My Way News - Vietnam Internet users fear Facebook blackout
My Way News reports: "Vietnam's growing legions of Facebook users fear that the country's communist government might be blocking the popular social networking Web site, which has become difficult to access over the past few weeks."

At Checkout, More Ways to Avoid Handling Cash or Plastic - NYTimes.com
The New York Times reports: "Instead of leather wallets, consumers could, sooner than they think, carry virtual wallets, with their credit card and bank information stored on remote computers that are accessible everywhere and anytime. They could use them whenever they want to buy something, whether on the Web, on cellphones or at cash registers."

Comment: Here is an interesting report that looks at new ways of making payments, methods that exist now, and methods that may soon exist. It's a good report that takes stock of where we are on the way towards a cashless society.

My Way News - A growing PayPal could soon overshadow parent eBay
My Way News reports: "PayPal bills itself as a shopper's online wallet. Users set up accounts and link them to bank accounts and credit cards, making it easy to transfer cash into the account. Then users can make payments through PayPal using either their cash balances or the underlying credit card. PayPal users can also send cash to someone based on as little information as an e-mail address or cell phone number [...] this week PayPal opened its system to third-party developers, which will mean PayPal can be built in to all sorts of applications. For instance, an iPhone app could let consumers order a pizza and pay for it with PayPal."

Comment: I think that Google is going to be a much bigger competitor than they imagine, but let's see how this shakes out. The trend though is clear, we are moving toward a world of digital transactions. Swiping a credit card is 20th Century technology, paying online with the click of a mouse or using your cell phone is the save of the future. The farther we get from physical cash the more our financial system will be based on digital data and that means he who controls the data controls the money.

Unique ID to soon become 'pervasive & ubiquitous'- The Economic Times
The Economic Times reports: "The proposed Unique Identification Number could eventually become mandatory, as it may be required for making a passport, getting Nandan Nilekani driving licence and opening a bank account. Though the 16-digit Unique Identification Number will not give citizenship rights, it will be used for identifying Indian citizens. At present, UID is completely voluntary, but it will become 'pervasive and ubiquitous' later, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani was quoted as saying by a news agency."

Comment: India is getting into the national ID card biz and setting itself up as a major test of how to store data and track the interactions of hundreds of millions of numbered citizens.

My Way News - Google to launch platform for selling books online
My Way News reports: "Google will try to keep transactions simple, Turvey said, possibly by using its existing Google Checkout platform. Google will collect 55 percent of the revenue and turn a 'vast majority' of that to the retailers. The rest will go to the book's publisher, who will set prices."

Comment: Google is everywhere and soon the Google Checkout payment platform will be everywhere as well. We won't need a world currency, we will just be able to use Google on our smart phones, netbooks, personal computers and laptops.

My Way News - Police stop more than 1 million people on street
My Way News reports: "Police in major U.S. cities stop and question more than a million people each year - a sharply higher number than just a few years ago. Most are black and Hispanic men. Many are frisked, and nearly all are innocent of any crime, according to figures gathered by The Associated Press."

Comment: Welcome to police-state America. I wish we could go back to the good-old-days when the criminals committed the crimes and the police caught them. Now the police harass citizens before the crimes are committed...and apparently it's legal. Has it ever occurred to anyone that if you are not free to commit a crime then you are not free? This is why God gave humans free will. Freedom means you can do the the right thing, or not. If you combine this stop-and-frisk policy with the UK's CCTV cameras it would be possible to deter a great amount of street crime, but at what cost? Would you rather live free in an unsafe world, or not free in a safe crime-free world? This is the question confronting citizens in the West, a West that used to value freedom and liberty above all else. Public safety is not an end that justifies any means. Just remember, there is no "Right to be Safe" in the U.S. Constitution.

Bar codes: an everyday example of the Nobel prizewinners' genius celebrated with a Google doodle today - guardian.co.uk
The Guardian reports: "Bar codes are celebrated with a Google doodle that honours a familiar application of the technology brought to us by winners of the Nobel prize for physics"

My Way News - Arizona driver dons monkey masks to elude tickets
My Way News reports: "Arizona began deploying the stationary and mobile cameras on state highways a year ago, and through Sept. 4 had issued more than 497,000 tickets. Of those, about 132,000 recipients had paid the fine of $165 plus a 10 percent penalty, netting the state more than $23 million. Arizona is the first to deploy such technology on highways statewide."

