​

LONDON — Europe is stepping up efforts to explore the use of eye scans and other biometric technology to screen airline passengers who volunteer for background security checks.
The goal is to see whether airport security can be enhanced and congestion eased by encouraging frequent fliers to undergo pre-screening. In return, cleared passengers could pass through immigration and security checkpoints more easily by identifying themselves through biometric scans of their irises or fingerprints.

The renewed push by European authorities to study measures similar to the USA's fledgling Registered Traveler program comes just weeks after British police disclosed that they had uncovered an alleged plot to blow up passenger jets en route to the United States.

"There is an urgency," says Friso Roscam Abbing, spokesman for European Union Vice President Franco Frattini, the EU's justice commissioner. However, Roscam Abbing says, "We know that we cannot introduce any such system overnight."

Potential obstacles: European airports use a variety of screening methods. Some nations might balk at two-tiered security checks. And privacy advocates question the reliability of biometric technology and whether any voluntary program would become mandatory.

Roscam Abbing says the EU will assess existing programs — notably in the Netherlands and Britain — before trying to develop a Europe-wide system.

Frequent fliers cleared by police at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport can opt for iris scans and quicker security checks for about $125 a year. More than 30,000 have registered, Schiphol spokeswoman Mirjam Snoerwang says. About 800 a month are signing up for the 5-year-old program, she says.

Britain allows frequent travelers to circumvent crowded immigration checkpoints and go through an iris scan at no charge once they've undergone background checks by security services. Almost 26,000 people have registered for the year-old program.

The British program, available at most terminals in Manchester and at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports, is seen as a first step in plans to expand biometric identification of passengers.

In the USA, Verified Identity Pass, which operates the "Clear" program at Florida's Orlando International Airport, says it will provide similar services at the San Jose, Calif., Cincinnati and Indianapolis airports in the next several weeks. The company also has contracted with Toronto's airport.

At Orlando, where the Clear program has been operating for 13 months, more than 27,000 travelers who have been cleared by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) pay $79.95 a year to bypass regular security checks.

They go to separate lines, insert a card, have their eyes and fingerprints scanned, then pass through body and baggage screens. "It takes only a minute or two," says Clear spokeswoman Cindy Rosenthal.

Until the alleged terror plot was disclosed on Aug. 10, passengers departing from London's Heathrow Airport did not have to remove their shoes to pass through security. Since then, passengers flying out of Britain have had to remove shoes and have been limited to one carry-on bag about the size of a briefcase. Liquids and gels have not been allowed on in carry-ons.

Privacy advocates worry that pre-screening of all passengers and the use of biometric technology could become mandatory. "In Europe ... any system that begins voluntary will end up mandatory," says Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, a London-based surveillance watchdog.

Davies says the accuracy of biometric identification is overstated. Iris scans, touted as nearly foolproof, can register false positives, he says. "People have been sold this lie of infallibility," he says. "It isn't."

Privacy fears are overblown, says Steven Brill, the lawyer and journalist who founded Verified Identity Pass. Registered Traveler programs ease congestion and reduce the workload on TSA screening staff, he says. "We're taking the burden from the government for free."

 

[oneofmany]

Pupils Prints Scanned

Pupils’ prints scanned​

Campaigners have expressed anger that children as young as five have had their fingerprints recorded at three local primary schools.

The youngsters' prints were taken for a new system in place at the schools' libraries whereby pupils have their thumb prints scanned, instead of using a card, to take out books.

Opponents of the use of biometric records have warned that it is a massive invasion of privacy and a step towards a database state'.

Brockholes Wood Primary School, Brant Road; Longridge CE Primary, Berry Lane and Little Hoole Primary, Walmer Bridge, are currently the only schools in the area to have the Micro Librarian system installed.

Campaign David Clouter, whose 11-year-old daughter came home with details of Micro Librarian from her school, slammed the move.

"We wouldn't accept fingerprinting for adults without informed consent so it is utterly outrageous that children as young as five are being targeted," he said.

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said parental consent was sought by the schools before any records were taken and the information was used solely for the issue of school books.

And headteacher Michael Collins, said parents had co-operated with the scheme. Mr Collins of Longridge CE Primary School, where the technology had been in use for several months, said: "It was never a problem and was able to help us keep accurate records of library stock and who has which book."

Cambridge-based Mr Clouter has set up a website to protest at the move.

The site, www.leavethemkidsalone.com, lists 200 schools where the system is in use and has collected an online petition of more than 1000 people opposed to the collection of fingerprints.

Mr Clouter added: "It could also be argued that this is trivialising the taking of personal biometric data and could be seen as softening up resistance before people are asked for further details such as eye-scans to put on compulsory identity cards."

Andy O'Brien, managing director of Micro Librarian Systems, the Manchester firm which produces the fingerprint systems, said that no image of a fingerprint is ever stored, and that it was not possible to recreate an image of the original scan from the data that is stored.

He said: "Ultimately, this is completely optional. If parents object because they don't like the use of biometrics their children can still use a library card or pin number.

"It is encouraging more children to borrow books, we launched this product with the hope that it could help to re-energise the school library and the indications are that it is doing just that."

 

[oneofmany]

Lawmakers put up blocks to RFID tags

Lawmakers put up blocks to RFID tags​

California legislators put up some roadblocks this week before a hot new technology that's increasingly used in tagging packages and inventory is used to track individuals and expose their personal data to identity theft...

The so-called REAL IDs, which states will have the option of issuing instead of drivers licenses, will follow yet-to-be decided specifications issued by Homeland Security. At one time, there was talk of including RFID chips in these REAL ID cards, according to Simitian and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

 

[oneofmany]

British Airways to adopt N.Y. biometric screening

British Airways to adopt N.Y. biometric screening

British Airways said Thursday that it would sponsor a new biometric screening system this autumn at Terminal 7 of John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, enabling potentially thousands of trans- Atlantic travelers to significantly shorten their wait at security checkpoints.

