My Way News - Dodd Seeks Boost on Surveillance Bill
AP reports: "The Senate is considering whether to shield the telecommunications companies from the roughly 40 pending civil lawsuits alleging violations of communications and wiretapping laws. The White House says if the cases go forward they could reveal information that would compromise national security."

Washington Post - Spurred by Gratitude, "Bomb Lady" Develops Better Weapons for U.S.
The Washington Post reports:

Duong's most recent innovation, the Joint Expeditionary Forensics Facilities (JEFF) project or "lab in a box," analyzes biometrics. It will be delivered to Iraq at the beginning of 2008, the Navy said, to help distinguish insurgents from civilians. [...] the military has been scanning the irises and taking the fingerprints of Iraqis, feeding a biometrics data base in West Virginia. [...] Each collapsible, sand-colored, 20-by-20-foot unit has its own generator and satellite link. If things go as planned, data will beamed to the Biometric Fusion Center to check against more than a million Iraqi fingerprints.

What a great use of biometric technology, if this helps to minimize civilian casualties, it will be more than worth it. I'm not really an alarmist on this kind of thing. I mean, it's not like they are implanting them with RFID chips, this technology is pretty old (fingerprints!) so I see this as just one more example of how the use of biometrics is being accelerated in this age of terrorism and war.

My Way News - Shell Station Customers 'Pay by Touch'
AP reports: "Ten Shell gas stations in the Windy City are testing biometric systems that let consumers walk up to the pump, scan their fingertips on a device and fill up their vehicles. The systems, also installed at Shell convenience stores, are directly linked to customers' checking or credit-card accounts for payment."

My Way News - Retailers, Creditors Clash on Security
AP reports: "Less than half the nation's biggest merchants appear to be complying with card industry security standards - which include encryption and other safeguards - despite a Sept. 30 deadline set by Visa USA, which plans to levy monthly fines up to $25,000 against merchant banks that noncompliant retailers rely on."

My Way News - NYC Mayor: Surveillance a City Necessity
AP reports: "Residents of big cities like New York and London must accept that they are under constant watch by video cameras, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday."

My Way News - Chicago Video Surveillance Gets Smarter
AP reports: "Chicago already has thousands of security cameras in use by businesses and police - including some equipped with devices that recognize the sound of a gunshot, turn the cameras toward the source and place a 911 call. But the new system would let cameras analyze images in real time 24 hours a day."

My Way News - Chip Implants Linked to Animal Tumors
AP reports on some interesting developments regarding implanted RFID chips:

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved implanting microchips in humans, the manufacturer said it would save lives, letting doctors scan the tiny transponders to access patients' medical records almost instantly. The FDA found 'reasonable assurance' the device was safe, and a sub-agency even called it one of 2005's top 'innovative technologies.' But neither the company nor the regulators publicly mentioned this: A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating to the mid-1990s, stated that chip implants had 'induced' malignant tumors in some lab mice and rats.

This is interesting in light of Revelation 16:2:

The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.

And also Revelation 16:11:

and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.

I'm actually not a fan of implanted RFID chips as the fulfillment of the Mark of the Beast, I think that nanotech RFID tattoos are a much more practical application. Perhaps those would still suffer from the same unfortunate side-effect as the human body would still be likely to interpret any RFID technology as tumor inducing foreign matter?

My Way News - Judge Strikes Down Part of Patriot Act
AP reports: "A federal judge struck down parts of the revised USA Patriot Act on Thursday, saying investigators must have a court's approval before they can order Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers."

My Way News - ATM Makers See Ties to Cell Phones, PDAs
AP reports: "Over the past two years, Diebold has won five U.S. patents for applications that enable mobile devices to interact directly with bank ATMs."

Torrent Freak - Congressman wants ISPs to be Copyright Police: With warrentless wiretapping sweeping the US, a leading congressman is proposing similar measures for the Internet. This isn't an attempt at "fighting terror" but instead a new measure to reduce so-called "piracy" by making the ISPs the police force.

The New York Times (Learning to Stop Worrying and Love Surveillance - The Lede - Breaking News - New York Times Blog)asks an important question: "Do normal people care about surveillance?" What do you think?

Secret Spy Court To Consider ACLU Request For Bush Spying Orders - Wired Blogs
Wired News reports: "In a surprising move, a secret spying court ordered the Bush Administration to respond to the ACLU's request for the court to reveal the legal pinnings behind its decisions that gave legal blessing to the government's warrantless wiretapping program. [...] Those orders reportedly include a still-secret decision curtailing the government's spying that led the Administration to successfully press Congress to hurriedly expand the government's spying authority before the summer recess."