Comment: Surveillance as a money-making scam. He should wear one of those masks from that British movie, be a rebel with a cause.

My Way News - DNA pioneer appeals for cuts to criminal database
My Way News reports: "Britain's DNA database is the largest in the world, containing genetic profiles of more than 5 million people. Samples are taken from everyone arrested for a crime - and the information is usually retained even if the person is acquitted or freed without charge."

My Way News - Tech giants offer ideas on charging readers online
My Way News reports: "Google proposed offering news organizations a version of its Google Checkout system, which is used for processing online payments. It would give readers a place to sign in to an account and then pay for media from a variety of sources without having to punch in their information over and over. And the company says it could offer publishers a variety of pay methods, from basic subscriptions to so-called 'micropayments' on a per-article basis."

Comment: That's not mobile-commerce, you say? Well, the web is mobile, so any payment scheme on the web that you can access on your smart phone is similarly mobile. If payments can be made online with a single login and you have a mobile device with you, a mobile device that can combine GPS data, RFID product data and transmit payment data to the ubiquitous Google, then we have an instant global payment system without the hassle of funding any new infrastructure.

My Way News - Tighter oversight on border laptop searches
My Way News reports: "Given all the personal details that people store on digital devices, border searches of laptops and other gadgets can give law enforcement officials far more revealing pictures of travelers than suitcase inspections might yield. That has set off alarms among civil liberties groups and travelers' advocates who say the government has crossed a line by examining electronic contact lists and confidential e-mail messages, trade secrets and proprietary business files, financial and medical records and other deeply private information."

Comment: The first time the practice of searching laptops, cell phones and PDAs was revealed in the press I thought for sure the practice would be discontinued. After all, we can easily understand the need for border searches for drugs and other prohibited items, but a digital search is a search for information, it's a fishing expedition without a warrant, how can it possibly be permissible? And yet it is. You would think that fighting the war on drugs would be enough for them.

The New York Times reports: "Nokia to Launch Mobile Financial Service - NYTimes.com: "The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia said on Wednesday it would launch a mobile financial service next year targeting consumers, mainly in emerging markets, with a phone but no banking account. [...] Obopay, which uses text messaging and mobile internet access, charges users a fee to send money or to top up their accounts."

Experts see more applications, acceptance for biometric technology - Related Stories - AIA dailyLead
Smart Brief reports: "Although biometric technology continues to be controversial with privacy activists, it is gaining an increasing role in everyday life, from airports to hospitals to schools. Experts say a move by Congress to require biometric data for immigration and employment would create a massive biometric database and further hasten acceptance of the technology."

New Scientist - RFID tags get an intelligence upgrade
New Scientist reports: "Today's RFID tags can only broadcast fixed data back to a reader device, whether that's details of your passport or of an endangered bird. Researchers are now working to add brains to the tags in the form of microcomputers, opening the way for much smarter applications."

Comment: My usual caveat applies, this is not the mark, we are just watching the tech trends. I think the future of mark tech lies in nanotech-RFID tattoos, but this report notes some interesting advances along more conventional lines.

My Way News - Prosecutors say man stole 130M credit card numbers: "Federal prosecutors on Monday charged a Miami man with the largest case of credit and debit card data theft ever in the United States, accusing the one-time government informant of swiping 130 million accounts on top of 40 million he stole previously."

Comment: I suspect that no matter what kind of identification we use or what commercial encryption vendors use, criminals will always find a way to steal. It's just a non-stop battle between commerce and crime that has gone on for centuries and will continue long after we are gone. I mention this only to note that one of the largest sectors of the economy that would have the most to lose in moving to a Mark of the Beast economy is the criminal sector. Nothing would kill the black market faster than commerce enabled by state mandated ID. For now though, cash is king for the global black market in data, drugs and death.

My Way News - Review: Password management eases with Net storage
My Way News reports: "Microsoft Corp. has tried to get sites on board with this model for more than a decade and has accumulated criticism for security flaws along the way. Now, however, there's some momentum behind a system called OpenID that just might make programs like LastPass and Roboform unnecessary. Most of the big Web companies, including Microsoft and Google Inc., support OpenID."