The system, which replicates the Registered Traveler pilot program currently used by 27,000 air travelers at Orlando International Airport in Florida, allows passengers, for an annual fee of $80, to breeze through airport security and immigration controls in exchange for providing certain personal information as well as fingerprint and iris scans.

"We hope that this gives our customers a more predictable and more convenient process through security," said Lisa Lam, a British Airways spokeswoman.

The biometric screening program is operated by Clear Registered Traveler, a unit of Verified Identity Pass, a company founded by the journalist and entrepreneur Steven Brill.

British Airways owns and operates the New York airport's Terminal 7, which serves eight other airlines, including All Nippon Airways of Japan, Qantas of Australia and United Airlines. Four million passengers pass through the terminal every year.

Applicants must provide two pieces of valid identification, have their fingerprints and irises digitally scanned and submit to a U.S. background check. If they pass, members receive a special identity card, which they can swipe as they pass through a designated checkpoint, where the wait is generally no more than a few minutes.

"We're delighted that British Airways has become the first airline to partner with us," Brill said.

Clear has signed agreements with airports in San Jose, California, Indianapolis and Cincinnati in the United States to operate similar registered traveler programs, which are expected to become operational by the end of the year, once authorization has been received the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, Brill said. Clear is also working with the Canadian authorities to set up a program at Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto.

Other companies, including Unysis and Saflink, are forming similar partnerships with other U.S. airports. A handful of biometric security screening programs are also operating in Europe: Amsterdam Schiphol Airport has offered membership in its Privium program to European Union citizens since 2001 and claims 30,000 members. Air France, the French flag carrier, says more than 5,000 frequent fliers have joined its Pégase program, which has been operational for about a year and is open to EU and Swiss citizens.

Brill said that U.S. regulations currently restricted registration for the British Airways and other Clear programs to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. But he said that Clear had approached the authorities in Britain and other countries about setting up similar programs, in the hope that future international agreements might allow registered travelers in one country to use their biometric passes abroad.

"We would be very much in favor of reciprocity," Brill said. "But right now, we're starting country by country."

 

[oneofmany]

Disney's Finger Scan Upgrade Raises Privacy Concerns

Disney's Finger Scan Upgrade Raises Privacy Concerns

An upgrade on Disney's finger scanning technology implemented to prevent ticket fraud or resale is raising concerns from privacy advocates, according to Local 6 News.

For years, Walt Disney World has been reading the shape of visitors' fingers on its property. Now, the upgraded controversial finger scanning machines scan fingerprint information.

"Privacy advocates worry that Disney is getting too much of your personal information and their concern is where that information goes after it is scanned," Local 6 reporter Jessica D'Onofrio said.

Disney representatives said the technology does not store the entire fingerprint image and scanned information is purged in 30 days.

"We are not collecting fingerprints," Disney representative Kim Prunty said. "We are not collecting personal information. The sole purpose is to create a numerical value that links out guest with their Magic Your Way tickets.

"They're collecting fingerprints," Central Florida ACLU President George Crossley said. "They're taking fingerprints. They can call it whatever they want. They're taking fingerprints. Everything that chips away at personal rights, anything that chips away at the right to privacy, I'll always be concerned about."

"The system takes an image, it identifies points on that image and measures the distance between those points and immediately creates a numerical value on the blink of an eye," Prunty said. "And it's the numerical value that's stored in our system and recalled when a guest reenters our turn styles using their Magic Your Way tickets."

The Central Florida ACLU said they know Disney is not doing anything illegal but said people should know what they're submitting to before they enter the park.

"If Uncle Sam decides to hit Walt Disney with a subpoena because they want those records, what is Walt Disney going to do?" Crossley said. "They're going to provide the records right?"

A Disney representative said visitors who object to the finger scanners can use a photo ID instead. However, that option is not advertised at the theme parks.

The machine upgrades should be completed by the end of September, the report said.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

 

[Agallah005]

Re: Disney's Finger Scan Upgrade Raises Privacy Concerns

Wow, first they tried to sell those fingerprint password saving joints for the computers, now Disney of all people. This Fucking world is going to hell in a handbasket

 

[oneofmany]

Police caught red-handed

Police caught red-handed

THE fingerprints of up to half a million innocent Victorians have been retained illegally by Victoria Police.

Senior police have warned the scandal could expose the force to a fine totalling millions of dollars.

Leaked documents, seen by the Sunday Herald Sun, reveal it could take police two decades to clear a backlog of hundreds of thousands of fingerprint sets.

The documents blame a staff shortage for the dilemma.

"There are a number of fingerprints on the database that should have been destroyed and this represents a risk to the Chief Commissioner through contravention of the Crimes Act," the documents state.

Under the Act, fingerprints must be destroyed within six months if they do not give rise to criminal charges, although police may apply to the courts for an extension.

Failure to destroy a set of prints carries a fine of up to $1000.

The State Opposition estimates that between 400,000 and 500,000 fingerprints that should have been destroyed remain on file with Victoria Police.

Opposition police spokesman Kim Wells said: "The Victoria Police is an organisation you would expect to abide by the law, so I'm gobsmacked by this."

The documents say that specialist forensic officers have been called in to help clear the backlog, raising fears that progress on major criminal investigations has suffered.

Victoria Police has allocated two extra staff members to help tackle the problem.

A police spokesman said: "It is about priorities. Our main one is processing forensic evidence to get criminals off our streets.

"A strategy is in place to rectify the situation. We take our legislative responsibilities very seriously."

A spokesperson for Police Minister Tim Holding said: "The Bracks Government expects Victoria Police to comply with all elements of the legislation regarding fingerprint destruction."

The documents say measures are in place to stop the prints, which date back as far as 1994, being used.

Det-Supt Paul Sheridan backs warnings from the Forensic Services Department's Fingerprint Branch manager that the Chief Commissioner is breaking the law.

