Whoa: British SmartCard rollout
From: bill payne <billp@nmol.com> To: webmaster@cylink.com CC: federico pena <" Federico.F.Pena"@hq.doe.gov>, jy@jya.com, john gilmore <gnu@toad.com>, j orlin grabbe <kalliste@aci.net>, cypherpunks@toad.com Subject: Jim Omura
<B>cn010598.txt Electronic Surveillance News January 5, 1998</B>
2 January 1998, Newsbytes: British Govt Announces Smart Card Plans for UK Citizens London, England: Amid the quiet of the Christmas and New Year break, the British government revealed plans for a "citizen's smart card" that will streamline the interfacing of British people with their government. In plain English, that translates to a smart card that can be used to allow people to pay all of their taxes, including income tax, national insurance, and local taxes, as well as apply for passports, state benefits, and other forms of government welfare. The idea behind the smart card, according to Peter Kilfoyle, the British public services minister, is that people will be able to use the card to identify themselves to the various government computers, all of which will be interlinked with each other. Kilfoyle claims that there are "huge potential savings" to be had from the introduction of the smart card, although he revealed that possessing a card will be voluntary. When questioned further on this, he admitted, however, that people could find it difficult to operate in the future without such a card. Initially, the citizen's smart card will rely on traditional PIN protection systems to allow a person to ID themselves alongside the card to the government computer systems. In the longer term, and certainly within the next five years, the plan is to allow an individual to use a fingerprint or similar biometric system for positive identification. ---- Fingerprinting everyone on the planet: those of you in CA and a handful of other states have already been fingerprinted "so you can drive". Police will eventually be able to stop anyone and demand to check their fingerprints via cheap small portable scanners. EFF/EPIC etc need to specifically target these biometric systems as being way over the top. Totally unnecessary. ---guy How did you CA cypherpunks feel about being fingerprinted?
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- on or about 980203:2223, in <199802040323.WAA16673@panix2.panix.com>, Information Security <guy@panix.com> was purported to have expostulated to perpetuate an opinion:
How did you CA cypherpunks feel about being fingerprinted?
well, I would have gone up to Nevada to get a license, but they have been doing it longer than CA. now Utah is doing it.... it will be universal before long. when I asked in CA if I could refuse to be fingerprinted, they said; "sure... as long as you dont want a license" --real white of 'em. Utah said basically the same thing. that and they already have us feeling like. when cash is outlawed, only outlaws will have cash. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: latin1 Comment: No safety this side of the grave. Never was; never will be iQBVAwUBNNkD37R8UA6T6u61AQGIrgH+JJ0ZcKx52zDG9VKAA1t02Qvlp0D2Jq7A /jx1FBDn0pydATuRVItBXZvv8rP4RjaRgrBqtM7duPDg2MA0ctgWeQ== =nWmP -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Attila T. Hun wrote:
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on or about 980203:2223, in <199802040323.WAA16673@panix2.panix.com>, Information Security <guy@panix.com> was purported to have expostulated to perpetuate an opinion:
How did you CA cypherpunks feel about being fingerprinted?
well, I would have gone up to Nevada to get a license, but they have been doing it longer than CA. now Utah is doing it.... it will be universal before long. when I asked in CA if I could refuse to be fingerprinted, they said; "sure... as long as you dont want a license" --real white of 'em. Utah said basically the same thing.
If your interested in this problem, I believe that the Georgia wing of the EFF is mounting a campaign against fingerprinting on driver's licenses. Can't remember the URL for it though... jim burnes
At 7:40 AM -0800 2/6/98, Bill Stewart wrote:
How did you CA cypherpunks feel about being fingerprinted?
Well, if I'd been thinking about it, I'd have put some rubber cement and whiteout on my thumb before getting the license :-) More the issue at the time was that the politicians were busy deciding that your ability to drive safely obviously depended on whether your citizenship papers were in order (the month I got it they'd temporarily stopped doing that.) I recently renewed the license, and they didn't ask for papers or thumbprints, but they still don't print the license at the remote DMV offices; they print them centrally because it simplifies verifying your information with the INS thugs.