My Way News - Web site tracks world online censorship reports
AP reports: "Herdict users report their Web site problems anonymously - numeric Internet addresses are recorded but only general location is displayed - so people can post more freely, encouraging reports about sensitive topics [...] The site doesn't investigate reports, though, so there's no way to know for sure that an outage is related to government meddling rather than a cut cable or other problem unrelated to censorship. Although surges in reports do suggest a government role, a widespread technical glitch can also produce a similar spike."

Comment: The Herdict site is located here and looks to be a valuable tool for keeping tabs on censorship worldwide.

BBC NEWS - UK's national ID card unveiled
BBC News reports: "Ministers say the card, which follows the launch of the foreign national ID card, will provide an easy way of safely proving identity. They say this system, backed up by a national identity register, will help combat identity fraud, crime and terrorism. The card is very similar in look to a UK driving licence but holds more data, including two fingerprints and a photograph encoded on a chip."

Video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8177040.stm

Comment: My standard disclaimer for Mark posts: don't panic, this is not the mark. If you live in Manchester, have no fear of getting your new ID card. We are just keeping up with trends in identification technology and mandatory government ID schemes.

My Way News - Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears
AP reports: "Embedding identity documents - passports, drivers licenses, and the like - with RFID chips is a no-brainer to government officials. Increasingly, they are promoting it as a 21st century application of technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country. But Paget's February experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates had feared for years: That RFID, coupled with other technologies, could make people trackable without their knowledge or consent."

Comment: This is not the mark, but I do think we should keep up on the trends relating to the use of RFID chips. It's nice to see there is a growing debate about this now from a consumer privacy perspective.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Call for limits on web snooping
BBC News reports: "Governments and companies should limit the snooping they do on web users. So said Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web, who said that growing oversight of browsing could have a pernicious effect."

My Way News - Social Security number code cracked, study claims
AP reports: "A problem in the battle against identity thieves is that many businesses use Social Security numbers as passwords or for other forms of authentication, something that was not anticipated when Social Security was devised in the 1930s. The Social Security Administration has long cautioned educational, financial and health care institutions against using the numbers as personal identifiers."

My Way News - PC makers voluntarily supply Web filter in China
AP reports: "Several PC makers were including controversial Internet-filtering software with computers shipped in China on Thursday despite a government decision to postpone its plan to make such a step mandatory. [...] Also Thursday, a government newspaper said regulators will revive the plan to make Green Dam mandatory at some point, a move that would disappoint opponents who hoped the government would drop the effort."

My Way News - Companies pledge more openness about Web tracking
AP reports: "It's unclear how much of an effect the new policies will have. One consumer group said the changes don't go far enough, and that extensive profiles of people still will be collected without their complete consent."

My Way News - China backs down from requirement for Web filter
AP reports: "In a rare reversal, China's government gave in to domestic and international pressure and backed down Tuesday from a rule that would have required personal computers sold in the country to have Internet-filtering software."

Comment: This is good news, and very unexpected, though a close reading of the report indicates that the plan may be merely delayed and could be imposed again in the future.

My Way News - Unclear what happens to personal info with Clear
AP reports: "The sudden shutdown of the Clear program, run by Verified Identity Pass Inc., this week has raised more concerns about who keeps our personal information, how well it's protected from theft and whether it could be sold to the highest bidder. [...] Clear grew out of the government agency's Registered Traveler program, which requires 'biometric identifiers.' Two similar companies - FLO and Vigilant, still operate similar databases, but are far smaller."

Comment: If you give your identification data, including biometric data, to a private company and they are later sold or go out of business, do you retain the rights to your data? Do you own your ID? These questions have not been clearly answered by the legal system and the presumption going forward is that the data belongs to the company and may be sold without your consent or knowledge. Unless Clear users file a class action lawsuit and force the issue, it is very likely that their data will end up in the hands of a third party and they will have no control over it.

My Way News - Google access in China temporarily disrupted
AP reports: "Internet users in China were unable to access search giant Google Inc. (GOOG)'s main Web site or its Chinese service, and the company said Thursday it was investigating. The outage came after the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center last week accused Google of providing links to vulgar and obscene sites."

My Way News - US calls on China to revoke Web filter order
AP reports: "Washington is calling on Beijing to revoke an order to personal computer makers to supply Internet-filtering software with every PC, adding to an array of disputes between the major trading partners. [...] U.S. officials met last week with Chinese regulators and expressed concern about the effort to censor Internet use and its possible trade impact."

