Smart Cards Production To Be Accelerated

[Jai Dee]

Ministries of Interior and ICT to speed up in smart cards' production

The Ministry of Interior is coordinating with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to urgently produceidentification cards with IC chips, or smart cards. Both ministries will also consider the ways to expedite the production process in order to avoid the shortage of ID cards in the future.

Mr. Aree Wong-araya, the Interior Minister, disclosed that the Ministry of Interior is speedily producing smart cards for members of the public as these multi-purpose cards are efficient and economical. At the same time, the ICT Ministry has not been able to deliver more ID cards with IC Chips to the Interior Ministry yet. Thus, the Cabinet will consider the approval for the Department of Local Administration to be responsible in procuring normal ID cards until the ICT Ministry can send the ID cards with IC chips to the Interior Ministry on time.

However, people have to exchange their normal ID cards for smart cards later on even though it can consume more time and money. The government plans for all Thai citizens to hold their own smart cards by the end of 2008.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 07 November 2006

[Hermano Lobo]

I thought I might avoid this nonsense in Thailand. Here is an article from the UK Daily Mirror. I fear this is the trend the World is heading towards. It IS a form of sophisticated slavery.

EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE, EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE, THEY'LL BE.. WATCHING YOU

It's Britain in 2016 when cameras and microchips control daily life

By Antonia Hoyle

Daily Mirror 4th November 2006

THE minute I get out of bed, the microchip in my arm tells my kettle to boil, my bath to run and my electric car to warm up.

I start the vehicle with a fingertip - it needs to scan my prints before it will go.

And I dare not exceed the speed limit, or the chip in the car will inform a police computer. Welcome to Britain, November 2016. Welcome to an age in which every step you take is watched.

Back in November 2006, the Government's Information Commissioner, the man responsible for safeguarding our privacy, voiced concern at the increasingly pervasive "surveillance society all around us".

Richard Thomas pointed out there were 4.2 million CCTV cameras - one for every 14 people - with the average person captured on more than 300 screens a day. In 2016, that seems like small fry.

His report warned that hi-tech scanners, tags and microscopic cameras would mean that in just a decade's time none of us would be able to go unnoticed again.

Now, as I drive to work watching one of his successors on my in-car HDTV repeating the same fears, I reflect on how accurate Mr Thomas was.

For instance, it is pointless removing the chip in my vehicle as overhead spy planes report all speeding to police anyway. As I enter the congestion zone, now in place in every UK city, there's no need to worry about paying the £210 charge - it's automatically deducted from my bank account.

There are benefits to all this, as I am reminded when my local council calls me on my videophone at lunch time. My son isn't eating his vegetables at school. They know because the electronic card he uses to pay for them records his choice of meals.

While telling him off, I also mention the length of time he's spending online when he should be doing his homework. How do I know? It's all on his digital school card.

Then I head to a high street shop. There aren't many these days as almost everyone buys online. As I enter, a holographic ad flashes up on a screen at my eye level.

The virtual shopgirl is urging me to buy a blouse like my other ones, only better. The advertising firm knows I'm tempted because it knows everything about me.

A chip in my trousers told it my size, likes, dislikes and buying habits as soon as I came in. For a virtual shopgirl she's being really attentive. But then she knows I've just been paid and how much I have in my bank.

She shouldn't have such details, of course, as they are supposed to be confidential. But in the hi-tech Britain of 2016, information like this is so valuable - and so easily leaked.

WHEN it's time to pay, there's no need for a credit card. I simply swipe my arm against a digital reader and the chip embedded under my skin sends a signal to my bank.

Back at work, I have to stand in front of another hi-tech reader which scans my face before letting me in. At my computer, gone are old-fashioned passwords. Instead it scans my iris before I can log on.

Then I try to hire a nanny. But various agencies tell me hundreds of women on their books are unsuitable. They had gone to GPs with depression but their medical records have been secretly passed on. Millions are in the same boat, their DNA and other details stored on file despite having committed no crime.

Before starting a job, everyone must go through extensive biometric tests.

And it's pointless trying to hide the fact you beat a drug habit 15 years ago or have a family history of cancer.

Your employer probably has those details anyway and may decide they are sufficient not to hire you.

The wealthy, of course, get around this and hire expensive data management firms to safeguard their details.

The rest of us are not so lucky. My husband, for instance. I suspect he has a mistress, which he denies.

But all I had to do was visit Google and type: "What was Simon doing on January 28 at 3.35pm?" to learn he was in her bed. That's ever-present cameras for you. As I leave work, cameras in lampposts re-create a 3-D image of the street and my face to send to police.

There has been a spate of thefts and they need to ensure I am not a suspect.

As I near home, the chip in my arm sends signals about my body to my thermostat. Knowing I'm a bit chilly, it turns the heating up a degree.

Back in my living room, I turn on a camera to talk to Mum 200 miles away.

I KNOW her knee is playing up, thanks to a sensor embedded in her that has sent signals to my computer and her carer's.

Mum would rather see me in person but it's so difficult finding the time.

I switch on the TV and a list of my favourite shows pops up. That's because I've programmed them into my microchip and don't need to channelsurf with the remote any more.

Nor do I have to go shopping. My fridge's computer knows when I'm low on food and orders from the supermarket, which brings it to my door.

Then it's bedtime. I don't need to set an alarm as my microchip senses my brain activity and tells my clock radio when to wake me up.

When it does, the Prime Minister is on, saying things are far better now we know one another's every move. Of course he's right. Isn't he?

You might like these sites:-

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7...cking+Democracy

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...e#StartComments

Edited November 8, 2006 by Hermano Lobo

[Laulen]

What a nightmare scenario this Daily Mail article is!

Funny thing is, it has started in the United Kingdom already!

I was travelling down the M40 Birmingham to London motorway this morning. They are erecting motorway information matrix signs approximately every 0.5 mile or 1 kilometre. On top of each is a CCTV camera, complete with windscreen wiper.

Officially, this is to help the 'free flow' of traffic and to warn approaching motorists of traffic snarl ups. Me thinks this also has a dual use; the fight against terrorism can now monitor anyone's minute by minute journey on a motorway.

So much for the often repeated adage 'if you have done nothing wrong, you have got nothing to hide!'

[Hermano Lobo]

What a nightmare scenario this Daily Mail article is!

Funny thing is, it has started in the United Kingdom already!

I was travelling down the M40 Birmingham to London motorway this morning. They are erecting motorway information matrix signs approximately every 0.5 mile or 1 kilometre. On top of each is a CCTV camera, complete with windscreen wiper.

Officially, this is to help the 'free flow' of traffic and to warn approaching motorists of traffic snarl ups. Me thinks this also has a dual use; the fight against terrorism can now monitor anyone's minute by minute journey on a motorway.

So much for the often repeated adage 'if you have done nothing wrong, you have got nothing to hide!'

I found this article disturbing for obvious reasons:-

BRITAIN: The mysterious case of the disappearing 'terror' plots - (Ignore the wrong date on the website article.)

I gets even more interesting with this news release:-

1600 young British Muslims under MI5 surveillance for plotting terror

The first article will make you think a lot about the second.

Edited November 10, 2006 by Hermano Lobo