My Way News - British government's identity card plan begins
AP reports: "The British government began its identity card program for foreign nationals Tuesday - six years after heated debate over whether the costly plan is an effective tool against terrorism, identity theft and welfare fraud. [...] The cards will contain a computer chip with fingerprint information and other data, including date of birth and nationality, but will not contain religious or ethnic data."

My Way News - Indonesian AIDS patients face microchip monitoring
AP reports: "Lawmakers in Indonesia's remote province of Papua have thrown their support behind a controversial bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips - part of extreme efforts to monitor the disease."

Comment: I think this is part of a larger trend of tech diffusion in which these things start out in small and powerless populations (children, the sick, the elderly, pets) before expanding to the larger population. It will be interesting to see if the Indonesian government is able to force people to get chipped against their will. You don't have to be a Christian to find that idea troublesome.

Threat Level - Bush Administration: Dismiss RFID 'Mark of the Beast' Lawsuit
Threat Level reports: "The Bush administration on Thursday urged a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a group of Amish farmers in Michigan claiming RFID chips required on cattle 'are a mark of the beast.'"

Comment: Well, I don't think it's the mark of the beast, but I still don't see why the Amish should be forced to participate in a program that is supposed to be voluntary. The Amish reject technology, let's just respect that, ok?

RFIDNews - RFID enabled border crossings open
RFID News reports: "The first U.S. land border crossings using RFID and other information technology to capture, read and analyze traveler and vehicle information have opened in Blaine, Wash., and Nogales, Ariz."

Comment: This only means the documents will be chipped, not the people, don't worry.

NBC News - Fast Lane
This video report from NBC News focuses on a new combination of existing technology (bar codes and cell phones/PDAs) to allow passengers to skip the long lines at airports:

NO2ID - Stop ID cards and the database state
The Brits are rebelling against what they call the database state:

NO2ID is a campaigning organisation. We are a single-issue group focused on the threat to liberty and privacy posed by the rapid growth of the database state, of which 'ID cards' are the most visible part. We are entirely independent. We do not endorse any party, nor campaign on any other topic.

Nice, this kind of thing should be encouraged on both sides of the Atlantic.

Techdirt - Homeland Security Gets Closer To Minority Report-Style Crime Predictor
Techdirt reports: "Slashdot points us to a story about Homeland Security apparently making progress on a 'pre-crime detector.' It was originally called 'Project Hostile Intent,' but after some folks figured that the name was a bit... ominous, it seems to have been renamed as 'Future Attribute Screening Technologies' (FAST). Basically the system is designed to spot 'shifty' people who may be getting ready to commit a crime of some sort."

Comment: What a great idea, spot the shifty people, because, you know, terrorists look shifty, you can tell, and they would never think to attempt to not act shifty.

Government black boxes will 'collect every email' - The Independent
The Independent reports: "Plans to create a database holding information about every phone call, email and internet visit made in the UK have provoked a huge public outcry. Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, described it as 'step too far' and the Government's own terrorism watchdog said that as a 'raw idea' it was 'awful'."

Comment: It's a sad thing to see the UK becoming the embodiment of the Orwellian surveillance society. As the slogan goes, 1984 was meant to be a warning, not a guide for governments. Hopefully, the British voters won't stand for it and MPs will force the government to abandon these plans.