_________________
"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

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Reading: "Under The Dome"


Listening:
RUSH
Vertical Horizon
Porcupine Tree

Like I said..... hammer until it is broken

States to Track Drivers Through Licenses
A federal program promotes driving license technology that allows the tracking of motorists even when they are not driving.

Electronic monitoring of motorists will soon expand dramatically as states including Arizona, Michigan, Vermont and Washington begin to use radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in drivers' licenses. These electronic chips broadcast the identity of any card holder to any chip-reading sensor within a minimum of thirty feet. The US Department of Homeland Security is promoting the tracking projects as part of its Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

"Multiple cards can be read at a distance and simultaneously with vicinity RFID technology, allowing an entire car full of people to be processed at once," a DHS fact sheet on the Passport Card technology explained.

So-called enhanced drivers' licenses are designed to meet the DHS travel document requirements. Enhanced card holders will be allowed to travel across the border without a passport when new regulations take effect in January 2009. The enhanced licenses electronically store the motorist's name, date of birth, height, weight and identity number on the card. RFID readers use the identity number to access additional private information from a department of motor vehicles database.

Although the licenses will initially be offered on a voluntary basis, the National Motorists Association suggests that it will not take long for the program to become mandatory.

"The federal government just incentivizes their proposal so that each state, and by extension its citizens, feel like they have no choice but to go along with their program," the NMA stated today.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) warns that the move is another step toward a national identity card.

"DHS, Arizona, Vermont and Washington are creating these new ID cards in order to change the state driver's license in to a federal border security identification document," the EPIC website explained. "The license is pulled away from its original intent -- to ensure driving competence -- and used as a multi-use federal identification document that could easily be transformed into a national identity card."

Not every state is sold on the idea. The California State Senate voted in April to ban RFID drivers' licenses. The bill passed an Assembly committee by a 9-5 vote

That is so scary. Orwell must be spinning in his grave

I think passports already have some kind of chip, if I'm not mistaken.

If they put a chip in my driver's license, I would be forced to leave it at home on principle.

If they insisted on putting a chip in my arm, I would have to learn to go without a car.

The government always wants more surveillance, but they don't always get their way. I hope they don't in this case. Things like this should be fought every step of the way.

I dont think they care about keeping track of the license. Its YOU they want to know about. No privacy, no nothing. I heard about this but I cant remember from where. I know its not good though.

I'd also be so inclined to leave my license at home and plead that I forgot it if pulled over. This is a serious issue and will eliminate people's privacies if implemented.

I wouldn't buy a easy pass for that reason.

...and I love how they always say its meant for life to be easier for us.

Look what credit cards have done to us. And bar codes in the grocery stores. And cable t.v. The price just keeps climbing, not only in cash, but in privacy, personal freedoms, and our overall quality of life.

Tt

Just some interesting things. How about in your clothes?
Now you can get Levi's with RFID tags, too.

Levi Strauss & Co. has tested installing RFID tags on clothing that was shipped to three stores—two in Mexico and one in the U.S. The initial tests are designed to track inventory, not people, Levi's says. The clothing manufacturer has said that it will not use the radio frequency identification tags in Levi's brand stores.

Still, the move has touched off a new round of complaints from privacy advocates, who object to the use of RFID tags on any level because of the potential of an invasion of privacy. Conceivably, assuming that the people who buy the test-case Levi's clothing do not have the RFID tags removed, someone with an RFID reader could track the movements of people based on what they are wearing.

This Levi's announcement comes in the wake of the formation of a working group of major companies (including a who's who of giant companies including IBM, Intel, Cisco, Microsoft, VeriSign, Visa, and Procter & Gamble) and a set of best practices for RFID use.

One clothing maker is planning to put RFID tracking tags on all its products from 2005 - but just who is the mystery shop?

At the Frontline Expo in Chicago, a tag firm told Consumer organisation Caspian (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) that a US retailer was planning the huge tagging drive but wouldn't put a name to it.

Like Marks and Spencer before it, the organisation will put the RFID chips in tags attached to the clothes. Caspian has managed to get some shots of the tags in question and members have been scratching their collective heads over who the garment maker could be.