"I reiterate the comments . . . that the Chief Commissioner is in contravention of the Crimes Act and could be subject to penalty," he says in the documents.

 

[oneofmany]

Biometric Scanners for Kiddies

Biometric Scanners for Kiddies
Wonderful police state security measures touted to kids as normal, useful and fun

Mums and Dads get your kiddy Biometric Scanner Room Guard!

The Bio-Metric Scanner Room Guard announces nosy brothers or sisters trying to enter, while allowing silent entry only to the person whose hand matches the five-finger pressure-sensitive password. An alarm sounds if an “intruder” tries to enter! This electronic sentinel fits all doors and uses 3 AA batteries (sold separately). 3" x 5". Ages 9+.

Dangerously indicative of a big brother society or harmless fun?

Either way, children are being acclimatized to accept the biometric security and surveillance state as normal, cool and convenient. They are also being taught that having your retina scanned and your DNA logged is normal and necessary to keep you safe.

The British government has already collected the DNA of thousands of children and is collating it on a national DNA database on which they eventually hope to catalogue everyone. This has not been debated in Parliament and is being implemented by stealth.

We have previously highlighted how websites and stalls all around the country are actively pushing biometrics, ID cards and "do it yourself" DNA kits on children.

A company called KidsafeID is selling the products with the rational that "A child is reported missing every 40 seconds in the United States alone."

 

[oneofmany]

Verichip Corporation VeriMed Patient Identification System

VeriChip Corporation's VeriMed Patient Identification System Now Has 140 Hospitals and Approximately 300 Physicians as Part of Its Network

9/6/2006 8:00:00 AM EST

VeriChip Corporation: VeriChip Trains Nearly 400 FEMA Employees on Its VeriTrace Emergency Management/Disaster Recovery Application

VeriChip Corporation, a subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions (NASDAQ: ADSX), announced today that its Implantable Division, consisting of the patient ID and personal health information system called "VeriMed", the security application called "VeriGuard", and the emergency management system called "VeriTrace" achieved important milestones. VeriMed, the first and only FDA-approved microchip for patient identification and access to medical information has advanced adoption in key areas of hospital and physician acceptance.

Since early August, 26 new healthcare facilities have agreed to adopt the VeriMed system. This brings the total to approximately 140 emergency departments, of which 36 - located in seven states and Washington, D.C. - have fully implemented the technology and will use the VeriMed reader as standard protocol to scan patients that present unconscious, delirious or confused. The Company continues to provide readers to hospitals at no charge as part of its efforts to "seed" the infrastructure for the VeriMed patient identification system.

The expansion of the VeriMed physician network has increased nearly six-fold in 2006, indicating increasing acceptance of VeriMed by primary care and specialty physicians.

"We are optimistic that we will see a significant increase in the number of physicians in our physician network as we enhance our efforts to educate physicians about the benefits of VeriMed through participation in several large medical conferences scheduled over the next few months," stated Kevin McLaughlin, CEO of VeriChip Corporation. "We are further encouraged that our clinical study program with Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, which commences in September, will lead to increased adoption by physicians and health insurers."

VeriChip's VeriTrace application is designed to assist state and federal agencies to plan for and manage emergency situations and disaster recovery using implantable RFID technology. VeriChip has now trained nearly 400 FEMA employees on this technology including the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams (DMORT) involved in the recovery efforts during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and responsible for Weapons of Mass Destruction recovery efforts. VeriChip continues to work with federal and state agencies on full implementation of this technology.

About VeriChip Corporation

VeriChip Corporation, headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, develops, markets and sells radio frequency identification, or RFID, systems used to identify, locate and protect people and assets. VeriChip's goal is to become the leading provider of RFID systems for people in the healthcare industry. VeriChip sells passive RFID systems for identification purposes and active RFID systems for local-area location and identification purposes. VeriChip recently began to market its VeriMed(TM) Patient Identification System which is used to rapidly and accurately identify people who arrive in an emergency room and are unable to communicate. This system uses the first human-implantable passive RFID microchip, the implantable VeriChip(TM), cleared for medical use in October 2004 by the United States Food and Drug Administration. For more information on VeriChip, please call 1-800-970-2447, or email info@verichipcorp.com. Additional information can be found online at www.verichipcorp.com.

About Applied Digital - "The Power of Identification Technology"

Applied Digital develops innovative identification and security products for consumer, commercial, and government sectors worldwide. The Company's unique and often proprietary products provide identification and security systems for people, animals, the food supply, government/military arena, and commercial assets. Included in this diversified product line are RFID applications, end-to-end food safety systems, GPS/Satellite communications, and telecomm and security infrastructure, positioning Applied Digital as the leader in identification technology. Applied Digital is the owner of a majority position in Digital Angel Corporation (AMEXOC - News).

Statements about the Company's future expectations, including future revenues and earnings, and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, and the Company's actual results could differ materially from expected results. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequently occurring events or circumstances.

 

[oneofmany]

Government, Industry To Use Computer Microphones To Spy On 150 Million Americans

Government, Industry To Use Computer Microphones To Spy On 150 Million Americans

Invasive surveillance and advertising obliterates even Minority Report style technology

Private industry and eventually government is planning to use microphones in the computers of an estimated 150 million-plus Internet active Americans to spy on their lifestyle choices and build psychological profiles which will be used for surveillance and minority report style invasive advertising and data mining.

Digital cable TV boxes, such as Scientific Atlantic, have had secret in-built microphones inside them since their inception in the late 1990's and these originally dormant devices were planned to be activated when the invasive advertising revolution arrived - 2006 marks that date.

The advent of digital video recording devices such as TiVo (Sky Plus in the UK) introduced the creation of psychological algorithm profiles - databases on what programs you watched, how long you watched them for, which adverts you liked or didn't like. This information was retained by TiVo and sold to the highest bidders - an example being Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction during the 2003 Super Bowl half-time show - TiVo were able to compile lists of how many people had rewound the clip and how many times they had replayed it.

