Samsung (and your local government) hasn’t been shy with its plans for electrifying passports. Yet we still haven’t seen video of its e-passport with flexible OLED display in action, ’till now. The 2-inch, 240×320 AMOLED displays a disembodied, rotating head in 260k colors and 10k:1 contrast when activated by an RF source reader. No details were provided as to when these might enter production but we have the icky feeling it’ll be sooner than we want.

REAL ID 2.0 is PASS ID. Once they have that finished I’m sure they’d love to waste money and further bring on the police state by increasing the technology in the national IDs.

Reminds me a bit of the handheld devices in Gattaca.

The techie in me loves the technology… I can’t wait till we get the propaganda wallpaper TVs like Fahrenheit 451.

http://www.itnews.com.au/…

The US Department of Homeland Security is set to kickstart a controversial new pilot to scan the fingerprints of travellers departing the United States.

From June, US Customs and Border Patrol will take a fingerprint scan of international travellers exiting the United States from Detroit, while the US Transport Security Administration will take fingerprint scans of international travellers exiting the United States from Atlanta.

Biometric technology such as fingerprint scans has been used by US Customs and Border Patrol for several years to gain a biometric record of non-US citizens entering the United States.

But under the Bush Administration, a plan was formulated to also scan outgoing passengers.

Michael Hardin, a senior policy analyst with the US-Visit Program at the United States Department of Homeland Security told a Biometrics Institute conference today that the DHS will use the data from the trial to “inform us as to where to take [exit screening] next.”

“We are trying to ensure we know more about who came and who left,” he said. “We have a large population of illegal immigrants in the United States – we want to make sure the person getting on the plane really is the person the records show to be leaving.”

The original exit scanning legislation planned by the Bush administration stipulated that airlines would be responsible for conducting the exit fingerprints.

But after much protest, Hardin said the new Obama administration re-considered this legislation two weeks ago and is “not as sold that private sector should be agency for exit fingerprints.”

“The new administration feels that perhaps it is more appropriate that Government should take that role.”

So the Obama administration is a little less fascist and a little more socialist. We already knew he  was more authoritarian so this shouldn’t surprise anyone. New boss just like the old boss.

http://arstechnica.com/…

The fact that there aren’t hard numbers to base these arguments on suggests that many towns are leaping into the use of cameras without ever bothering to look into their safety implications. Denver, for example, had a contract that mandated the reporting of statistics from the cameras, but the city never bothered to ask for them.

As a result, a number of states have now banned their use. To be fair, based on legislative arguments over speed cameras, the bans may have been as much the product of the fact that state legislators don’t want to be caught by them, but the questionable ethics of the red light cameras undoubtedly helped them justify their decision.

But cities aren’t content to see a source of revenue slip from their grasp, especially in the current fiscal environment. A site called theNewspaper.com, which tracks the politics of traffic laws, is reporting that some cities in Texas, which banned the installation of new cameras but grandfathered them in existing contracts, are attempting to evade the intent of the legislature. When faced with the prospect of having their existing contracts with a camera supplier gracefully expire when they run out, Arlington and Southlake are locking themselves into long-term contract extensions. Southlake has extended it for 20 years, by which point technology may have made the whole issue irrelevant.

Apparently, a similar thing happened when Montana passed a bill with exemptions for existing contracts, and the Montana legislature responded by passing a bill that stripped out that exception.

Rather than taking on the legislature, the cities might want to consider doing what they should have done in the first place: perform an analysis that shows that a specific combination of yellow light times and red light cameras actually improves public safety. Given hard data, it might be possible to convince the state that the cameras make sense in ways other than filling out the municipal budget.

Cameras have always been about money and money alone. If it was about safety they would be wholey owned by the municipality, run at cost, and all these stories about shorter yellows and such would never had occurred. The data I’ve looked at shows no conclusive evidence to support the claim that they even protect anyone. Speeding cameras esspecially. The whole idea of speeding is bogus as are most stop signs. If you drive in such a way that puts others at risk or is causing damage to the roadway only then is there a legitimate case for intervention. Artifically attempting to control the flow of traffic is what leads to these ‘requirements’ of speed limits, cameras and whatnot. Unsurprising when you give drivers more responsibility for their action by removing signage they generally become more careful and aware.

http://arstechnica.com/...

