Anyone know anything else about this? Like any privacy protections (I doubt it), counterfeiting protections, etcetera? Thanks, -Allen Copyright © 1996 Nando.net Copyright © 1996 Bloomberg LONDON (Feb 12, 1996 11:23 a.m. EST) -- Motorola Inc. said it won two contracts to supply microchips for smart cards that will be used by the governments of Spain and the Czech Republic to administer benefit programs. The cards are credit-card sized devices incorporating specially-designed memory chips, called microcontrollers. They have a growing number of applications and can be used instead of cash in stores, at telephone booths, for pay-television and computer-shopping. The largest demand, though, will come from government agencies, like Spain's Social Security Administration and the Czech Republic's Healthcare Ministry. China, with a population of 1.2 billion, is considering a national identification card using this technology, said Waqar Qureshi, Motorola worldwide marketing manager for smart-card chips. [...] Spain has ordered 7 million microprocessors, valued at more than $10 million, from Motorola in the first phase of a nationwide program that could grow to 40 million cards. The chips will store the digitized description of the holders' fingerprints, which should help to reduce fraud. "The smart cards will enable multiple transactions with the Social Security to be carried out in a more secure manner and their use can easily be extended to other services," said a spokesman for the Spanish Social Security Ministry, quoted in a Motorola statement. In the Czech Republic, Motorola is supplying 10,000 chips for a pilot health-insurance program in the Litomerice region. A countrywide health-card project for 10 million people is planned for introduction starting in 1997. [...] "These two contracts, valued at tens of millions of dollars, are prime examples of the growing trend among governments across the world to look at smartcard solutions in the administration of public social services and benefits," said Allan Hughes, Motorola's worldwide smartcard manager. Visa Spain said in December it would launch smart cards to replace the use of cash for transactions as small as buying a pack of cigarettes. With software written in Spanish that already is being used in Miami, Colombia and Argentina, Visa Spain said it intends to place as many as 3 million "Visa Cash" cards a year in circulation in Spain this year.