CORDIS News - EU project builds European infrastructure for testing biometrics technologies
Cordis reports: "An EU-funded project has begun work on setting up a European infrastructure for the testing and certification of biometrics components and systems. Biometric recognition systems measure the behavioural or physical traits of people. These can be as varied as iris images, fingerprints, the structure of veins in the hand, or even an individual's typing rhythm."

Comment: The EU now enjoys the same standards-setting power as the U.S., the ability to create industry-wide standards that apply for hundreds of millions of consumers and thousands of businesses. Common biometric standards across the EU could lead to a common form of identification for citizens of all the 27 member countries, perhaps even an an EU ID card. Not the mark, of course, but a milestone in ID verification technology.

My Way News - IBM Launches System to Track Medications
AP reports: "To help the pharmaceutical industry combat drug counterfeiting, IBM is launching an electronic pedigree system Thursday that tracks medications through the supply chain until they reach consumers. The system employs radio-frequency identification, or RFID tags, which are already used to track packages of drugs, especially ones popular with counterfeiters."

BBC NEWS - Papuans debate HIV microchipping
The BBC reports: "Legislators in the Indonesian province of Papua are debating whether to approve a bill allowing microchips to be implanted in people with HIV. [...] Parliamentarians are reported to have discussed tattooing those found to be carrying the virus."

My Way News - Chips: High Tech Aids or Tracking Tools?
This AP report is an excellent overview of trends in identity verification technology in general and implanted chips in particular:

To some, the microchip was a wondrous invention - a high-tech helper that could increase security at nuclear plants and military bases, help authorities identify wandering Alzheimer's patients, allow consumers to buy their groceries, literally, with the wave of a chipped hand. To others, the notion of tagging people was Orwellian, a departure from centuries of history and tradition in which people had the right to go and do as they pleased, without being tracked, unless they were harming someone else."

The reports notes several online sites that serve as great resources if you are interested in this subject, including These Last Days Ministries, the American Civil Liberties Union, Katherine Albrecht's AntiChips.com, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

STLtoday - Special ink to mark livestock is in trial stage
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, "The radio-frequency identification product [...] will allow producers of cattle, sheep, goats, hogs and other hair-bearing livestock (but not poultry) to mark, identify and track their animals with an ink tattoo."

Comment: This is a revolutionary technology that combines the simplicity of an ink tattoo with the identity tracking capability of radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips. Let's keep an eye on this one!

My Way News - Europe, U.S. Take U.K. Lead on Cameras
AP reports: "British police quickly closed in on suspects in the failed bomb plots in London and Scotland - only the latest terror investigation to display the crucial role of the country's vast network of surveillance cameras. The system is winning converts in the United States and Europe, to the alarm of some privacy advocates."

My Way News - Restaurants Test Table Card Readers
AP reports: "Pay-at-the-table systems are popular in Europe and other parts of the world, but they haven't yet caught on in the U.S., largely because equipment makers haven't been able to point to a reason why restaurateurs should invest in the gear. Manufacturers now see an opportunity."

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
- George Washington

My Way News - Visa, Wells Fargo to Test Mobile Payment
AP reports: "Visa USA is teaming up with Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) in an experiment aimed at transforming mobile telephones into electronic wallets."

US and allies lay global foundation for biometric border checks - The Register
The Register (UK) reports: "The UK has proposed a transatlantic arrangement for sharing biometric data about travellers as US coalition countries in the 'war on terror' push for a global system to control migration."

My Way News - EU Approves Visa Data System
AP reports: "The European Union on Tuesday approved a European visa data system which will store biometric information like fingerprints and photos on 70 million visa-holders who pass through the EU's borderless travel zone each year."

My Way News - Laser Visas Are Rarely Used
AP reports: "The face- and fingerprint-matching technology that has been touted over the past decade as a sophisticated new way to stop terrorists and illegal immigrants from entering the country through Mexico has one major drawback: U.S. border inspectors almost never use it."

‘RFID is present everywhere - The Economic Times
ET reports: "Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), an automatic identification technology, has come a long way from the World War II days when it was used by the Allied forces to detect aircraft as friends or foes. Today, it is used in sectors as diverse as retail, consumer electronics, transport and healthcare."

