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RFID Tags in Law Enforcement
RFID tags seem to be the flavor of the month for law enforcement officials in the tracking of individuals both foreign and domestic. pin_gween writes "In an effort to speed up entry to the US, The Dept. of Homeland Security has begun a trial using RFID tags in certain visitors' papers. The tag is embedded in paperwork and "chip readers note the entry or exit of visitors who pass by and transmit that information to a government-maintained database." In addition, Saeed al-Sahaf writes "Security officials gathered Monday at a Canadian border crossing to mark the first test of this radio RFID system" Relatedly LexNaturalis writes "Wired News has an article about England testing RFID chips in license plates that can transmit VINs and other data to appropriate receivers. According to the article, the United States will be 'closely watching the British trial as they contemplate initiating their own tests of the plates, which incorporate radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags to make vehicles electronically trackable.' Naturally privacy advocates are decrying the move by stating that unlike electronic toll passes, these new plates will not be anonymous." We mentioned the concept of tracking visitors via RFID in July.
Tracking vehicles with RFID may not so bad - after all vehicles have licence plates...
RFID tracking PEOPLE on the other hand is worrysome.
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
Be VERY RFID
I've been wondering for years why they don't issue bar coded license plates. Then equip police cruisers with that little laser scanner like they have at the grocery store. If they drive past a stolen car or a car registered to someone with a warrent, BING BING BING BING.
I guess it's happening now, albeit with a different technology.
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face, it's just a goddamned piece of paper!" - George W. Bush Nov. 2005
Of course, that would prevent folks from reading them ever time you walk around with it not secured in your tinfoil-lined wallet.
Face it, people are stupid, and the internet is the place where they all meet.
How about a tatoo on the forehead? Or will that diminish tourism?
--- -- - -
Give me LIBERTY, or give me a check.
RFID in plates could help catch stolen vechiles... Right now if your car get stolen you can file a report and that will be the end of the story (that what happend with me at least)
Visit my site @ http://www.madtorrent.com
As long as this is done on the papers/documents the person is supposed to have, and not on their person, I suppose this is a step forward.
In a way, it isn't very different from giving a person a card that they swipe at the terminal instead of paper that a person has to read/stamp. Now, if they start putting these on people, thats scary!
There are 11 types of people. Those who understand binary, those who don't and those who are sick of this lame joke.
RFIDs can be swapped. If people aren't comparing them to the documents and verifying the identity by other means before entry into the central database, these RFIDs can be used to actually fool and interfere with person tracking. If they are being compared, those other means are the better, more efficient, and not unnecessarily redundant means to track people. So, in summary, this is unnecessary. RFID tags at the border solve no problems and actually create more. But it does fund a specific business, so Congress will gladly fund it for the campaign kickbacks.
People will be clamoring over the fact "the Man is invading my privacy!" and then beg for more security and question how "we let so many terrorists get by". For security, you need security provisions. If you don't want guns at a concert, you're going to have to be searched. It's just how it is.
The fun arises when you think about the different levels of security, the personal information gathered, how the information is used, where it is kept, etc. I have no problem having my auto information on an RFID tag somewhere on the car. Hell, my credit cards have more personal information than these little tags. In the idea of more security, I'd be fine with having my passport contain an RFID tag. Driver's licenses already hold so much info, why not a passport that lets people into the country? I'm not sure I want ALL my info on these things though. And who I want to hold the info. Identity theft could get REAL hairy depending on what info is gathered. Track my car, I don't care. Let my license have my vital info (age, sex, height, weight...maybe even blood type and other medical things for an emergency situation) if you need but be damn sure that you keep that info safe and if not, YOU are responsible for fixing the mess, not ME.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Why not just implant them in babies at birth, in case they're kidnapped. It'll never get abused.
/sarcasm
Microsoft Sucks, F/OSS Rocks. I get mod points now right?
Check out the latest news from one of the bombing suspects in the UK (the second, failed attack) claiming that it's really OK because the bomb wasn't designed to kill anyone, just scare them. Too bad the UK pussed out long ago and abolished the death penalty, because they used to do it in style, what with those drawing-and-quarterings.