My Way News - Mont. city ends policy seeking Internet passwords
AP reports: "Applicants for city jobs were asked for usernames and passwords for Web sites and social networking sites, sparking an outcry from those who thought the policy went too far, according to a report last week from KBZK-TV. The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana questioned the legality of the policy."

Comment: It's beyond absurd that they thought they could get away with that. It's nice to see that sometimes, common sense prevails.

My Way News - Google to step up anti-porn efforts in China
AP reports: "Google Inc. (GOOG) said Friday that it was working to block pornography reaching users of its Chinese service after a mainland watchdog found the search engine turned up large numbers of links to obscene and vulgar sites. [...] While the government claims the main targets are pornography, online gambling, and other sites deemed harmful to society, critics say that often acts as cover for detecting and blocking sensitive political content."

Comment: Shame on Google for kowtowing to the Chinese government.

My Way News - Web support pours out for Iran protesters
AP reports: "Google and Facebook have rushed out services in Farsi. Twitter users have changed their home cities to Tehran to provide cover for Internet users there. Others have configured their computers to serve as relay points to bypass Iranian censorship."

My Way News - Top senator: NSA not violating surveillance law
AP reports: "The National Security Agency has not committed flagrant violations of the rules governing surveillance of American e-mails and phone calls, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday."

My Way News - China backpedals on filtering software order
AP reports: "A Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Chinese computer users are not required to use or install the Green Dam Youth Escort software - though the software will still come pre-installed or be included on a compact disc with all PCs sold on the mainland from July 1."

Comment: Very clever, I'm sure there will be some percentage of user who will voluntarily use the software and that, over time, that percentage will grow as users becomes accustomed to the idea.

The Dawning of the Biometric Age - BusinessWeek
Business Week reports: "In baby steps and giant leaps, the world is moving further into digital identification and biometrics. The new technology raises concerns about privacy, of course, as well as opportunities for security companies."

Comment: Not the mark, but the trend is toward greater use of biometric identification technology in more and more areas of society. It's a trend worth keeping an eye on.

Photo: ABC News.com

My Way News - Tweeting Iran: Elex news in 140 characters or less
AP reports: "Iranians must outsmart government blocking to use Twitter, on which users post messages limited to 140 characters called 'tweets.' Twitter and other social-networking sites remained blocked Monday in Iran. [...] Facebook was used to organize people before the election, but it was also blocked after the vote. On Monday, the site was replaced with a message that said the page was blocked under a filtering policy."

BBC NEWS - Ahmadinejad defiant on 'free' Iran poll
The BBC reports: "One opposition newspaper has been closed down and BBC websites also appear to have been blocked by the Iranian authorities. The AP news agency reports that mobile phone services have been blocked in Tehran."

My Way News - China requires PCs to come with anti-porn software
AP reports: "China is requiring personal computers sold in the country to carry software that blocks online pornography and other Web sites, potentially giving one of the world's most sophisticated censorship regimes even more control over the Internet."

VOA News - US Begins Collection of Biometric Information on Non-Citizens Departing Country
VOA reports: "Fingerprints and other physical identifiers, called biometrics, are seen as a fail-safe way to verify identity and defeat imposters. Since 2004, the United States has collected biometric information from foreign visitors upon arrival, but not departure. That is now changing."

Experts warn cell phones face hacking threat - Security- msnbc.com
MSNBC reports: "Accessing your bank account using your mobile phone might seem safe, but security experts say would-be hackers can access confidential information via a simple text message seemingly from your service provider."

Display Plus - VeriChip completes development of new 8 millimeter RFID implantable microchip
Display Plus reports: "VeriChip ( http://www.verichipcorp.com ), a provider of radio frequency identification (RFID) systems for healthcare and patient-related needs, announced today it has completed the development of a new, smaller human-implantable RFID microchip measuring approximately 8 millimeters by 1 millimeter."

Cyberwar - Iranians and Others Outwit Net Censors - Series - NYTimes.com
The New York Times reports: "The Internet is no longer just an essential channel for commerce, entertainment and information. It has also become a stage for state control — and rebellion against it. Computers are becoming more crucial in global conflicts, not only in spying and military action, but also in determining what information reaches people around the globe."

