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?

>>   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

-----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:
> 
> -----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.
> 

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-----