Two way communications systems like OnStar also have the ability to tap into private conversations as Americans become increasingly conditioned, by means of the private sector, to having their every movement, web session and conversation tracked and catalogued by big brother.

Each time a new flash application requests permission to run on newer computers, you will notice that a privacy setting box pops up asking if the particular website you are surfing can access your microphone and webcam. Though the webcam is external, the microphone is internal and is a standard feature of all new models.

Now Google have gone a step further by announcing that they will use in-built microphones to listen in on user's background noise, be it television, music or radio - and then direct advertising at them based on their preferences.

"The idea is to use the existing PC microphone to listen to whatever is heard in the background, be it music, your phone going off or the TV turned down. The PC then identifies it, using fingerprinting, and then shows you relevant content, whether that's adverts or search results, or a chat room on the subject," reports the Register.

Since at least 150 million Americans are Internet-active they will all be potential targets for secret surveillance and the subsequent sell-off of all their information to unscrupulous data mining corporations and government agencies.

The report cites the inevitability that the use and abuse of this technology will eventually be taken over by the state.

"Pretty soon the security industry is going to find a way to hijack the Google feed and use it for full on espionage."

The American public has already been brainwashed into thinking that having snooping software record their private phone conversations on behalf of the government is to protect them from terrorists and the Google program is just an entree to the expansion of these 1984 style technologies.

The Bush administration has sold its warrantless NSA spying agenda as the "terrorist surveillance program," and has used its Neo-Con mouthpiece media organs to argue the insanity of "not listening in to Osama bin Laden when he calls the US," despite the fact that Al-Qaeda stopped using phones years before 9/11 when it was publicized that all bin Laden's calls were routinely intercepted anyway.

NSA spying on Americans was spun as a necessary reaction to 9/11 and yet it had been taking place for at least a decade before.

Firstly, the Echelon program has collected information in violation of the 4th Amendment from American citizen's phone calls since the early 90's at least. In addition, a 2001 European Parliament report stated that "within Europe all e-mail, telephone and fax communications are routinely intercepted" by the NSA.

The fact that Echelon barely even merited a mention during the recent furore created by the original USA Today NSA spying piece goes to show how utterly useless our media are in recalling what has already been admitted and proven.

In 1999 the Australian government admitted that they were part of an NSA led global intercept and surveillance grid in alliance with the US and Britain that could listen to "every international telephone call, fax, e-mail, or radio transmission."

"As you would expect there are a large amount of radio communications floating around in the atmosphere, and agencies such as DSD collect those communications in the interests of their national security," said Bill Blick, Inspector General of Intelligence and Security and the man who oversaw the Australian government's intelligence apparatus.

A large sector of Echelon is dedicated to industrial espionage. For example, in November 1999 the BBC reported that the NSA snooped on phone calls from a French firm bidding for a contract in Brazil. They passed the information on to an American competitor, which won the contract.

Google's ceaseless drive to dominate Microsoft and reap untold profits has come at the expense of privacy as the company jettison's its "don't be evil" mandate and merges itself into a proxy NSA outfit, creating all the tools necessary for the state to suffocate its subjects under an inescapable high-tech panopticon control grid.

 

[oneofmany]

RFID plane tickets to track travellers

RFID plane tickets to track travellers

Scientists at University College London (UCL) are developing a system that combines radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and high-definition CCTV cameras to track passenger movements in busy airports.

The EU-funded project, known as Optag, is intended to help airlines keep track of passengers and help them reach departure gates on time, reducing the risk of missing valuable take-off slots.

The system could also be used in places such as theme parks to find lost children, or delegates in large conference centres.

One of the project’s leaders, Dr Paul Brennan of UCL’s department of Electrical Engineering, says the system will work by placing RFID tags on boarding passes.

‘We are working to create an interface between the tags and the cameras so that while the tag locates the passenger, the camera can pick them out in a crowded departure lounge,’ said Brennan.

‘So, if someone is late for a flight, for instance, they can be located instantly and shepherded to the departure gate.’

The project also involves vendor Innovision, a UK RFID specialist that will provide technology for the system.

Phil Bacon, the project’s EU co-ordinator, says the system will be especially helpful for large aircraft such as the Airbus A380, that carries up to 700 passengers.

‘There is a problem of how to get that many passengers onto the aircraft in time to meet a scheduled departure,’ he said.

‘It could also be used to track the movement of large numbers of people within an airport, so that queues could be cleared.’

 

[oneofmany]

New database merges FBI, Homeland Security fingerprint systems

New database merges FBI, Homeland Security fingerprint system

WASHINGTON - The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have merged their databases of fingerprints of millions of criminals and illegal immigrants, in an unprecedented interagency effort to catch more terrorists and solve more crimes.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, law enforcement officials have worried that terrorists could escape detection because the federal government's numerous criminal and immigration databases weren't interconnected. Officials say this new link, which occurred without fanfare on Sunday, will help close that gap.

Federal agencies hope to eventually offer access to police departments across the country, which likely would provoke a controversy over how involved police departments should be in immigration enforcement.

"These are people who have violated immigration or criminal laws," said Robert Mocny, the acting director of US-VISIT, the agency that oversees the DHS database. "The people who need to make decisions about those individuals haven't had access to that information. Now they will."

With the new link, airport inspectors and border agents will be able to access more information in the FBI's database, the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, known as IAFIS.

The system, which the FBI bills as the world's largest biometric database, allows law enforcement officials to search the fingerprints and criminal history information of more than 47 million people. Previously, DHS had access to information that often was days old and hand-delivered to investigators.

Under the newly merged system, FBI agents can check the fingerprints of criminal suspects against a DHS database, known as IDENT, which contains 1 million fingerprints of illegal immigrants who have been ordered deported by immigration judges.