In the frame, according to Caspian, are famous undies maker Calvin Klein, sports clothing company Champion and trendy youth brand Abercrombie & Fitch.

The retailer in question doesn't want their RFID plans publicised, however. At Checkpoint's stand at the Expo, both Calvin Klein and Champion had sample clothing labels with RFID tags incorporated.

Another chipped clothing tag was on display but with the company's name blacked out - evidence, perhaps, of an unwillingness to be associated with RFID tracking technology.

Although the company's name had been blacked out, a logo was still visible - that of Abercrombie & Fitch.

However, a spokesman for Checkpoint has subsquently claimed any items seen on the stand were purely for "display purposes".

A spokeswoman for Abercrombie & Fitch told silicon.com the company "cannot confirm or deny" it plans to roll out RFID in its clothes by 2005.

Katherine Albrecht, director of Caspian, said the precedents set by fellow clothes seller Benetton should serve as a warning.

"It can be hard to win back customer trust once you've crossed the RFID line," she said in a statement.

Lauren Scott of California is blazing a new trail in children's wear. The $2 million-a-year apparel division of DST Media Inc. will launch a line of pajamas with radio-frequency identification tags sewn into the hems. Readers positioned at various points throughout a house, such as doorways and windows, will be able to scan the tags within a 30-foot radius, and an alarm will be triggered when boundaries are breached.
"You look at these kids and think, 'I would do everything to protect them,'" says proprietor Lauren Scott, who licensed the RFID technology from SmartWear Technologies Inc., a manufacturer and supplier of personal security systems. "I'm confident other manufacturers in children's wear will follow within the next year." Scott will introduce the sleepwear in her spring 2006 collection. An estimated 250,000 pieces will begin shipping to various retail stores in December and are expected to be available to consumers by February.


More Mobility InsightsWhite PapersAT Command Set - M1HS, N501HS, H600 Overcoming Mobile Enterprise Security Challenges WebcastsReach Beyond Your 4 Walls: Empowering the Pickup and Delivery Workforce Reports802.11n Is Here. Get Ready For A Wire-Free Enterprise Trouble Ahead: Most Companies Don't Have A Mobile Device Management Plan Target Corp. has placed an order for the sleepwear and is expected to begin carrying the children's nightgowns in select stores early next year, Scott says. Target did not return calls by press time.
Adding technology to a piece of clothing hasn't been trouble-free. Slight manufacturing techniques and design changes were made to the clothing line to accommodate the electronics. Hems had to be made a little deeper in pajamas and nightgowns to conceal the tags, which are typically placed in the shoulder and side seams because they lie flat and are easy to work with. "Everyone around here refers to it as, 'put a chip on your shoulder,'" Scott says.

A pamphlet or "hang tag" attached to the garment will inform customers that the sleepwear is designed with SmartWear technology in an effort to prevent child abductions. It then directs parents to a Web site that explains how to activate and encode the RFID with a unique digital identification number. Parents will register with SmartWear to receive a unique number for each child to encode on the tags. No personal information such as name, address, or phone number is required. The site also provides information on the requisite readers and a low-frequency RFID encoder connected through a USB port for a computer that will be available as part of home-installed package.

Parents can sign up to access the optional SmartWear database that contains photographs and vital information from medical needs to handicaps the parent may wish to provide law enforcement in the event their child is missing. Within seconds, the information can be transmitted to law enforcement or Amber Alerts through an interface with SmartWear Technologies systems. The SmartWear database could eventually link into those accessed by law enforcement. "We have asked Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) to become our technology partner and help us develop the platform and protocol to interface the database directly with law enforcement and Amber Alerts," says Bob Reed, SmartWear's senior VP.

SmartWear's Web site cites haunting statistics gathered from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: Every 18 seconds, a child disappears from playgrounds, parks, schools, and homes, and many are taken by convicted sex offenders. Of the 876,289 people that went missing worldwide in 2004, 90% were children. The epidemic of child abductions increased 468% from 1982 to more than 876,213 in 2002. "The primary focus is to help prevent abductions by installing this system on driveways, gateways to pools, and in the home," says Bob Reed, SmartWear's senior VP. "It will alert parents when their child has crossed a threshold to doors and windows."