Britain: a Call for Surveillance Control - Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle reports: "Britons are increasingly watched and monitored, and stronger safeguards are needed to stop the spread of a climate of fear and suspicion, the country's official privacy watchdog said Tuesday."

Canada, Mexico travel cards under privacy attack | Tech News on ZDNet
ZDNet reports: "A forthcoming travel identification card geared toward Americans who frequently cross U.S. borders into Mexico and Canada is drawing renewed criticism."

McAfee: RFID chips exposing users to danger
Computerworld reports: "The current generation of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is vulnerable to eavesdropping, cloning and forging."

My Way News - New Net Design Must Tackle Interests
AP reports: "Participants in a new network also could include law-enforcement officials, who are already demanding that Internet service providers retrofit the existing network to ease wiretapping of Internet-based phone calls. Governments around the world, including the United States, also could seek ways to block porn and politically sensitive Web sites - and better identify those who distribute the forbidden."

Airports to track passengers with radio ID tags - Telegraph
The Telegraph reports: "Airports plan to track passengers with radio transmitter tags to cut delays and tighten security."

With a zap or swipe of IDs, device helps nab scofflaws - USATODAY.com
USA Today reports: "A handheld device that can tell in a second whether a person is on one of 140 wanted or watch lists is being hailed by police as a crime-fighting breakthrough and flayed by civil libertarians as an intrusion on the innocent."

Computerworld - Second state expected to nix forced RFID chipping: "North Dakota is set to ban the forced implantation of radio frequency technology (RFID) chips into people."

My Way News - Wash. State to Test 'Enhanced' Licenses
AP reports: "High-security driver's licenses aimed at letting U.S. citizens return from Canada without a passport could be adopted elsewhere if Washington state's experiment works, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. [...] Radio frequency ID chips and other advanced security features also would make the enhanced licenses less vulnerable to forgery."

My Way News - EU to Write Rules on Data Tag Privacy
AP reports: "Privacy and security need to be built into radio frequency identification tags before they become widespread, the European Commission said, announcing it would publish guidelines later this year."

My Way News - Belgium Launches Mobile Payment Service
AP reports: "People can now make payments from anywhere - even if the check is lost in the mail - under a secure payment software, called m-banxafe, developed by payment card operator Banksys and the country's three mobile phone operators, Base, Mobistar and Proximus."

My Way News - Degree Offered in Biometric Security
AP reports: "Biometric security - which identifies people based on unique personal characteristics - has become more common since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Government agencies and private businesses are investing in biometric devices that grant or block access after scanning fingerprints, eyes, facial features or vocal patterns."

My Way News - Hitachi Shows Off Powder-Sized Smart Tag
AP reports: "Tiny computer chips used for tracking food, tickets and other items are getting even smaller. Hitachi Ltd. (HIT), a Japanese electronics maker, recently showed off radio frequency identification, or RFID, chips that are just 0.002 inches by 0.002 inches and look like bits of powder. They're thin enough to be embedded in a piece of paper, company spokesman Masayuki Takeuchi said Thursday."

Biometrics to ease CIOs' cell phone concerns - Yahoo! News
InfoWorld reports: "A biometric systems vendor has a pitch for CIOs nervous about company executives losing their mobile phones and risking the loss of confidential information. [...] Germano sees opportunities for biometric fingerprint sensors in phones equipped with NFC technology to provide mobile payment and security services, for enterprise users and consumers alike."

A Medical ID Business, Much Criticized, Plans a Stock Offering - New York Times
NYT reports, "Applied Digital Solutions has made headlines in recent years, and appalled privacy advocates, with its technology to implant radio chip into humans. Now Applied Digital, of Delray Beach, Fla., is about to test Wall Street’s interest with an initial public offering as soon as Thursday in the nascent business, the VeriChip Corporation. But some analysts are finding the effort to raise about $30 million from public investors nearly as disconcerting as the privacy advocates find the technology."

Techdirt: German Court Says Police Cannot Put Spyware On Someone's Computer
Teckdirt reports: "As various legal systems grapple with new, technology-related issue, it appears that a German court has come down firmly against the idea of allowing police to use remote spying techniques to record what a suspect does on his or her computer."

The Register - High-tech tattoo more than a pretty picture: Somark Innovations, a small company working out of Saint Louis, has successfully tested an RFID tattoo, on cows, mice and rats: enabling an identifying number embedded under the skin to be read from over a meter away.

Wow, that is so mark. Get it?