Comment: As repression rises around the globe, it will become all the more important for activists to stay one step ahead of the censors.

Airport security bares all, or does it? - CNN.com
CNN reports: "Privacy advocates plan to call on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to suspend use of 'whole-body imaging,' the airport security technology that critics say performs 'a virtual strip search' and produces 'naked' pictures of passengers, CNN has learned."

Brain scanning may be used in security checks - The Guardian:
The Guardian reports: "Details of the Humabio (Human Monitoring and Authentication using Biodynamic Indicators and Behaviourial Analysis) pilot projects have been published amid further evidence of biometric technologies penetrating everyday lives."

My Way News - Asking a machine to spot threats human eyes miss
AP reports: "The possibilities that researchers envision for this kind of technology have the ring of science fiction. Think of systems that spot abandoned packages on a train platform or alert an airline crew to a potential terrorist on board. Already, cities like Chicago have invested in 'anomaly detection' cameras around town, linked to emergency headquarters. The city plans to announce this week that it is using the technology at Navy Pier, one of Chicago's best-known attractions."

Homeland Security chief seeks to repeal Real ID Act - CNN.com
CNN reports: "Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano this week said she is working with governors to repeal the Real ID Act, which was passed in 2005 and went into effect last year."

My Way News - British government backs down over database plan

AP reports: "The British government said Monday it wants communications companies to keep records of every phone call, e-mail and Web site visit made in the country. But it has decided not to set up a national database of the information, a proposal that had been condemned as a 'Big Brother'-style invasion of privacy by civil liberties groups."

Comment: How nice that they decided not to set up a database on the formerly free subjects of the United Kingdom. It's a compromise solution. Isn't that great? And, by the way, they will still collect the information, but it just won't be stored in a central database, it will be stored by the service providers, and you can totally trust them with the information. What could possibly go wrong? And remember, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. It's for your own good. Trust us, we won't abuse this power.

My Way News - Congress to hold hearing on cable advertising
AP reports: "Cable operators will sit in the hot seat Thursday as Congress reviews their plans to roll out targeted advertising amid fears that consumer privacy could be infringed if the companies were to track and record viewing habits. [...] The hearing will also focus on how network operators track consumers online and through wireless networks. AT&T Inc. (ATT) is sending its chief privacy officer, Dorothy Attwood."

Google Profiles tool makes it easier to search out Smiths - USATODAY.com
USA Today reports: "Once you have the ID, you might be more inclined to shop with Google Checkout, post pictures at Picasa Web Albums or build a blog on Google's Blogger, all areas where Google stands to profit with either fees or ads, Sterling says. 'It deepens your engagement with Google.'"

My Way News - Gov't won't classify proxies as 'sophisticated'
AP reports: "The U.S. government has dropped - for now - a plan to classify the use of 'proxy' servers as evidence of sophistication in committing a crime. Proxy servers are computers that disguise the source of Internet traffic. They are commonly used for legitimate purposes, like evading Internet censors and working from home. But they can also be used to hide from law enforcement."

Comment: This is good news. It would have been counterproductive for the government to place a legal burden on the use of a technology that does a lot of good in the area of privacy and information security.

Whole-Body Security Scans Pass First Airport Tests - NYTimes.com
The New York Times reports: "IN a shift, the Transportation Security Administration plans to replace the walk-through metal detectors at airport checkpoints with whole-body imaging machines — the kind that provide an image of the naked body."

Comment: I'm not sure how I feel about this. I don't understand why we can't just be honest about the efficacy of racial profiling rather than subjecting everyone to increasingly intrusive searches.

Obama dismisses idea of single global currency - Reuters
Reuters reports: "U.S. President Barack Obama and his top two economic officials on Tuesday dismissed suggestions by emerging economic powers that the world move away from using the dollar as the world's main reserve currency."

My Way News - YouTube blocked in China; official says video fake
AP reports: "China occasionally blocks YouTube to prevent access to videos that criticize or shine an unflattering light on its policies. Users in Beijing said they were unable to access the site late Tuesday."

My Way News - Australian Internet `blacklist' prompts concern
AP reports: "The list in question is provided to the creators of Internet filtering software that people can opt to install on their computers. But Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has proposed mandating that Australian Internet service providers implement the list, which would make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries."

