I don't know whether I am more disgusted with our elected officials who steal our privacy rights or the people who parade on television news saying things like this as shown on this video from CNN.
How do we really know they are not saving this information? Well, unless you are part of the "system" there is no way you are going to know for sure. But they are going to know for sure if you have an "innie" or an "outie" when it comes to your navel, along with a lot of other things they have absolutely no business seeing.
Notice how this Mr. Loeb automatically accepts this mechanized method of search as being less intrusive than being "patted down." Since when have we had to make such a horrible choice-hands on or hands off? Please. Surely there is a better way to secure our airlines than to invade the bodies and privacy of a people who are supposedly free.
Oh, I know, there's the mantra of being "safe" and "secure". But there's also the issue of cost and privacy concerns. What I've noticed lately is that for everything the government wants to do that not only invades our privacy and now even our private parts, costs a whole lot of money. Somewhere, someone is going to make a lot of moola off these machines at $150,000.00 each.
The same thing goes for all the surveillance cameras that are now becoming as common as stop lights in the U.S.
For every technological "advance" made in order to make use safer and more secure we sacrfice privacy and our tax dollars. Who is watching the watchers? And why don't I ever get a choice in any of these matters that are suddenly implemented at the expense of my privacy and my money? The answer is probably because most of us with a brain left would never go for such unconstitutional nonsense if we had a choice in these matters.
Here's another wonderful idea cooked up by the government and the illustrious Department of Homeland Security. (As a side note, what is this business of calling the United States of America the "Homeland"? Sounds a lot like something a Nazi would say, doesn't it?) The Real ID Act of 2005 is another egregious assault on our rights and amounts to nothing more than a National ID Card. That's right, just like every other dictator in the history of the world wanted to catalogue and track its citzens, the U.S. Government is now well on its way to doing the same thing. Many states are not happy with the Real ID Act, but don't worry, if your state doesn't go along with it, you as a citizen will no longer be allowed to board an airplane or enter a federal building.
What I find most disturbing is the fact that most state legislatures who are hemming and hawing against the Real ID Act are not doing so because of privacy concerns, it's all about the cost of implementation.
More than 600 organizations have expressed concern over the Real ID Act. Organizations such as the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the American Library Association the Association for Computing Machinery, the National Council of State Legislatures, the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the National Governors Association are among them.
'Real' requirements
The Real ID Act's identity cards will be required if one wants to drive, visit a federal government building, collect Social Security, access a federal government service or use the services of a private entity (such as a bank or an airline) that is required under federal law to verify customer identity.
It will be nearly impossible to live without such an ID. That creates a huge incentive for citizens and residents to get IDs and for states to comply with this unfunded mandate: If they didn't, their citizens and residents wouldn't be able to get access to any of the services or benefits listed above. Estimates of the cost of compliance range from $80 to $100 million -- and states will have to pay.
To get a new approved license, or conform an old one to Real ID, people will have to produce several types of documentation. Those records must prove their name, date of birth, Social Security number, principal residence and that they are lawfully in the United States.
Addresses cannot be P.O. boxes. That will predictably cause problems for people who may fear for their personal safety -- including judges, police officers or domestic violence victims -- or people who may not have a permanent home, such as the homeless, who may be urgently in need of Medicare or other benefits. There needs to be a procedure to ensure these persons' safety and welfare. The Real ID Act has none.
States will be responsible for verifying these documents. That means that, when it comes to birth certificates and other documents, they probably will have to make numerous, onerous confirming calls to state and municipal officials or companies to verify the documents authenticity since it's easy to fake paperwork. In addition, they will have to cross-check Social Security numbers, birthdates,and more against federal databases.
Once created, the IDs must include the information that appears on state-issued driver's licenses and non-driver ID cards -- name, sex, addresses and driver's license or other ID number and a photo.
The act requires photos to be digital so authorities can include them in the multi-state database, which I discuss below. But the IDs must also include additional features that drivers' licenses and non-driver ID cards do not incorporate.
For instance, the ID must include features designed to thwart counterfeiting and identity theft. Unfortunately, while including such features may sound appealing, on the whole, these IDs may make our identities less safe.
Once Real ID is in effect, all 50 states' DMVs will share information in a common database and may also verify information given to them against various federal databases. In addition, it's very possible that such data will be sold to commercial entities: Some states already allow driver's license data to be sold to third parties.
Even with current, unlinked databases, thieves increasingly have turned their attention to DMVs. Once databases are linked, access to the all-state database may turn out to be a bonanza for identity thieves.
Finally, the IDs must include a "common machine-readable technology" that must meet requirements set out by the Department of Homeland Security. And, somewhat ominously, Homeland Security is permitted to add additional requirements -- which could include "biometric identifiers" such as our fingerprints or a retinal scan.