And don't forget the "Department of Deadbeat Dads" thugs. As I recall things, there was a bill passed in the California legislature to beef up computerized tracking of driver-units so that deabeat-units can be identified and marked for collection. The invasions of privacy in the driver's license process is just symptomatic of a larger problem: * government claims that some activity is a "privilege, not a right," and so claims that normal constitutional protections are irrelevant. (One wonders if they believe the First Amendment doesn't apply, that Big Brother may monitor what drivers are saying and deny licenses to political troublemakers: "driving is a privilege, not a right.") * government claims that the "regulation of commerce" language applies much more broadly than the original interstate commerce and very general rule-making language. (One abuse of this was to say that if a student received federal loans, a college could not practice certain of its normal practices...and the college was forbidden from stopping the student from receiving these loans! Catch-22. At this rate, churches will come under federal regulation because they receive Postal Service deliveries. Or because government roads are their only access. And so on.)
Back when I lived in New Jersey, the cops would set up traffic stops not only to look for drunk drivers (at 9am?!), but also to check if your papers were in order. I haven't seen much of that in California, but presumably the Southern part of the state does it more often to catch Spanish speakers who are loose in the population.
Warrantless roadblocks are in place in my town, and, according to the local newspaper, any driver who is seen turning around so as to avoid the roadblock check will have his vehicle subject to detailed search. --Tim May Just Say No to "Big Brother Inside" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^3,021,377 | black markets, collapse of governments.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 07:40 AM 2/6/98 -0800, Bill Stewart wrote:
How did you CA cypherpunks feel about being fingerprinted?
Well, if I'd been thinking about it, I'd have put some rubber cement and whiteout on my thumb before getting the license :-)
A person of my acquaintance was recently involved in a traffic accident in a Northeast state. Out-of-state (but in country) car registered in someone else's name and carrying a drivers license issued by a NATO ally. Ticketed for running a red light. No further problems. Could have been a deadbeat dad for all I know... As legal as church on a Sunday. DCF "Has anyone noticed that there are *more* foreigners around here than there used to be before they started cracking down on illegals." -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0 Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBNNvWgoVO4r4sgSPhAQEvvAQAshcy4goUXXpkNqTqjyuUtI6afHXfxnn+ yRQ6yoCGXnp/eBxqKjvYiPzNjGj/wHwBOyVRQIvvvtZ4HXEKAffQ7PbNu19/DlSV h5c7g8YVYTEsG2nqymfi919dAWDzPKN7JRpfkZxSw50zYsZ5dlIBnOe+3twj5jW6 +auNqh0o8YQ= =3kId -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
How did you CA cypherpunks feel about being fingerprinted?
Well, if I'd been thinking about it, I'd have put some rubber cement and whiteout on my thumb before getting the license :-) More the issue at the time was that the politicians were busy deciding that your ability to drive safely obviously depended on whether your citizenship papers were in order (the month I got it they'd temporarily stopped doing that.) I recently renewed the license, and they didn't ask for papers or thumbprints, but they still don't print the license at the remote DMV offices; they print them centrally because it simplifies verifying your information with the INS thugs. The citizenship papers issue has basically doubled the market for counterfeit licenses; it's not just excessively bad drivers who bribe DMV employees any more. Back when I lived in New Jersey, the cops would set up traffic stops not only to look for drunk drivers (at 9am?!), but also to check if your papers were in order. I haven't seen much of that in California, but presumably the Southern part of the state does it more often to catch Spanish speakers who are loose in the population. Thanks! Bill Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639
participants (6)
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Attila T. Hun
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Bill Stewart
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Duncan Frissell
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Information Security
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Jim Burnes
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Tim May