Online Banking Surges, Still Room to Grow
AP reports, "Millions of Americans are doing their banking online, and their ranks are expected to grow rapidly in coming years as more e-services become available and Internet connections get faster."

ID cards 'alarm' information commissioner
ZDNet UK reports, "Information commissioner Richard Thomas is "increasingly alarmed" about the UK Governments proposals for a national identity card, MPs were told on 8 June, 2004."

Ga. Police Look to Cameras to Fight Crime
AP reports, "Athens-Clarke County police want to install surveillance cameras in downtown Athens to help combat crime."

Cities Say No to the Patriot Act
Wired reports, "As Bush launches a campaign to promote the Patriot Act and convince Congress to renew sections set to expire next year, hundreds of cities across the United States say enough is enough."

Web Bill Payments Hurting Check Printers
AP reports, "With a growing number of consumers discovering the convenience of paying bills online and shopping with debit cards, the firms that turn out billions of checks a year are being forced to retrench."

Supermarkets Look to Automated Checkout
AP reports, "Supermarket checkout clerks are going the way of the bank teller - available if you want one, avoidable if you don't. Self-checkout machines, which let customers scan, bag and pay for their own groceries, offer shoppers a chance to avoid the lines at the checkout stands."

The Future of Shopping - Newsweek
... Such sci-fi clubbing is made possible by Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, technology—tiny digital chips that broadcast wireless signals.

Privacy under siege
Australian IT reports, "Nightmare scenarios of citizens living under total surveillance are a possibility as technology gives governments the means to zip personal data together in a 21st-century form of the Australia Card, former Federal Privacy Commissioner Malcolm Crompton has warned."

Database on U.S. Visitors Set for Huge Expansion
The Washington Post reports, "The Department of Homeland Security yesterday awarded a contract worth up to $10 billion to Accenture LLP to oversee and expand a massive U.S. program to track millions of foreign visitors as they cross American borders."

A National ID
The New York Times suggests that, "Now is the time to figure out how to create a card that helps identify people but doesn't rob them of a huge swath of their civil liberties."