-paul
Pistol caliber is like religion: everyone has their favourite, and theirs is the only right choice.
Am I the only one that clicked on the women's 3/4 sleeve just because it has the nicest breasts? Oh god I need a life.
Watch out Speeders if the RF plates become a reality. Sensors along roads take your position, computers extrapolate speed and two days later you get your ticket in in the mail.
And Big Brother Watching you? You wouldn't even need the software predictions mentioned a few weeks ago -- just follow the RF tag around town
Ignorance is not a crime; neither should it be a way of life
Congress control $ = inmates run the asylum
Universal
Frequency
Identification
Access.
"Made up/misattributed quote that makes me look smart. I am on
> The tag is embedded in paperwork and "chip readers note the entry or exit of visitors who pass by and transmit that information to a government-maintained database.
What's preventing people from storing their tickets and passports at locked storage boxes at airport?
That way they have complete freedom to roam around the country without being followed, the database doesn't even show them ever leaving the airport if the reader is at the front exit.
Or is there some limiting law that visitor must have his/her visa with him/her all times when moving outdoors that I missed?
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
this century will be the most oppressed ever as we have means never before to track and trace people. The dictators of the 20th century had nothing on the technology to pillage and murder that we are developing now.
Here is a piggy back question: If you were going to implement a large-scale RFID system (let's say license plates in California), how would you address the issues of fraud, hacking, etc.? It seems to me that RFID would be an attractive taget for hackers (both for proof-of-concept and malicious purposes). Do you encrypt the data being transmitted by the RFID? How do you protect the privacy of the RFIDed people? Knowing that someone could use this technology along with several receivers to triangulate any vehicle's position and therefore follow it without-a-trace, how would you protect this sort of criminal (or law enforcement) abuse?
... good RFID uses in a while. Sure you hear the tin-foil hat stuff all the time, but where's the grocery store where I don't have to stand in line, I just pass my cart between two scanners and everything in the cart appears on the screen?
One that really interested me was where a handgun would only fire if the user was wearing a ring on their finger. Of course the ring would have an RFID chip embedded in it. Police officers have a high incidence of being shot with their own gun, whereas if the gun wouldn't fire without the ring, officers could feel much safer.
Parents who want a gun in the house but are worried about having children around it would feel that there is another line of defense that would keep their kid from accidentally shooting themselves. I don't have children but I'd pay extra for the added level of security.
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
What was wrong with barcodes? It seems to me that for the intended uses, barcodes would have worked just as well without the attendant privacy implications. Why on earth would the U.S. voluntarily give criminals and terrorists the tools to target people according to their nationality?
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
timothy mcveigh: white mail from the usa
ted kacynzki: white male from the usa
sum.zero
What they really mean is they plan to put RFID tags in donuts to help determine just how many coffee breaks cops take.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
posts should not be modded 'informative' when they have no links to sources and consist largely of opinion.
sum.zero
You can put them in license plates. Afterall, the only difference will be being able to read the plate number from any angle within a distance.
You can put them near the barcode of products bought in store, for the same reasons as above. Plus it can prevent shoplifting a lot easier. Scan it in, scan it out, no problem.
But under no situation stick it in a human or into our ID cards. That crosses the line.
Hey, I just got an idea. Have a script that notes whenever a slashdot story is posted with certain keywords in it, and then post [automatically, if possible] a link to a Cafepress shop or something with a product related to that keyword sold by you. Just come up with a list of vaguely funny posts or have the link target be funny, and there you go.
I'm not trying to mock the parent poster, I just want to get in on the action.
On the other hand, maybe people would notice the repititon. But unless someone called you on it . . . I wonder what percentage of slashdot stories people read the top comments on, on average? Something has to happen reasonably often before it's jumped on as a dupe comment. And maybe you can vary the post content a lot. Each top mention nets you a lot of hits.
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
*walks to cafeteria for a lunch, and accidently puts portfolio in the microwave with soup* OOPS!!!