Comment: Isn't Australia a free and democratic country? This smacks of totalitarianism. Government control of the internet is common in repressive countries, inspired either by ideology (China, Singapore) or religion (Saudi Arabia), but this would be a first for a for a so-called Western democracy. Let's watch this closely.

U.S. backs global alternative to dollar - World Net Daily
WND reports: "Increasingly, the International Monetary Fund, with the support of the United States and Russia, appears positioned to launch a one-world currency at the upcoming G-20 meeting in London. The move is intended to be a last-ditch effort to prevent massive bank failures from occurring throughout the European Union. The idea is for the IMF to issue at least $250 billion in Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, to IMF member states as a method of placing a safety net under developing countries that might otherwise have to declare bankruptcy."

Comment: This is either a very poorly written article or an intentionally deceptive article. Those loan instruments that are mentioned (special drawing rights) already exist and have for some time, and as the article makes clear, they are merely thinking of making some changes to the system. This would not create a new global currency, as these are financial tools available to countries, not individuals, but as the article makes clear, the proposed changes would give greater power to the IMF as a regulator of the global economy, sort of like the Federal Reserve in the U.S. or the European Central Bank, by allowing it to change the supply of funds available to countries. Even though this does not create a true global currency, it still is important and something to keep watching because any effort to further centralize the global financial system would be an important step in preparing for that future.

Straw scraps plan for 'Big Brother' database - Home News, UK - The Independent
The Independent reports: "Sweeping 'Big Brother' plans to give officials and police unprecedented access to the sensitive personal data of millions of people have been scrapped after an outcry from campaigners, doctors and lawyers."

Comment: Sanity prevails in the UK, some good news for a change.

Privacy group urges probe of Google cloud services- Internet -Infotech-The Economic Times
The Economic Times reports: "Cloud computing services provided by Google include Gmail, the Internet search giant's email program; Google Docs, its online word processing and spreadsheet service; Picasa, a software application for digital photos; and Google Calendar. EPIC, in the complaint filed on Tuesday, said that it wanted the FTC to determine whether Google has 'engaged in unfair and/or deceptive trade practices' regarding its cloud computing products. It urged the FTC to enjoin the company from offering such services 'until safeguards are verifiably established.'"

Comment: It's scary to think these web services we use every day have not had to pass stringent privacy reviews. Let's watch carefully to see how this complaint progresses.

Plan to introduce biometric IDs stirs privacy debate - Haaretz - Israel News
Haaretz reports: "No other democracy has yet introduced biometric identity cards, which Israel recently decided to do, and the only nondemocracy to have done so is Hong Kong, according to a study by the Knesset's research center."

Comment: Israel is leading the way in national adoption of biometric identity cards, let's see how far privacy and human rights groups get in scuttling the law.

Internet ad tracking system will put a 'spy camera' in the homes of millions, warns founder of the web - Mail Online
The Daily Mail reports: "The inventor of the world wide web has launched a damning attack on plans to spy on the internet browsing habits of millions of households. [...] Internet providers BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media are all considering a system known as Phorm, which would track the web pages that their 11million customers look at."

My Way News - Google to target ads based on Web surfing habits
AP reports: "Google Inc. (GOOG) will use its surveillance of Web surfing habits to figure out which ads are best suited to each individual's interests - a practice likely to illuminate just how much the Internet search leader has been learning about millions of people around the world."

My Way News - One-eyed filmmaker conceals camera in prosthetic
AP reports: "A one-eyed documentary filmmaker is preparing to work with a video camera concealed inside a prosthetic eye, hoping to secretly record people for a project commenting on the global spread of surveillance cameras."

NOVA - The Spy Factory - The New Thought Police
PBS reports: "The National Security Agency (NSA) is developing a tool that George Orwell's Thought Police might have found useful: an artificial intelligence system designed to gain insight into what people are thinking."

My Way News - Do you know where your kid is? Check Google's maps
AP reports: "With an upgrade to its mobile maps, Google Inc. (GOOG) (GOOG) hopes to prove it can track people on the go as effectively as it searches for information on the Internet. The new software released Wednesday will enable people with mobile phones and other wireless devices to automatically share their whereabouts with family and friends."

ninemsn - Humans 'will be implanted with microchips'
9NEWS reports: "All Australians could be implanted with microchips for tracking and identification within the next two or three generations, a prominent academic says."