Mocny said his agency also plans to offer willing police departments access to the database over the next two years.

The Dallas and Boston police departments will be the first two police departments to test out the newly merged system, he said, giving officers the ability to check criminal suspects' fingerprints against those of deported immigrants for the first time.

Most police departments can run only name checks or call a DHS help line to find out if a suspect has been deported previously.

Mocny said he expected the newly merged database to spark a debate among police chiefs "who either have been reticent or just haven't been allowed by their city council or county ward to assist DHS in immigration-related crimes."

"This may show the community that they have a large population of illegal immigrants who have criminal backgrounds," he said.

Even so, Mocny acknowledged his agency could not roll out a system for all major police departments until the system is fully tested because it might overwhelm immigration authorities.

"We've got about 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States," he said. "We want to build up the capacity of how we're going to be able to respond."

Officials with the Boston police departments did not return calls. A spokesman for the Dallas police department said he wasn't aware of the pilot program.

Thomas Frazier, the executive director of the Major Cities Police Chiefs Association, said access to the immigration database will help police officers better identify criminals. However, he predicted that most police officers would not want to become entangled in enforcing immigration laws. Such scrutiny could harm a police department's relationship with immigrant communities and discourage immigrants from reporting crimes, he said.

"Where major city police chiefs are clearly in opposition to the administration is that we're not going to start stopping people on the street and running their fingerprints to check to see if they're illegal immigrants," said Frazier, a former Baltimore police commissioner. "What the federal government wants us to do is turn into an adjunct immigration agency. That's not our job and we don't have the training to do that job."

The system still has weaknesses that could be exploited by criminals or terrorists, some experts said.

Technology experts have concluded the immigration system, IDENT, should be collecting 10 fingerprints per person, instead of only two, to make the most reliable match because some criminals try to avoid detection by wearing down their fingerprints. US-VISIT plans to start using 10 fingerprints over the next two years.

"It will be a great tool for both immigration officers and law enforcement," said Jessica Vaughn, a senior policy analyst for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that advocates tougher immigration enforcement. "But it's not enough and it's very belated."

 

[M81]

LOL ths post is funny. People are afraid of everything these days. geez. Relax folks. If you dont want it, than dont buy into it.

 

[oneofmany]

LOL ths post is funny. People are afraid of everything these days. geez. Relax folks. If you dont want it, than dont buy into it.

It's never about fear. What it's about is keeping yourself more than generally informed on these topics, so that you are precisely informed. That said, there is nothing funny with this thread. The rise of this technology has nothing to do with our beliefs or what we buy into. Whether we love or hate, believe or disbelieve in these things, the system is going into place (unless the people rise and engage in the action necessary to stop it).

 

[oneofmany]

Schools can fingerprint children without parental consent

Schools can fingerprint children without parental consent

Parents cannot prevent schools from taking their children's fingerprints, according to the Department for Education and Skills and the Information Commissioner.

But parents who have campaigned against school fingerprinting might still be able to bring individual complaints against schools under the Data Protection Act (DPA).

DfES admitted to The Register that schools can fingerprint children without parents' permission.

This position has also been taken by the Information Commissioner, who interprets and enforces the Data Protection Act - the law privacy campaigners hope might be used to stop schools fingerprinting their children.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is drawing up guidance on the use of fingerprints for purposes other than law-enforcement. The guidance will say once and for all whether parents can prevent their children's fingerprints being taken.

David Smith, deputy Information Commissioner, said it was a complex issue that was still being worked out, but it was likely that parents did not have an automatic right to decide whether their children's biometrics could be taken by a school.

"The Data Protection Act talks of consent of the individual - essentially that's consent of the child," he said.

"Now there's a requirement that consent is informed and freely given. That will depend on the age of the child," he said.

The idea is that as long as children can understand the implications of what they are being asked to do, they can give consent without deferring to their parents.

"The Data Protection Act is about the pupil's rights, not the parents' rights over the children's information," said Smith.

The ICO set a precedent of sorts over the consent of children with regard to direct marketing. It decided that kids could sign up to get free gumpf through the post without parental consent unless they were required to hand over detailed personal information.

You might think that a child's fingerprint is one of the most personal pieces of information that can be stored in a database. But the type of information is irrelevant to the Act. Even a child's age is of little importance to the DPA, said Smith.

More important than consent even, the guidance will consider how a fingerprinting system has been applied: whether it is reasonable and proportionate. If a school wants to use children's fingerprints to control their use of its library books, anti-biometric parents might not have much room for protest within the law.

Even where the act does consider consent of the child, it cannot rule in a blanket fashion so as to, say, proclaim that schools should seek parental consent before fingerprinting children below a certain age.

"The capacity of a child to make a decision varies from child to child, while some decisions are more involved than others," said Smith.

What do you do, Smith asks, if a child refuses to have its fingerprint taken but a parent insists that it should?

The DPA is clear on this. The parent only has limited opportunity to control the consent of their child.

"Where the child isn't capable of giving consent then under the data protection act it should go to the parents," said Smith.

Schools might not even have to inform parents as long as the fingerprinting system doesn't offend the DPA and children have the capacity to decide for themselves, he said.

But who gets to say whether a particular child is capable of consenting to their biometrics being taken - whether a child understands the implications of what they are being asked to do, or whether the decision should be deferred to the parent?

"That's for the school to decide," said Smith.

But campaigners against fingerprinting, such as www.leavethemkidsalone.com, don't trust schools to make that decision.

"There will always be a question in a school environment about whether consent is given," agreed Smith. "The teacher/pupil relationship makes it difficult to obtain freely given consent".

Moreover, in practice the decision is not likely to be given to individual children but presented to the class as a whole. A judgement, Smith conceded, was likely be made about the ability of a class as a whole to make a judgement.

So there might be room for concerned parents to manoeuvre: they might show that consent was not fairly sought or given, with children being given unbiased information to aid their decision. More broadly, they might argue that the decision about whether to hand over fingerprints and other biometrics goes beyond their ability to comprehend.