Privacy violations risks
It's that "machine-readable technology" requirement, along with the possibility of Homeland Security add-ons, that raises the most serious risk that the Real ID Act will cause privacy violations. (The fact that the technology must be "common" also raises the already-high risk of identity theft.)
Many commentators predict that radio frequency identification (RFID) tags will be placed in our licenses. (Other alternatives include a magnetic strip or enhanced bar code). In the past, the Department of Homeland Security has indicated it likes the concept of RFID chips.
RFID tags emit radio frequency signals. Significantly, those signals would allow the government to track the movement of our cards and us.
Private businesses may be able to use remote scanners to read RFID tags too, and add to the digital dossiers they may already be compiling. If different merchants combine their data -- you can imagine the sorts of profiles that will develop. And unlike with a grocery store checkout, we may have no idea the scan is even occurring; no telltale beep will alert us.
The State Department -- which is going to be use RFID devices in our passports -- is including some safeguards, but the Real ID Act requires none. At a minimum, the Real ID Act ought to be amended to ensure that -- as will be the case with passports -- national IDs have covers that will prevent them from being scanned when closed, and that the data inside will be encrypted so that it cannot be read until, and unless, it has been swiped and activated through a reader.
Act amendments
The Real ID Act ought to include the same privacy measures -- encryption, and some sort of metallic covers -- that the State Department uses to protect the privacy of passports.
And the Real ID Act ought to be amended to allow persons in danger to give only a P.O. box address; to accommodate the reality that homeless people may have neither an address nor a P.O. box.
In addition, Congress should appropriate funding to help the states in what will be a massive compliance effort -- rather than leaving them with this expensive, unfunded mandate. Lack of funding will only encourage the states to cut corners, defeating the act's purpose.
Finally, states should be able to choose to provide licenses to undocumented immigrants. Otherwise, such immigrants may end up driving without licenses or insurance. If they have accidents, their victims will have no recourse. And it's likely they will have accidents -- for there will be no reason for them to take driving lessons or tests, since a license will be out of the question.
RFID tags are soon going to be everywhere, even in your undies. Stores like WalMart and other big box stores are already using them to track inventory.
And let's not forget about the FDA approved human implantable microchips which are touted as a great advance for our safety and security. With these implants, you can't lose them, they're always there--under your skin. Every government that has become a dictatorship always picks on the weakest members of society. In the case of the implantable microchips, it started out with the issue of lost pets and it's a matter of course for veterinarians to offer up the chip to help you find Fido in the event he takes missing. How about keeping your animal on a leash, inside the house or in a fenced in yard and not let them roam free to begin with? Are we so irresponsible as pet owners that we need this type of technology? It sounds great on the surface, but a little research will tell you that most shelters don't even scan or have the capability to scan for these chips, so Fido is up a creek anyway.
And now we have the chips being touted as a wonderful tool in finding lost children or people with Alzheimers, people who arrive unconscious to an emergency room can be scanned if they have the chip and all their medical records will be a simple click away. But that is only if the hospital has the capability to scan these chips.
The problem, critics say, is that microchipped products might very well do a whole lot more.
With tags in so many objects, relaying information to databases that can be linked to credit and bank cards, almost no aspect of life may soon be safe from the prying eyes of corporations and governments, says Mark Rasch, former head of the computer-crime unit of the U.S. Justice Department.
By placing sniffers in strategic areas, companies can invisibly "rifle through people's pockets, purses, suitcases, briefcases, luggage _ and possibly their kitchens and bedrooms _ anytime of the day or night," says Rasch, now managing director of technology at FTI Consulting Inc., a Baltimore-based company.
In an RFID world, "You've got the possibility of unauthorized people learning stuff about who you are, what you've bought, how and where you've bought it ... It's like saying, 'Well, who wants to look through my medicine cabinet?'"
He imagines a time when anyone from police to identity thieves to stalkers might scan locked car trunks, garages or home offices from a distance. "Think of it as a high-tech form of Dumpster diving," says Rasch, who's also concerned about data gathered by "spy" appliances in the home.
"It's going to be used in unintended ways by third parties _ not just the government, but private investigators, marketers, lawyers building a case against you ..."
There is so much going on right now that is just plain wrong and I could expand this article to the length of War and Peace, but I hope that you will take the initiative and research for yourself exactly what is being done to you.
Farm animals are now to be tagged with RFID at a cost of $30.00 per animal. This is to ensure there is no disease, the powers that be claim they can protect us with this method of tracking. I wonder what they are going to do about the fish? In my world, where I wear New World Government goggles at all times these days, this appears to be just one more way to control the people who own the animals. And you've got to admit, he who controls the food very defiinitely controls the people.
I will leave you with this chilling video. If you didn't know about IBM's involvement in the Holocaust, it's time you did.
