Comments on: Patriot Act redux?

CNET News.com Washington watcher Declan McCullagh says some in Congress are trying to pass new legislation that uses technology to keep closer tabs on you and me.

Three Questions

1. How is an 'immutable audit' implemented?

2. How policy-based access enforced?

3. How is identification-by-biometric sensors integrated with identity management given that with wide-areas sensor systems (see Intel's IrisNet) the identified party does not opt-in?

These are the questions we have to answer before implementation begins.

[oregonnerd]

establishment of checkpoints

I would expect the establishment of checkpoints as well on major highways, probably between states. If this does occur, the primary purpose of this action has at least apparently become geographical control, which is the first step in establishing more effective governmental control over the populace.
Glenn Charles

[My-Self]

BACK IN THE USSR ...

Years ago, USSR (along with China and other "nice" places) had to create internal frontiers and restrict people's movements to track them and achieve their surveillance goals.

Now, with RFID, biometry cards, giant databases, powerful data mining, location tracking phones, communication interception, post-processed video cameras everywhere, our governments have gone far beyond what those dictators ever though of going.

Ain't it about time for technology aware peoples to speak up ?

Technology Aware may support such things

Technology aware folks are just as likely to be ok with the idea of border checks, etc. Most technology people are in the corporate sector which of course leans heavily in the usual fear-induced living that we have been bombarded with from the government (now that we have had a corporate take over of it) which works right in line with fear of pay cuts and job cuts.

While many high level executives are getting bigger pay outs, the average corporate, technology worker is not getting those benefits anymore. They are threatened by economic downsizing all over, and so competion becomes more fierce, etc. This feeds a cycle of fear and loathing that typifies most americans now. And in such environments the ugly forms of nationalism can take root. Scape goats are found and freedoms lost in the name of security.

Why should technology aware people be any different? Just because they understand how something works doesn't make then any more likely to see the inherent dangers. Those who pioneered television would be aghast at what it has become and created. Obviously some technology people re-alined technology for the abusers.

[John Kuzak]

giant databases

http://www.analogstereo.com/infiniti_i30_owners_manual.htm

FedGov as a religion

Ah, yes, the Federal Government, in fighting radical Islam, has begun to take on the aspects of a religion. No longer is it content to simply administer laws governing geographic areas. Now, it wants to catalog and control human flesh. It demands tribute and it will not be denied. With the addition of thumb-scanning (hand) or iris-scanning (head), the Federal Government will become a state-sponsored religion that closely resembles the final state of affairs in the book of Revelations:

He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.

What will the non-believers do?