"[The guidance] will address consent, but it will make clear that what is essential is, [if] what's done is reasonable and proportionate, then consent wouldn't be required," said Smith.

The DPA has scope only to see that fingerprinting is done for a specific purpose, that only necessary data is collected, kept for the necessary time, and used for the allotted purpose by only the allotted people, as long as it is stored securely and not shared willy nilly.

Asked to clarify the legal basis on which its claim was made, the DfES conceded that schools had to ensure their fingerprinting schemes were compliant with the Data Protection Act and the Human Rights Act.

DoES said: "[Schools] should also inform parents and get consent unless the child is of 'sufficient maturity that s/he can give consent her/himself'."

According to Anne Marie Hutchinson OBE, head of the Children Department at Dawson Cornwell law firm, the applicable areas of the Human Rights Act (and Children's Act) legislation concur with the ICO's interpretation of the Data Protection Act: children below the age of 16 can consent if they can demonstrate they have the legal capacity - the nous - to do so; otherwise, parents decide. That will vary child by child and according to decision they are being asked to make.

Unless they can find a way of bringing a case on broad principles, parents who dislike a school fingerprinting their kids without parental consent will have to fight on a case by case basis, based on the legal capacity of their child or the approach of the school.

Yet, as biometrics have already made such rapid encroachments into Britain's schools, it is likely that by the time any such cases get heard, fingerprinting will already be a daily routine for many British children.

 

[oneofmany]

NSW Police deploys biometric surveillance system

NSW Police deploys biometric surveillance system

The NSW Police Force has invested in a biometric tracking system that is capable of combining information from numerous video cameras to monitor people, vehicles and even packages or briefcases.

The tracking system is based on a "biometric tracking engine", which is a piece of software developed by Sydney-based Argus-Solutions that can receive information from sources such as a live video camera and then in real time compare the data with information stored on a database.

Peter Harrington, vice president of law enforcement systems at Argus-Solutions, told ZDNet Australia that the surveillance system can be used in numerous scenarios, which include tracking cars going the wrong way down a one way street and monitoring people entering a restricted area. It could even be used to follow the movements of a briefcase in a railway station or airport.

According to Harrington, the system is especially useful because it can automatically "hand over" a target car, person or other object, from one camera to another, without any user interaction.

"If I had a car that was 'of interest' I could lock onto that car as a target and hand it over to another video camera [when it moves out of range of the first camera]. I could even track a package -- such as a briefcase left on a railway platform.

"I could draw an invisible line [in a scene] and say 'if anyone goes across this line in the other direction then track them because they are going the wrong way',” said Harrington.

The system is highly scalable, according to a statement by Argus-Solutions founder and CEO Bruce Lyman. "This application can operate on almost any scale, with the ability to support thousands of cameras and audio feeds."

 

[oneofmany]

Biometric PAN for you from next year

Biometric PAN for you from next year

The finance ministry has set up an internal group to finalise the norms for introduction of biometric permanent account numbers (PAN).

The ministry is hoping to introduce iris-based biometric PANs to all new applicants from the next financial year. Meanwhile, an extensive media campaign called 'One Person, One PAN' will be launched next week to encourage voluntary surrender of duplicate PANs.

• Why you must have a PAN card

The revenue department has so far identified 26 lakh (2.6 million) PANs with 13 lakh (1.3 million) persons and has already issued around 250,000 letters to these taxpayers. All these taxpayers would be required to contact the assessing officer.

"The letter will indicate to the taxpayer the permanent account number that should be used. However, in case the taxpayer uses the other PAN he can meet the assessing officer and indicate which of the two numbers they would like to use for all future transactions," an official said.

Those who have not yet received the letter from the department but are possess a duplicate PAN would, the media campaign, be asked to approach the department through.

The department can be reached either by calling their call centre, Aaykar Sampark Kendra, by logging on to the I-T department website, e-mailing their information to a PAN dedicated website of the I-T or by writing a letter to them, the official said.

He said individual taxpayers with duplicate PAN would be required to submit the details of their name, father's name, date of birth, mailing address, telephone or mobile number, PAN to be surrendered and PAN to be retained. In case of corporates it would be mandatory to provide, in addition to the above details, the date of incorporation.

In order to check against frauds, the department has already made it mandatory for taxpayers to give their full name. Initials are no longer accepted. Also the department is now insisting on 100 per cent verification.

The I-T department on an average receives 5 lakh (500,000) applications every month. So far, 4.7 crore (Rs 47 million) PANs have been issued.

 

[oneofmany]

Eavesdropping Bill Stalls in Committee

Eavesdropping Bill Stalls in Committee

President Bush's support proved insufficient to push a bill authorizing his warrantless wiretapping program through the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.

Sen. Arlen Specter, the committee's chairman, said the bill stalled because of election-year obstructionism.

"We have seen the incipient stage of filibuster by amendment," the Pennsylvania Republican testily declared as he called off a vote to move his bill to the Senate floor. "Filibuster by speech, filibuster by amendment. Obstructionism."

The target of his ire was Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who spoke against the bill for about a quarter of the panel's two-hour meeting and offered four amendments. Feingold, a possible presidential candidate, said Specter's bill would give the White House too much power to eavesdrop without a warrant in some circumstances.

President Bush's support proved insufficient to push a bill authorizing his warrantless wiretapping program through the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.

Sen. Arlen Specter, the committee's chairman, said the bill stalled because of election-year obstructionism.

"We have seen the incipient stage of filibuster by amendment," the Pennsylvania Republican testily declared as he called off a vote to move his bill to the Senate floor. "Filibuster by speech, filibuster by amendment. Obstructionism."

The target of his ire was Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who spoke against the bill for about a quarter of the panel's two-hour meeting and offered four amendments. Feingold, a possible presidential candidate, said Specter's bill would give the White House too much power to eavesdrop without a warrant in some circumstances.