Although the Obama administration is indicating that it will be more aggressive about enforcing antitrust regulations, the European Union has been pursuing high-profile cases for years, having levied a large fine against Microsoft back in 2004, and hitting the software giant again last year. The latest target of the EU’s Competition group is the chipmaker Intel and, this morning, the EU announced that it too would face a hefty fine: slightly over €1 billion, which comes in just shy of $1.5 billion. Intel is already promising to appeal but, in the meantime, it’s going to have to drop over half a year of its current profits into a bank account in case its appeal fails.

The full decision, which is over 500 pages long, hasn’t yet been released to the public, but a summary of the EU’s case is available. It focuses primarily on the company’s pricing practices during the years 2002-2005, when Intel was facing growing competition from AMD in the desktop and server space. The EU authorities also cite an instance of similar practices in the notebook space in 2007, a time when that market was rising in prominence.
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Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary has ditched plans for a giant Government database tracking all emails, phone calls and internet activity.

Ms Smith said a central store of electronic data was an “extreme” solution and would have undermined privacy.

Records of every electronic communication made by Britons will instead be held by private companies at a cost of around £2 billion.

Internet firms will be asked to collect and store vast amounts of data, including from social networking sites such as Facebook.

Launching the proposals on Monday, Ms Smith acknowledged concerns over privacy.

She said: “My key priority is to protect the citizens of the UK, and communications data is an essential tool for law enforcement agencies to track murderers and paedophiles, save lives and tackle crime.

“Advances in communications mean that there are ever more sophisticated ways to communicate and we need to ensure that we keep up with the technology being used by those who would seek to do us harm.

“It is essential that the police and other crime-fighting agencies have the tools they need to do their job. However, to be clear, there are absolutely no plans for a single central store.

“We recognise that there is a delicate balance between privacy and security, but to do nothing is not an option as we would be failing in our duty to protect the public.”

She added: “There were two elements that I think people could be concerned about. One was the state holding the data. The other was the data all being concentrated in one place.

“It is to overcome those concerns about privacy that the proposal involves Communication Service Providers retaining the data that comes from them and passes across their networks.”

Under the plans, every internet user will be given a unique ID code and all their data stored in one place.

Government agencies such as the police and security services will access the data to investigate suspected criminals and terrorists.

But it could also be accessed by local authorities and other Government agencies.

Ministers stress the content of messages and online profiles will not be stored.

More fascism. Awesome. That way when the government fucks up they can blame it on the “free market.” As Franklin said… if you are willing to give up your freedom for a little safety you won’t have or be deserving of either.

They should take after the United States’ NSA. They just tap right in and sniff everything. Constitution and public opinion be damned.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…

Drivers face having their every move tracked by a ’spy in the car’ black box.

The system will constantly check a vehicle’s speed – making cameras redundant – and allow for pay-as-you-go tolls.

The £36million EU project is partly funded by the UK Government and backed by car makers and the telecoms industry.

It will be unveiled later this year with a view to its integration into future cars. Manufacturers suggest this could be as early as 2013.

Vehicles fitted with the system will emit a constant ‘heartbeat’ pulse revealing their location, speed and direction of travel.

EU officials believe the technology will significantly reduce road accidents, congestion and carbon emissions.

Engineers say the system will be able to track cars to within a yard, making it significantly more accurate than existing satellite navigation technology.

Experts say the system will link up easily with the pay-as-you-drive road tolls being backed by the Government.

The system allows cars to ‘talk’ to one another and to roads wired up to the system. A communication device behind the dashboard transmits the car’s location every half a second.

The messages are transmitted through mobile and wireless networks, as well as on short-range microwave or infrared routes. Vehicles will be able to warn each other if they are on collision course.

I have a hard time believing that the government or those companies contracted to provide this technology could get it to actually do half of what they claim. I do believe that no matter what they end up with it will be used to harm the people of Europe. Big Brother just keeps on trudging along over there.

Now taking bets on how long they look into doing that in the United States. Yes we have Massachusetts and I believe Washington looking to tax people based on miles driven but this EU program is far more serious.