Biometrics To Be Used On IDs
Minnesota to Use Facial Recognition Technology on IDs -- State will add biometrics component to prevent fake driver's licenses
BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press via Knight Ridder
Minnesota soon will start using biometric face scans to prevent would-be crooks — and underage wannabe smokers and drinkers — from getting fake driver's licenses from the state. Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Thursday announced plans to add biometric facial recognition technology to driver's licenses as part of a broader effort to protect consumers from identity theft and unauthorized use of personal data. That effort will include stiffer criminal penalties for hackers and others who abuse access to personal data on computers. "Identity theft causes great trauma, inconvenience and damage to a lot of people and families," Pawlenty said at a Capitol news conference. He said the state must do more to crack down on identity thieves and strengthen safeguards for personal information. Driver's licenses are one of the state's most important forms of identification, he said, and biometric technology will help law enforcement officers ensure that individuals are who they say they are. The new technology would match an individual's driver's license photo with images in the state's database. Here's how Pawlenty's office described it: "Facial recognition technology converts an image into a mathematical computer algorithm as a basis for a positive match. It uses the structure of a person's face — such as width between the eyes, forehead depth and nose length — to assign mathematical points of reference creating a unique data file." The face scans will enable the state to detect people attempting to obtain licenses using the same photo with multiple names and birth dates, or the same name and birth date with multiple people's photos, said state Public Safety Commissioner Michael Campion. "The technology … will create a higher level of integrity for Minnesota's driver's licenses." Pawlenty said 13 other states use the technology, and it has proved "highly accurate." No new photos will be needed to develop the state's face-scan file. State workers will scan photos on current driver's licenses to create the new file. The new technology will cost about $1 to $2 per driver's license. Pawlenty said an $800,000 federal grant will offset these costs and that he will ask the 2006 Legislature to pay the rest. Although he believes he has the power to implement the new system on his own, he said he would ask the Legislature to approve it. For Minnesota retailers, the new technology means customers will be far less likely to try to use fake identification cards to make purchases, especially of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, said Steve Rush, board chairman of the Minnesota Retailers Association. Businesses will not have equipment to read the face scans, however; only the state will have that ability.
BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press via Knight Ridder
Minnesota soon will start using biometric face scans to prevent would-be crooks — and underage wannabe smokers and drinkers — from getting fake driver's licenses from the state. Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Thursday announced plans to add biometric facial recognition technology to driver's licenses as part of a broader effort to protect consumers from identity theft and unauthorized use of personal data. That effort will include stiffer criminal penalties for hackers and others who abuse access to personal data on computers. "Identity theft causes great trauma, inconvenience and damage to a lot of people and families," Pawlenty said at a Capitol news conference. He said the state must do more to crack down on identity thieves and strengthen safeguards for personal information. Driver's licenses are one of the state's most important forms of identification, he said, and biometric technology will help law enforcement officers ensure that individuals are who they say they are. The new technology would match an individual's driver's license photo with images in the state's database. Here's how Pawlenty's office described it: "Facial recognition technology converts an image into a mathematical computer algorithm as a basis for a positive match. It uses the structure of a person's face — such as width between the eyes, forehead depth and nose length — to assign mathematical points of reference creating a unique data file." The face scans will enable the state to detect people attempting to obtain licenses using the same photo with multiple names and birth dates, or the same name and birth date with multiple people's photos, said state Public Safety Commissioner Michael Campion. "The technology … will create a higher level of integrity for Minnesota's driver's licenses." Pawlenty said 13 other states use the technology, and it has proved "highly accurate." No new photos will be needed to develop the state's face-scan file. State workers will scan photos on current driver's licenses to create the new file. The new technology will cost about $1 to $2 per driver's license. Pawlenty said an $800,000 federal grant will offset these costs and that he will ask the 2006 Legislature to pay the rest. Although he believes he has the power to implement the new system on his own, he said he would ask the Legislature to approve it. For Minnesota retailers, the new technology means customers will be far less likely to try to use fake identification cards to make purchases, especially of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, said Steve Rush, board chairman of the Minnesota Retailers Association. Businesses will not have equipment to read the face scans, however; only the state will have that ability.
New Rfid Technology
RFID tags are miniscule microchips, which already have shrunk to half the size of a grain of sand. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response. You should become familiar with RFID technology because you'll be hearing much more about it soon. Retailers adore the concept. Wal-Mart and the U.K.-based grocery chain Tesco are starting to install "smart shelves" with networked RFID readers. In what will become the largest test of the technology, consumer goods giant Gillette recently said it would purchase 500 million RFID tags from Alien Technology of Morgan Hill, Calif. It becomes unnervingly easy to imagine a scenario where everything you buy that's more expensive than a Snickers will sport RFID tags, which typically include a 64-bit unique identifier yielding about 18 thousand trillion possible values. KSW-Microtec, a German company, has invented washable RFID tags designed to be sewn into clothing. And according to EE Times, the European central bank is considering embedding RFID tags into banknotes by 2005.