"The president has basically said: I'll agree to let a court decide if I'm breaking the law if you pass a law first that says I'm not breaking the law," Feingold said. "That won't help re-establish a healthy respect for separation of powers. It will only make matters worse."

The super-secret National Security Agency's surveillance program, created after the Sept. 11 attacks, monitors phone calls and e-mails between terrorism suspects overseas and people on American soil. News reports in December disclosed the program.

The need for Congress to give legal status to the program gained a sense of urgency last month when a federal judge in Detroit ruled that it violated rights to free speech and privacy as well as constitutional separation of powers.

The administration has appealed that ruling, contending that the president, as commander in chief, is justified in taking action to protect the nation during times of war.

Democrats contend the White House is using the war on terror to expand the power of the executive branch beyond limits imposed by the Constitution.

Specter's bill was negotiated with the administration. It would submit the program to a special court for a one-time constitutional review, expand the time for emergency warrants from three to seven days and require the attorney general to inform Congress's intelligence committees on the program's activities every six months.

Opposition to the bill was no surprise. Feingold and five other senators, three of them Republicans, wrote Specter a day earlier complaining that a new version of his bill should be studied further before the panel votes.

Forced to delay his committee's vote, Specter grumbled that without his legislation the White House would continue its domestic wiretapping program virtually unchecked by the courts.

One such measure, backed by a group of moderate Senate Republicans, poses the biggest threat to Specter's bill because it would impose tighter restrictions on the administration's power to wiretap. The House, too, was considering a measure that would impose tougher checks on the president's power.



Relevant bills are S 2453, S 2468, S2455, S3001, S2831, HR 4976, HR 5371, HR 5825

 

[oneofmany]

Headmaster justifies fingerprinting pupils

Headmaster justifies fingerprinting pupils

The headmaster of Porth County Comprehensive School in South Wales has defended fingerprinting all 1,400 of his pupils days after their parents were told about the scheme last Wednesday.

Children had their fingers scanned for a system that will replace the old fashioned school register with biometric scanners in every class room.

Parents campaigning against having schools take their childrens' fingerprints have complained that it is being done without their consent, and sometimes without their knowledge.

Porth County Comprehensive headmaster Stephen Bowden told El Reg: "As far as we were concerned, it wasn't necessary for us to seek parental consent in this. It's a system that has been approved by the DfES and it's supported by Capita SIMS."

Pupils at the school were given letters about the fingerprinting to take home to their parents last Tuesday and Wednesday.

"All the parents received a letter at the beginning of term asking them to contact us if they had any concerns. We had a couple of parents call...when we explained the procedure and the reasons why they were happy with that," said Bowden.

"There are 1,400 students in the school and we had two phone calls...the parents were perfectly happy."

The system, called Vericool, was developed by Anteon, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, a firm that specialises in developing systems for the military and intelligence services.

It will register children for lessons by scanning their fingers when they enter a classroom at the start of a lesson.

Bowden said it would give the school a means of "effective administration" and help in "reducing the bureaucratic burden" of staff taking registrations themselves. It had cost the school £25,000.

"By the time I've put this together, I can assure any parent that their child is safely in school and on the premises...or we can purely or simply track students to see if attendance affects their progress," he said.

But Bowden said he would not know how much more efficient the system would be than a manual register until after its installation was complete in January.

David Clouter, a campaigner at Leavethemkidsalone.com, said experts had reported on his site that the fingerprinting systems being used by schools were so unreliable that manual registers would still have to be taken to assure the location of pupils in the event of a fire.

He also said that taking the register was an important way for teachers to establish contact with each individual pupil at the start of a class.

Terri Dowty, a former teacher and director of Action on Rights for Children (ARCH) told the Guardian in March: "When I was teaching, attendance-taking was an important part of the day. You would call the name, look up, and make eye contact - notice them for a second. It was an important human part of the day."

 

[oneofmany]

Digital Cable boxes listening to you

Digital Cable boxes listening to you

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[oneofmany]

Wal-Mart Expands Use of RFID Tracking

Wal-Mart Expands Use of RFID Tracking

Despite the best efforts of privacy advocates, Wal-Mart pressed forward with its plans to use RFID, saying it planned to roll out the technology to another 500 stores during this fiscal year. The expansion would mean over a quarter of the company's 3,900-plus stores, including its Sam's Club subsidiary, would use RFID to manage its inventory.

Wal-Mart's moves have not been without controversy. When the company's plans were first detailed in 2003, there was a near-immediate negative reaction from privacy advocates. Groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation claimed RFID threatened privacy and civil liberties, possibly allowing Wal-Mart to track its customers without their knowledge.

The company denied such claims, saying it would only be used to reduce 'out-of-stocks' and control excess inventory - an assertion the company has again stressed in its most recent announcement.

"Recent internal analysis of our ongoing efforts reinforces the value of this technology for Wal- Mart, our suppliers and ultimately our customers," Wal-Mart chief information officer Rollin Ford said. "We're aggressively moving forward with the expansion of RFID-enabled facilities."

Ford took over as the retail giant's CIO in April, and told CNET News.com at the time that "there will be no slowing down. RFID will transform the way we do business." He also oversaw the company's migration from Gen1 to Gen2 RFID, which occurred over the summer.

In addition, Ford will work with Wal-Mart's next 300 largest suppliers beyond the 300 already using RFID technology. When these companies go live with RFID in January 2007, over 600 companies will be using the inventory tracking devices in their shipping cases.

"We continue to work with suppliers to help them see the vast potential of RFID," Ford said. "We're already fully convinced of its value and are ready to step up the pace since we know we are only touching the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of this technology."

 

[oneofmany]

Big Brother row as 400,000 civil servants win right to snoop

Big Brother row as 400,000 civil servants win right to snoop

A vast database containing a file on every man, woman and child is being planned by the Government in a 'sinister' expansion of the 'Big Brother' state.