'm really beginning to wonder why nobody points out the fact that all these security measures just aren't any use to catch determined terrorists. My personal conviction is that companies who market those "anti-terrorism" devices are making a fat buck out of the whole deal, and they share the proceeds with the politicians who approve of these things. It disgusts me more and more each time I look at it...
Because living in Fear is so much better than actually thinking.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
1 second
...
...
Time to use a commonly available scanner to find it, swap it with someone else in your large network of "helpers" and fool the Really Bright People who think our enemy is dumb
1 second.
Having common sense and using it
priceless.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
This could be useful for tracking sensitive documents in archives, and tracking when someone like Sandy Berger violates security and steals documents to use in a political campaign.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
As I understand it, most RFID tags have a very limited range. If it was small enough, I'm wondering if you could have an officer's gun respond only when fired by a person wearing a RFID enabling ring or wristband. I say this because out of the majority of police officers who die each year in the line of duty, most are killed with their own weapons.
What about a system wherein each individual could choose which pieces of information he or she was willing to have the RFID transmit? Like,
First Name: No
Last Name: Yes
SSN: No
Gender: No
etc?
If a person felt comfortable allowing the government to scan his or her information and thereby clear faster, he or she could do so, but if a person did not feel comfortable with that he or she would still be able to pass through the normal way. Would this be a possible compromise between privacy and security?
It can't be hard to disable (fry) these RFID tags, and how's a poor innocent driver supposed to know (heh) that the RFID tag in his license plate isn't working any more, and thus automated revenue-collection systems (e.g. next-gen speed cameras) won't target him? :-)
-- "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." -Joseph Stalin
Part of me wants to say this type of profile is wrong, but another part knows it makes sense. It's likely as much of a dilemma to the politicians: Do you start racial/age profiling and (possibly) make the system more robust, and loose the Slashdot vote and support of minority groups? Or do you keep the system as it is and have people complaining left and right.
You know, it's also possible that, if implemented right (I know, fat chance, but still...) that RFID identification could increase privacy and security.
Consider: one of the big problems of modern life is you have to prove your ID, credit and legitimacy to all kinds of people all over the place, with the consequences that sooner or later your private info leaks out and bad guys can get ahold of it, zap, identity theft, credit card fraud, and so forth.
But what if something like an RFID tag could be provided by one tightly controlled source, and it gave unimpeachable evidence of right to be there on the airplane, credit enough to buy the laptop from Best Buy, whatever.
Then imagine: you walk into the Best Buy with your bankcard with the RFID tag. You pick up the laptop and walk out. Now, the BB security can let you out, because the bank's card has told them you've credit enough to buy the laptop and given them some secret code that guarantees them payment, and when they get that payment they have to give your digital assistant a secret code that guarantees you can get warranty repairs. But your card hasn't told them a damn thing else about you. You haven't had to tell BB your address or e-mail or bank name or even your own name. No junk mail from Best Buy, no tracking your purchases, no poking their nose into your credit history...
Same thing with the airplane. You get an airline ticket after having proved who you are and where you can be found, and in some way -- OK, things get a little fuzzy here, but bear with me -- that you're safe and can be trusted, and then you walk into the airport and onto the airplane. The chip says "legit, allowed on plane to Boston at 6.47" but nothing else. No one checks your driver's license or passport eight zillion times, no one bends you over to search for bombs up your...but I digress...
Anyway, one of the reasons we have to send out all this extra, unnecessary, privacy-endangering information about ourselves is because we don't have one rock-solid unforgeable way of identifying those narrow aspects of ourselves (our citizenship, credit, student status, license to drive, et cetera) that are legitimate necessities of certain transactions. Maybe RFIDs with some digital signature technology could provide one? Maybe the future could be more private and secure?
Or have I had too much caffeine already? [Peers anxiously into empty mug...]
Why not go the extra mile and put RFID tags on cops, judges, politicians, doctors, bankers, pharmacists, etc.
