"Identity cards. Number-plate surveillance. CCTV. Control orders. The list of ways in which the Government has sought to manipulate and define the limits of our liberty grows ever longer. Ten years ago, the novelist and polemicist Henry Porter would have felt silly speaking out about human rights in Britain. But that was before the most fundamental assault on personal freedom ever undertaken. Now, he argues, it's time we woke up to reality

On new year's day 1990, three days after becoming president of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel looked his people in the eye and spoke to them as no one had done before. It is difficult to read his words without feeling the vibration of history of both the liberation and the horrors of the regime that had just expired, leaving the Czech people blinking in the cold sunlight of that extraordinary winter.

This is what he said. 'The previous regime, armed with its arrogance and intolerant ideology, reduced man to a force of production. It reduced gifted and autonomous people to nuts and bolts of some monstrously huge, noisy, stinking machine whose real meaning was not clear to anyone. It could do no more but slowly and inexorably wear itself out, and all the nuts and bolts too.'"
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"LOS ANGELES — Boy Scouts can earn badges for carving wood, raising rabbits and firing shotguns.

In Los Angeles, Scouts will now be able to earn their stripes by proselytizing about the evils of copyright piracy.

Officials with the Los Angeles Boy Scouts and Motion Picture Association of America on Friday unveiled the 'Respect Copyrights Activity Patch' — emblazoned with a large circle 'C' copyright sign along with a film reel and musical notes.

All 52,000 Scouts in Los Angeles County can earn the patch by participating in curriculum produced by the MPAA.

The Scouts must participate in several activities, including creating video public-service announcements and visiting a video-sharing Web site to identify which materials are copyrighted.

They also can watch a movie and discuss how people behind the scenes would be harmed if the film were pirated.

But will the patch be a badge of honor or of un-coolness?"
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Un-coolness, definitely. Pretty soon they'll be handing out badges for snitching out your parents...

LONDON - A British police force is considering using unmanned aerial surveillance drones to fly over troubled local council housing estates to help tackle anti-social behaviour in respective areas, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The police force for Merseyside, in western England, has formed a new Anti-Social Behaviour Task Force which will have a budget of one million pounds (1.85 million dollars, 1.5 million euros), and a staff of 137, drawn from both the local police and fire services.

‘It’s a cheap way of doing aerial surveillance, it’s a cheap way of doing intelligence and evidence gathering. Put over an anti-social behaviour hotspot, it is quite a significant percentage cheaper than the force helicopter,’ said Superintendent John Myles, the joint-head of the task force.
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Terminator Terminates RFID Restrictions Bill
"California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed Senate Bill 768 (SB 768), which would have put restrictions on RFID systems used by government agencies in the state. In his comments to the state senate, Gov. Schwarzenegger cited some of the same concerns the RFID industry raised about the bill. Namely, that it may stifle beneficial uses of RFID.

Key provisions of the bill included citizen notification when cards or documents issued by California public-sector organizations contained RFID tags, plus notification of where RFID readers were located and when they were in use. The bill also required opt-out provisions and privacy security."

The bastard doesn't want us to know what's going on with the RFID tags - - what's so wrong about letting us have information? Not in his fascist world!!!
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Young Shoppers Want To Pay With Chip in Skin
"Some customers are willing to have microchip implants as a means of paying in stores, a report out today says.

Teenagers are more open to the idea of having a high-tech shopping experience, the Tomorrow's Shopping World report suggests.

Around 8 per cent of 13 to 19-year-olds were open to the idea of microchip implants while 16 per cent wanted trolleys to be fitted with SatNav systems.

This compared to just 5 per cent and 12 per cent respectively for adults asked the same questions. Two thirds of teenagers and 62 per cent of adults questioned for grocery think tank IGD's report wanted self-scanning systems at shop check-outs.

Some 7 per cent of people in both age groups were willing to use biometric iris or retina recognition payment systems..."


Hey mommy, can I get an implant? Please??? I wanna be just like Suzy and Jim and Bobby!! I want mine put in the back of my head.
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Memories: The Next Step in Biometric Authentication?
"A meaningful memory, according to the company, will impact the way the person manipulates the mouse and otherwise interacts with the network. The data from the reaction is analyzed and, at least theoretically, reveals whether the person typing is who they say they are. This, we suppose, is akin to how a lie detector works.

This clearly has a significant impact for mobile users. Laptops, which continue to disappear at an alarming rate, increasingly carry sensitive data and are often set up for easy access to corporate databases. It\x{2019}s important to make sure the right person is using them. Cutting edge biometrics offers a potent tool to do this.

What\x{2019}s particularly interesting about Cogneto\x{2019}s product is that it signals the evolution of biometrics from the purely physical \x{2014} such as a fingerprint \x{2014} to something that is a combination of physical and non-physical. That\x{2019}s kind of funny, a bit scary \x{2014} and potentially very useful..."
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Pay By Touch Introduces Online Biometric Authentication Service
"US-based Pay By Touch has introduced an online biometric authentication service that utilises fingerprint scanning technology to verify PC users.

The vendor says the service, called TrueMe, provides PC users with a fast and secure way to identify themselves, interact and transact on the Web using their fingerprints.

When signing in a user touches a TrueMe certified finger sensor built into a computer or attached as a USB device. Information about the user's fingerprint is encrypted inside the sensor and combined with the unique device ID before it is sent to the TrueMe authentication servers.

The user's authenticated identity is then sent through a secure connection to the Web site or service that the customer is trying to access. If the person is identified as an authorised user, they immediately granted access."


Great... now instead of torturing my password out of me, they can just chop off my finger. Nice...
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