Personal information containing details of every aspect of an individual's life will be available to 400,000 Whitehall civil servants and council workers.

Lord Falconer has ordered privacy laws to be watered down to allow the plans to be forced through.

The plans would allow anyone working for a public body to monitor everything from an individual's driving licence record to whether they had paid their council tax on time.

Critics warned that allowing sensitive financial information to be viewed by all public bodies would leave it wide open to identity fraud. And pensioners who take stands against soaring council tax bills by refusing to pay could have their rights to pension credit withdrawn.

Data-sharing powers would also allow the electoral roll to be used to police the ID card database - allowing residents to be fined up to £2,500 for not registering their name or address.

Data protection laws - which are supposed to safeguard individuals' rights to information held about them - will be changed to force the moves through.

Ministers want the changes in place by April next year. The plans would see a massive sharing of all state databases including the electoral roll, benefits records and information collected by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency - but taxpayer, medical and criminal records would be exempt.

MPs and civil liberties campaigners condemned the moves as a further erosion of individual's privacy by the Big Brother state. The plans were published yesterday in a blandly-worded 'vision statement' by Lord Falconer's Department for Constitutional Affairs.

The document says civil servants and council workers must 'fully understand that the Data Protection Act is not a barrier to appropriate information sharing'.

The Government insisted the database would help people moving house avoid contacting local authority, driving licence and the Inland Revenue separately because records would be updated automatically.

Information should be routinely shared 'to expand opportunities for the most disadvantaged, fight crime and provide better services' and in other instances 'where it is in the public interest'.

Constitutional Affairs Minister Baroness Ashton said the Government was 'committed to more information sharing between public sector organisations and service providers'.

But Ministers have already made inroads into individual freedoms, including the creation of a £200 million Children's Index which will create a file containing information on the health and education of every child in England and Wales.

A report last month warned that a database holding the personal details on ten million children will hand a 'dangerous weapon' to paedophiles.

The Valuation Office Agency is building a detailed property database of every home - including information on conservatories, scenic views and gardens - in preparation for the shake-up of council tax.

Microchips are being fitted in household dustbins by councils to pave the way for a new rubbish tax, imposed on householders who do not meet recycling targets.

And the DVLA was criticised this year after it emerged it had sold the driving licence details of more than 100,000 motorists to private firms. But Simon Davies of Privacy International said the plans were 'alarming', adding: 'Who will decide what is in the public interest?'

Gareth Crossman, policy director of Liberty, said: 'The Government seems set on moving from a situation where information is not shared unless there is a reason to do so, towards one where information will be shared unless there is a reason not to. 'This is an information free-for-all which is very worrying.' Shadow Constitutional Affairs Secretary Oliver Heald said: 'Step by step, the Government is logging details of every man, woman and child - and their home - in "Big Brother" computers. For all of Labour's talk of human rights, it's clear their state inspectors have little respect for people's privacy.

'There is a case for Government agencies to share data to tackle crime and prevent fraud. But I fear the wholesale weakening of Data Protection laws will merely be used as a sinister excuse for bureaucrats to snoop in people's homes and Gordon Brown to increase taxes by stealth.'

Phil Booth, of the NO2ID campaign, said: 'From now on, you can assume that anything you tell to an official or public servant will not only go on your record, but be passed on to anyone at all in "the public interest" - which has already been neatly redefined to mean 'official convenience'.

'How many thousands of officials will now have free rein to snoop on your personal, business and children's lives?'

 

[oneofmany]

Government sued over ‘mass surveillance’ claim

Government sued over ‘mass surveillance’ claim

Online civil rights group Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) has launched a High Court action against the Irish Government challenging new laws it claims usher in mass surveillance.

The group is challenging the law on data retention by ISPs and telcos contained in the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act 2005 and the European Data Retention Directive passed in 2006.

The High Court action has been commenced in the High Court by McGarr Solicitors on behalf of DRI and names as defendants the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Garda Commissioner, Ireland and the Attorney General.

If the group is successful it could undermine contentious EU legislation that could force fixed-line operators, mobile operators and ISPs to retain all voice, fax, email, internet and mobile records for up to five years.

“A ruling from the European Court of Justice that data retention is contrary to human rights will be binding on all member states, their courts and the EU institutions,” DRI chairman TJ McIntyre said.

“These laws require telephone companies and internet service providers to spy on all customers, logging their movements, their telephone calls, their emails and their internet access and to store that information for up to three years. This information can then be accessed without any court order or other adequate safeguard.”

McIntyre said he and his colleagues believe that this is a breach of fundamental rights. “We have written to the Government raising our concerns but, as they have failed to take any action, we are now forced to start legal proceedings.

“Accordingly, we have now launched a legal challenge to the Irish Government's power to pass these laws. We say that it is contrary to the Irish constitution as well as Irish and European data protection laws,” said McIntyre.

DRI is positioning the new laws as an attack on private life. “These mass surveillance laws are a direct, deliberate attack on our right to have a private life without undue interference by the Government. That right is underpinned in the laws of European countries and is also explicitly stated in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Article specifies that public authorities may only interfere with this right in narrowly defined circumstances.”

He continued: “The information will be collected and stored on everyone, regardless of whether you are a criminal, a policeman, a priest, a judge or an ordinary citizen. Once collected, this information is wide open to misappropriation and misuse. No evidence has been produced to suggest that data retention laws will do anything to stop terrorism or organised crime.”

McIntyre said he accepted that while law enforcement agencies must have access to some call data, access must be proportionate. As well as this there should be clear evidence of a need to move beyond the six months of storage currently used by telecom firms for billing purposes.

“Neither the European Commission nor the European police forces have made any case as to why they might require years of data to be retained,” McIntyre said.

 

[oneofmany]

IBM, Verichip, and the Fouth Reich

IBM, Verichip, And The Fourth Reich

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