Then publish their whereabouts on a googlized map system. Now when you need a doctor or a cop, you know where to go. When there's an accusation of corruption or impropriety, you can check the map logs and see if Congressman Joe "show me the money" Smith was visiting the local corporate ganstas. I think this idea has merits.
This is really a slap in the face in the UK, in London we have the congestion-charge camera network, who knows what that cost but it basically consists of a ring of cameras aimed at license plate level possibly with filters to make it stand out better and a network infrastructure and image recognition system. This is effectively the same as putting RFID in except now, obviously, we will drop this system and make a transition to RFID costing the tax payer another load. Oh and guess who benefits? Its not me because I can certainly testify, London traffic is as fucking crap as it always has been, its not the transport network, because I don't see air-conditioned buses, it is of course those tech companies that win the bids and then manage to deliver over budget and over time projects with half the features!
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I'm sorry put yeah, for one, someone can hack a way to read all that information, now a thief has your address. And where does it stop? Once the government starts using RFID, they'll come up with all sorts of "neat" ways to use it. This is just to get us comfortable with the technology.
I always have my tin foil hat on, so no .
insert inflammatory anti-microsoft comment here
I'm sure the criminals are rubbing their hands together with glee - it makes car ID theft so much easier having everything remotely readable. Watch the car go past, and you've got a full set of data - car make, model, colour, VIN and licence plates. Yes, I can see how that's going to make everything much more secure... The only thing this will make easier is crime!
Somebody could probably make some money renting out de-RFID tools (aka a very large hammer) just inside the border.
I assume that that's not illegal. Yet.
Chip H.
This is great. Now we can setup a network and track our government officials in realtime.
For example, senator xyz's frequent trips during work hours to $liquorstore, and his frequent trips after work hours to $crackdealer / $hooker.
Or congressman abc's frequent visits to $megacorp-campaign-contributor and immediately afterwards to $uberbank or $money-laundering-hidingplace.
There's a stolen car tracking device called LoJack. It's international, too. Of course, you need to have it installed before the car is stolen.
Can anyone reccomend an 'RFID finder' that can tell me if I'm 'clean' (like those 802.11b network finders')?
Dr. Dobbs had a blurb about TI's chips being cracked in 2 hours by a research team.
e =off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aof ficial&q=RFID+encryption+cracked&btnG=Search
I'm thinking the real bad guys will welcome something like the relatively simple encryption used in most RFID devices.
http://www.google.com/search?hs=xlx&hl=en&lr=&saf
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
RFID range is dependant on the sensitivity of the receiver, so even though they only put out a small signal, RFIDs have a theoretical infinite range.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
What if the RFID is broken? I plan on breaking every RFID that I am issued (read: forced to have).
"It's not like your minds are as open as the source you love..." - Me to the majority of Slashdot.
Stuff like this really makes me wonder if the national ID cards we've been hearing about will employ RFID technology as well.
Here's a possible worst case scenario for such a thing...
First, have these new RFID cards required by law to be on your person at all times. Those who fail to comply with this are met with stiff penalties and become tagged as possible terror suspects.
Then, set up a system to track each of these RFIDs to within three feet of their physical location, creating a database of common activity over time. (Going to work, groceries, etc...) If any new activity deviates from the activity stored in the database beyond a certain threshold or if the RFID goes out of range or stops transmitting beyond a set length of time, alert the feds / law enforcement to observe your activity directly, and tag you as a potential threat.
Finally,have anyone found tampering with the RFID or willfully preventing random access to the RFID data (wrapping it in foil, etc...) tagged as a potential terror suspect and presented with stiff penalties.
8==8 Bones 8==8
[Don't worry, your location will be upgraded in good time.]
Each year, a large proportion of the gun deaths in Canada, Mexico and as far away as Japan are caused by illegal guns smuggled out of the US.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
mcveigh 1:168 killed
arab terrorist 1:158 killed
sum.zero
reported iraqi civilian deaths as a direct result of us military action:
min 23,456 max 26,559
from the iraqi body count database
sum.zero
You see, the fact that all 19 of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Middle-Eastern should never be factored into who gets searched at the airport and who doesn't, because we all know that a 70-year-old white female American citizen is just as likely to be a terrorist as a 20-year-old arab male who's here on a student visa.
