Biometrics = $
"Biometrics companies are poised to gain if the (British) government goes ahead with plans to roll out a national identity card scheme.

The cards, which would include details such as a scan of an iris, face or fingerprint, would be the biggest deployment of biometric technology to date."
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Libraries to Require Fingerprint for Web Use
"One Chicago suburb will soon require patrons who want to surf the Internet from public libraries to prove their identity with a fingerprint. Naperville library officials say it's an extra security measure to ensure people using library computers are who they say they are. But privacy advocates say fingerprinting is too extreme; they prefer other, less intrusive measures."
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Laptops From Hell
"Having computers with biometric capabilities built-in could prompt more Web sites to adopt two-factor authentication schemes requiring a second ID check beyond the simple password. Such security measures are common in many European countries, though the second verification is still generally provided as another form of password rather than a biometric ID."
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ID cards 'will reveal details of daily life'
"(England's) information commissioner, Richard Thomas, yesterday issued his most detailed and hard-hitting attack so far on the government's plans for identity cards.

Mr Thomas, appointed by the government to report to parliament on privacy issues, described the scheme as part of Britain's growing 'surveillance society'.

He focused on the unprecedented recording of information about individuals on an unnecessarily intrusive government-controlled central register. He accused the government of planning to retain information on the register that went beyond the needs set out in the ID card legislation itself."
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Biometric Fraud: Best Case/Worse Case
"Best case: No new ID fraud. Worst case: Some new, high tech ID fraud develops, with greater costs for those citizens affected. Successful identity theft of a person's biometric data would mean that their fingerprints or iris scans are permanently in the hands of criminals, with little hope of revoking them."
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Oh Joy! No More Secondary Pat-downs!
"To get a Clear card, customers must pay an $80 annual fee and provide positive identification and a fingerprint or eye scan. Pre-registration can be done online. Having your eye scanned or fingerprint taken at a kiosk and providing identification only takes about 20 minutes.

With the Clear card, customers with clean backgrounds can use a special security lane at Orlando International Airport to avoid long lines and secondary security checkpoints.

'The pat-down, the hand-wanding, that sort of thing. So, it will exempt them from a secondary screening,' said OIA Security Director Brigitte Goersch."

Pretty soon, we'll have these "express lanes" in our theaters, our grocery stores, and our banks. Welcome to the future, slaves. Unless you've got spotless credit and a completely blemish-less life record - - it's the long line for you, fool!
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