No doubt such a card will automatically be linked to a Microsoft Passport account, Microsoft Wallet, etc. to make sure that the violation of your privacy can continue unhindered. No doubt, the 2nd step will be to either add an RFID chip inside it plus a reader on the PC... Or setting the next Microsoft PC spec to include a barcode/RFID reader on the PC. (Or perhaps this is already in the spec, just not advertised?) Then you'll need to login with the card, and activating Windows XP, etc. will require the card; all Office documents will be signed/stamped with a GID that matches said card, etc... Hell, it might as well be your SSN... After all, continuing abuse of the social security numbers meets all Microsoft criteria for such a thing: it's a sensitive number, that when handled in an unsecure way (Microsoft's modus operandi, of course) it's guaranteed to open you up to ID, financial, and privacy theft... That said, "Backdoor*" Billy Gee is about two and half years late to share the feed through at the scummy emperor of privacy invasion: You see, both Larry "I wear a kimono" Ellison, and Scooter (formerly known as the "The Dot in dot com" CEO) both had immediate wet dreams of a national ID card right after 9.11.2001. Of course, the former wanted it to involve Oracle, the latter wanted it to be on a Java smartcard... uh huh... Yes, we all know great government issued ID's worked to prevent the disposable terrorists of 9.11. I'm sure that the Microsoft ID will work even better in making us just even more "secure." * "Secure" is a newspeak marketing feechure checklist item which is to be translated the same way as the word love in Ministry of Love, the word peace in the Ministry of Peace, the word truth in the Ministry of Truth. * Backdoor in this case refers not to Billy's preference of human interaction, but rather to the 'More "Secure" than before' feature of Windows XP which was made famous by various trojans, worms, and other self-replicating bits of code. R. A. Hettinga wrote:
<http://www.cbronline.com/print_friendly/b6e1a01bb2c038c380256e450038609e>
DATE: 25/02/2004 Microsoft Plans Biometric ID Cards