Ever heard of hostages? "Just take this parcel to the airport and we won't cut any more of your kid's limbs off."Terrorists don't tend to play fair.
From now on if you accidentally rip off the wrong corner of your paperwork, you can be charged with tampering with an RFID device and put in jail.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
Even more interestingly, they seem pretty content with that fact. The fact that they're an unarmed populace with an armed (and dangerous!) government seems to please them greatly. The cameras and microphones in public places seem to get constant praise, or at least little outraged criticism (at least here on Slashdot). Some of the biggest gripes I heard in a previous article about the governor chips in cars in lieu of congestion fees were about how they weren't related (speeding in a congestion zone?).
What gives? When the US gets to the level of government involvement that England is currently experiencing, will we be happy with it, too?
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
...when there's a hit and run accident? Unless witnesses can remember a bar code, it's going to make tracking criminals down that much more difficult.
Who the f**k thinks that things like the EZ-Pass in the US Northeast is anonymous? Speaking as someone who works for a company that has them on our entire (1800+ vehicle) fleet, keeping track of the serial numbers assigned to each vehicle is a real pain.
Plus, they're kinda connected to your BANK ACCOUNT!!! I dunno if the OP is trying to troll or not, but nobody that knew sh*t about toll tag systems would say something like that.
Jim Nelson
Shop Steward, ATU Local 1700
Why can't I mod "-1 Idiot"?
In a perfect world we wouldn't be concerned about privacy, we wouldn't need checks and balances on government power, we wouldn't need laws.
BUT
It's not a perfect world.
All forms of power are eventually corrupting, in the rare event that a particular person isn't tempted in a way they are vulnerable to then time itself will cycle up someone who is.
All structures in which power is accumulated is a beacon to those who would use it for good as well as those who would use it for personal gain, and many will switch from good to gain over the long run.
Power can be even more insidious, you don't need to wield the ultimate power to be affected. You can in fact find satisfaction in exercising what control you can. Many people who for one reason or another seek power over other's gravitate to the twin bastions of abused power.
GOVERNMENT and BUREAUCRACY
Worse yet, in many positions where you have both the power and the desire to do good. You encounter those who would take advantage, those who are dishonest, those from whom you must protect the resources you control so that the good people will have them. Thus rules are made, rules that grow over time to cover manifold individual situations. Rules that take up much time to bypass for those few who are exceptions. First one is slighted, for the good of all, after all we wouldn't be able to help 10 other's if we took the time to help that one. And so it goes. Leading ever downward to the stereotype called
BUREAUCRAT.
But back to the point of this post... It's not a perfect world. We do need protections from ourselves, not individually, but that we do as a group. I've always been amazed at how the intelligence of a mob (in all it's many forms) is defined by it's lower limits. But again I digress.
On the one hand our law enforcement agents need information in order to provide protection from those members of society that seek to harm other's.
On the other hand if that information is easily obtained, not bound by strict and ruthless controls and access then IT WILL BE ABUSED. It is the nature of power.
The US has had a good time of it, our constitution was well designed, with numerous limits and balances built in to check the natural growth of government power. These checks and balances weren't there by accident.
The founders were so wary of and understanding of the nature of government and power that their first attempt failed (Articles of Confederation) by being so weak on the federal level to be essentially useless. It was in fact so bad that when they gathered to fix it tossed it and started over.
That good time is coming to an end. Defeated by time and technologically aided abuses that are overwhelming the built in protections. Even though the founders built in methods for these protections to be updated and modified when necessary they weren't able to build in the will and resolve to do what's necessary.
I don't believe we should turn away from technology, and I do think it can be a tremendous help in combating crime. HOWEVER it should be used and applied with 80% of the resources applied to checks and balances. The smallest incursions on our rights should be met with the assumption that such will be misused unless rigorous controls and safeguards are implemented.