The SmartWear system required to work with the tags will be priced at about $500--a cost that Michael Overly, an attorney at Foley & Lardner LLP, says might be more than the average family wants to spend. Take standard alarm systems, for example. ADT Security Services, Brinks, and others have figured out that most people can't afford an alarm system, and this is why they lease them with monthly payments. "It's an interesting use of RFID tagging, but this application could end up like the global positioning system watches advertised six to eight months ago that were suppose to allow you to track your kid, and they just didn't catch on at all," Overly says. "It would make more sense to license the technology to a securities company that would offer the service in an addition to the alarm system they're selling now."

SmartWear is in talks to license the technology to ADT, says a source close to the deal. Both SmartWear and ADT declined to comment on any pending deal.

Another cost to be considered is the price of the RFID tag. Today, the passive tags that Lauren Scott will insert in the sleepwear collection cost less than 30 cents each, says SmartWear's Reed. Lauren Scott will absorb the price of the tag for now. The company estimates shipping about 250,000 pieces of its spring 2006 sleepwear collection to various retail stores.

There are also potential privacy concerns. The federal government's plan, for example, to embed RFID chips inside all U.S. passports put consumers and privacy advocates in an uproar, as did a Northern California school's decision earlier this year to require children to wear RFID tags to school (the plan was scrapped after many people protested it).

But with the children's RFID-enabled sleepwear, privacy issues shouldn't come into play, especially if the RFID tag isn't linked with a child's name, says Overly. "The parent will operate the system to track the child at home," he says. "I don't see it as a big privacy problem." Further, information entered into SmartWear's database by the parent is optional.

SmartWear also has several other projects in the works. Dual-purpose tags are being explored that would satisfy both the child-abduction application as well as supply-chain RFID initiatives in place by retailers to tags cases and pallets of goods bound for specific distribution centers such as those operated by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target in the Dallas area. That would mean encoding the tag with some sort of unique identifier at the apparel manufacturer.

SmartWear says it's working with Symbol Technologies Inc. to develop an extended-range tag that would contain a passive semiconductor chip and antenna sealed in a soft and flexible Mylar inlay. The tags, virtually undetectable, could withstand multiple dry-cleanings and washings.

Smartwear also is working to develop an active tag that can transmit signals up to 600 feet. This active tag would be inserted into outerwear from vests to jackets to belts and leg-wraps for hikers, bikers, skiers, as well as law enforcement, government, and military personnel. It is being considered in the case of body recovery for identification purposes. If clothing were separated from the individual, the RFID clothing tag would give law enforcement information as to whom it belonged.

Huh? What does one have to do with the other? Since when does our leaders tracking American Citizens with some sort of chip have the ability from preventing them from scratching in the dirt or using outhouses in the future? Our Government has already proven themselves unable and unwilling not to not spy on innocent citizens when its illegal, imagine what they will do when it becomes legal?

The Government should be spending their time and money making sure your second senario doesn't happen. Alternate fuels, health care, better education....the list goes on and on.

Tt

_________________
Reading:

The Spartacus War - Barry Strauss
Slow Death - Jim Fielder
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

_________________
Reading:

The Spartacus War - Barry Strauss
Slow Death - Jim Fielder
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

_________________
READING:

Unhappy Endings by Brian Keene (Kindle)
The Mammoth Book of Best Horror Comics edited by Peter Normanton (DTV)

LISTENING:

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (Unabridged)

_________________
READING:

Unhappy Endings by Brian Keene (Kindle)
The Mammoth Book of Best Horror Comics edited by Peter Normanton (DTV)

LISTENING:

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (Unabridged)

_________________
READING:

Unhappy Endings by Brian Keene (Kindle)
The Mammoth Book of Best Horror Comics edited by Peter Normanton (DTV)

LISTENING:

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (Unabridged)