Microsoft Plans Biometric ID Cards

R. A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Wed Feb 25 07:23:31 PST 2004


<http://www.cbronline.com/print_friendly/b6e1a01bb2c038c380256e450038609e>


DATE: 25/02/2004
Microsoft Plans Biometric ID Cards


Microsoft Corp yesterday announced that it plans to get into the identity
card business, as it lifted the veil on software, under the name
Tamper-Resistant Biometric Ids, it currently has under development.

 Demonstrated during Bill Gates' keynote address at the RSA Conference
yesterday, the software comprises a system for producing cards and
subsequently verifying that they have not been altered.

 Cards would consist of a photograph of the bearer, along with some
personal information such as date of birth. The photo and the data would be
hashed and stored in a two-dimensional color "bar code" on the card itself.

 Tampering could be subsequently detected by scanning the entire card and
reperforming the hash, to see if it matched the one on the card. The word
"biometric" seems to be loosely applied here to the fact that the cards
carry photographs.

 Gates did not give a firm data for when the company expects to come to
market with this technology, but it was suggested that it will not be this
year.
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'





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