BetaNews - Infineon Snags RFID Passport Contract:

The US Government has awarded German-based chipmaker Infineon with a contract to provide a portion of the millions of RFID chips that will make their way into next-generation passports, the company said Monday.

Once again, this is not the mark of the beast (Rev 13:16-18), it's just the next generation of travel documents, but you can clearly see from this report and others like it that there is a lot of money to be made in rolling out the infrastructure for RFID based identity verification programs.

The Australian - RFID to track inmates:

The contract will be awarded this week for the construction of the first prison in Australasia to use radio frequency identification to track prisoners. The ACT government has allocated $128.7 million for the establishment of ACT's first prison, the Alexander Maconochie Centre, named after the 19th century penal reformer. The RFID system will provide real-time tracking of prisoners and prison officers, ACT Corrective Service senior manager Roger Holding says.

Biometrics Goes to School
Associated Content - The Use of Biometric Identification by Universities:

No longer existing solely in the realm of science fiction or spy fantasies, biometrics has emerged as a growing trend in the world. This applies not only to our work and private lives, but to our educational institutions as well. Biometrics has taken hold in many of our colleges and universities, used alone, or more often with, student identification cards. Some have used biometrics for years, and others are beginning to implement their own systems.

I expect this trend in ID verification to continue to show up in new areas, not just schools and travel documents. We are living in an age when it is more important than ever to establish who is who. Are you you?

Yahoo News - U.S. to roll out electronic passports
AP reports, "Despite ongoing privacy concerns and legal disputes involving companies bidding on the project, the U.S. State Department plans to begin issuing smart chip-embedded passports to Americans as planned Monday."

Comment: Again, just a reminder that this is not the mark of the beast (Rev 13:16-18), just some interesting tech trends we are watching. The Book of Revelation specifies several conditions that must exist before the mark of the beast is imposed and none of them exist right now, so you should have no fear about getting a chipped passport. Well, have no spiritual fear, there may be ID theft concerns, but that is beyond my area.

Yahoo News - Expert issues warning about e-passports
AP reports, "Electronic passports being introduced in the U.S. and other countries have a major vulnerability that could allow criminals to clone embedded secret code and enter countries illegally, an expert warned."

This is not to say that they won't go forward with the new RFID passports, it's just a very flawed system.