I'm not saying we can't trust those in power. I don't know them that well. I'm saying that if the power is there, then eventually someone we can't trust will be wielding it.
Ward
. Silence! Be thankful thy species is unpalatable! .
BTW: barcodes are most easily rendered unreadable by line-color marks parallel and over the lines. One is usually sufficient. More may be necessary for checksumed codes. Better grocery stores do this when they put dated goods on sale. Magstripes are easily destroyed by wiping with rare-earth magnets (check the positioner on an old Hard drive).
Also BTW: an empty wallet is not good when confronted by muggers. They tend to get upset over a poor haul, and commit further violence. Our security people recommend a "bait" wallet with some money, expired credit cards, etc.
People have a right to live how they wish, but any and all security precautions cost. The question is: do they payout? who are the opponents, and how likely are they to act? Personally, I believe that paranoia is a form of egotism: an exaggerated sense of self-importance.
calling these acts mistakes does absolutely nothing for the victims and is a tactic meant to difuse the responsibility of the acting party.
the bottom line is that the usa undertook these actions. the other side has their own views about whether to call them mistakes or war crimes or whatever.
ask all of the asians in n america that were detained, had all of their possessions confiscated and were placed in internment camps how they feel about that.
all sides have plenty to be ashamed of and playing the 'their fault' game doesn't allow for the opportunity to learn from those mistakes.
sadly, war and terrorism are often synonymous in this highly unlevel playing field called the world. to some it is simply a matter of perspective: one man's guerilla warfare is another man's terrorism.
your last statement is logically flawed. you start off with the conclusion that you are certain to discover what you are looking for through the method you are using. there is plenty of evidence that this type of thinking finds exactly what it is looking for even if that 'it' doesn't really exist.
and finally, racial profiling is hardly pure statistical analysis.
sum.zero
The Department of Homeland Security has a Privacy Assessment of this program. Guess what? It has no privacy implications.
- The information can only be shared with "...other agencies at the federal, state, local, foreign, or tribal level, who are lawfully engaged in collecting law enforcement information (whether civil or criminal) and national security intelligence information and/or who are investigating, prosecuting, enforcing, or implementing civil and/or criminal laws, related rules, regulations, or orders." "The Privacy Act SORNs for the systems on which US-VISIT draws provide notice as to the conditions of disclosure and routine uses for the information collected by US-VISIT. Any disclosure by DHS must be compatible with the purpose for which the information was collected."
- The tag only contains an unencrypted number, and only the very limited number of groups above would have access to the information.
- The tag can't be used to ID someone as a visitor because the DHS has contemplated this problem. Thus problem solved... "it is contemplated that the unencrypted RFID tag number will not be structured in such a way that it can be used to identify the individual as a non-immigrant."(pg 15)How exactly? Will everyone soon be carrying an RFID, so the visitor won't stand out?
- And of course it can't be used for surveillance, as "There is also a low risk that the RFID tag could be used to conduct surreptitious locational surveillance of an individual; i.e., to use the presence of the tag to follow an individual as he or she moves about in the U.S. However, ensuring that RFID tag numbers do not exhibit properties that can be readily attributed to US-VISIT and using a limited radio frequency range effectively mitigates this risk. The design process is also taking into account methods of reducing eavesdropping and skimming possibilities." (pg 15). Reducing the "possibilities" by sticking their fingers into their ears and singing "La la la" each time a new tech groups shows them ever longer read ranges.
- And most importantly it doesn't affect US Citizens, because the document doesn't mention them. Never mind that every traveler in the car must be identified in order to separate the residents and citizens from visitors (by definition). They'll now know who you're associating with as you travel.
As I said last time...I'm now going to "contemplate" that being asked for "your papers, please" and being tracked every time I enter and leave my country, that there is no more "If" in "If we have to live our lives weighing every action, every communication, every human contact, wondering what agents of the state might find out about it, analyze it, judge it, possibly misconstrue it, and somehow use it to our detriment, we are not truly free." doesn't change our rights (4th Amendment anyone? it says "Persons") in the US. Whooohoo, I'm ever so much safer! [btw, that's one of the best essays on why privacy is a necessary and fundamental right in a free society. He warns Canadians not to give up what the U.S. has already lost. Worth reading.]