Electronic surveillance: it's everywhere and it's growing
170 surveillance cameras on one block! NYC now Camera City. In 2005, the NYCLU counted more than 4,000 street level cameras from the West Village down to Battery Park. The group also found that the 292 cameras along 125th Street in Central Harlem recorded nearly every movement on that busy street. "I would believe the number has dramatically increased" three years later, said Matt Faiella, staff attorney for the NYCLU. The cameras have myriad uses. The NYPD wants to install thousands to protect the city against terrorism. The NYPD's recently released plan to protect the city by installing some 3,000 additional cameras in the city raised concern at the NYCLU because it takes a new step in surveillance by creating a database of license plates and people's movements. The police said the images, including license plate captures, would be erased after 30 days. Because they're continually making new discoveries to increase the effectiveness of biometrics, rfid chips, surveillance cameras, etc., the government may soon be tracking us all. Read the 10 Signposts of a Global Infrastructure For Mass Registration and Surveillance A report by the International Campaign against Mass Surveillance (Pdf File).
"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order." - David Rockefeller
"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order." - David Rockefeller
New Biometric Smart Cards
ActivCard, a specialist in IDentity Management software for remote access, single sign-on and digital ID card solutions, announced an expanded cooperation with its partner Precise Biometrics AB, developer and provider of world-leading and user-friendly biometric security solutions based on fingerprints, to deliver smart card-based identification (ID) badge solutions with biometric authentication. ActivCard has incorporated Precise Biometrics' technology for fingerprint matching on smart cards, "Precise Match-on-Card", to its "ActivCard Gold 2.2" software, the most successful and widely deployed smart ID card middleware platform available on the market today. By verifying the fingerprint that's on the card, the Precise Match-on-Card method guarantees that the reference biometric template (the user's identity) never leaves the card, so it is not subject to theft.
The headlines stated "Europe Is United Again", May 2004
10 nations in eastern Europe and Mediterranean join bloc. Europe stood proudly reunited yesterday almost six decades after it was split in two by the Cold War, as 10 nations in eastern Europe and the Mediterranean took their places in the European Union. The once-communist states of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia officially joined the EU family. Mediterranean islands Cyprus and Malta joined them as well, rounding out what is indisputably the world’s biggest single economic bloc, and a fledgling political force, with a total population of 455 million, the EU now surpasses the United States as the world's biggest economy.
The Coming Antichrist
Like Hitler the antichrist will "have a mouth that will speak very great things, and his look will be more imposing than his fellows." He will think to change times and laws and is referred to as "The King of fierce countenance" who shall "have an understanding of dark sentences." Daniel 7:20, 25; 8:23 Because of this man all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, will be forced to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, so 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. Rev 13:16-17
Will a global religious system the Roman Catholic Church become the Mystery Babylon spoken of in the bible?
In Revelation 17:1-6 The angel said to John come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Cops In Riot Gear - Freedom To Fascism
The Real Threat of Fascism. We all should realize and be aware of the fact that the nations Germany and Italy were liberal democracies before the rise of fascism. Adolf Hilter used the system from inside to gain power politically with the power of propaganda. He was considered a powerful speaker, so he railed against things that he knew the people feared and perceived as threats. In return, those who followed him began to treat Hitler with almost religious adoration. After Martial law was declared in Berlin, the people all over Germany turned to "Fuhrer worship" as they were caught up in the emotions of the Nazi campaign. Next came the elections of March 5, 1933, then the Nazis began a systematic takeover of the state governments throughout Germany, ending a centuries old tradition of local political independence. Armed SA and SS thugs barged into local government offices using the state of emergency decree as a pretext to throw out legitimate office holders and replace them with Nazi Reich commissioners. On March 23, the Nazi controlled Reichstag passed the "Enabling Act." This act finally established Adolph Hitler as the total Dictator of Germany. After this, the "Gleichschaltung" (Synchronizing) began – the total coordination and absorption of the entire nation under the Nazi boot.
Corporate Globalization - A One World Economy
Corporate citizenship in the world economy. Transnational Corporations exert a great deal of power in the globalized world economy. Many corporations are richer and more powerful than the states that seek to regulate them. Through mergers and acquisitions corporations have been growing very rapidly and some of the largest TNCs now have annual profits exceeding the GDPs of many low and medium income countries.