And now that the authorities also want to start (combined with all the RFID technology deployed commercially!) the additional problem is that you won't even be able to notice either whether they also transmit data just as easily to inappropriate receivers.
But don't worry, of course there will be embedded technical "security features" one day to allow only "authorized" surveillance - and we all know that every government use of information technology always is mathemagically proven to be 100% unhackable forever...
From their site:
Christians across the country are calling for a boycott of the VeriChip implantable microchip, now becoming popular in the U.S., calling it "the mark of the Beast" as referred to in the Bible. The VeriChip is planned to rapidly replace credit and debit cards, as well as traditional forms of identification. Could Revelation 13:16-18 have been any more specific? "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."
I cross the US/Canadian border regularly, and use a special "commuter" lane called the nexus lane (both ways - it's a cooperative program between both countries). In that lane, there is an RFID reader and we are all issued plastic cards with RFID chips in them. You just drive up, the RFID reader reads the chip in the card, a camera takes a picture of your license plate and does character recognition on it, then compares it to the database to make sure it matches one of the vehicles assigned to that card, and then a border guard makes sure the picture on the card matches you. I think this program started in 2002 or something.
So, this is not new to me.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
Ah, but then you're violating their civil rights, so says the namby-pamby branch of politics. You see, the fact that all 19 of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Middle-Eastern should never be factored into who gets searched at the airport and who doesn't, because we all know that a 70-year-old white female American citizen is just as likely to be a terrorist as a 20-year-old arab male who's here on a student visa. Bend over, granny, while we get the gloves and K-Y.
You are letting your right-wing philosophy override common sense. We had our own home-grown hijackers and bombers long before 9/11. Restricting searches to one group when you know there have been hijackers in other groups is simply stupid. And let's face it - the middle-eastern terrorists aren't stupid. It would be easy enough to plant a bomb in poor trusting granny's bags knowing she would be excluded from searches.
Profiling works both ways - it also lets terrorists know which groups are NOT going to be searched. If for no other reason than that it is a horrible policy.
FINALLY economic libertarians might support anonymous mass transit in the U.S.
It claims that Toll Passes are anonymous. Excuse me! I get a bill every month fromt he Expressway Authority. It shows the date and time I pass each toll booth, just from my transponder. Anonymous my ASS.
So, once we have RFID implemented everywhere, how big a loop antenna will I need to draw enough power to run my wearable electronics?
I foresee the copper-coil hat and cape replacing the tin foil hat.
Power to the people!
At least until Heinlein is proven right again, see his novel Waldo.
I'll except the number of The Beast. Let's get this little Apocalypse thing rolling. I'm sick of being the frog in the slowly rising water temperature. Boil me already!
Instead of putting people in jail just mark them with embedded RFID chips. It can be more then just a convinient surveillance, if you were involved in a really bad crime, everytime you go to public place you'll get red lights turn on whenever you pass by the scanners, and people pointing fingers at you. And therefore a hope for more appropriate social adjustments then the one you got in jail can exist.
RFID license plates, as part of a a distance based insurance scheme, was investigated by ICBC here in British Columbia. The plates would have been supplied by the Vancouver based company EVI Managment Group (more info here). ICBC eventually decided not to pursue distance based insurance.
Divide by zero hurts my brain.
If you read this, it would appear to go much further than just inventory tracking.
Divide by zero hurts my brain.
Robert Rankin's book East of Ealing http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0552 138436/104-7870562-5727148?v=glance does a good fictional treatment on the subject of imposed numbering/tagging of the population; humerously of course. The basis is in the bible.....
"16. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads.
17. And that no man might buy or sell save that he had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.
18. Here is wisdom. Let he that hath understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred, three score and six."
So a 666 barcode would have you sorted then......
[BTW the Brentford Trilogy of which this is the third book is a good light-hearted read]
Paul.