At 03:12 PM 6/26/98 EDT, you wrote:
>
>Other cards that have magnetic strips: credit cards, ATM cards,
hotel keys,
>appt keys, et al. The magnetic strips can't be used to somehow
follow your
>movements. But the author of the article seems more interested in
propogating
>a juvenile kind of paranoia than paying much attention to the
benefits of such
>a system or to the fact that the system really doesn't add any new
powers to
>the government but only makes the government more efficient. In any
immensely
>large and complex society such as ours a standardized identification
system
>makes perfect sense. And the presence of it simply has nothing to
do with
>government encroachment of anyone's rights. It DOES have to do with
making
>the government more efficient. The place to protect rights,
however, is in
>the courts and the legislatures, and NOT upon the assumption of
governmental
>inefficiency in enforcing its laws.
>
>Andrew
Unfortunately, ALL credit and debit cards CAN be used to track one's
actions. Every time you use such a card, a central processor is
updated with the transaction data. All that is needed is for a
central governmental agency to require that all such databases be
accessable from a central monitoring computer. This computer can be
programmed to flag every transaction made on a card issued to a
certain person. It is not really necessary to have a national ID card
to have 'Big Brother' watching you.
I do not believe that the US government at present has such a
capability, but these records are subpoenaed regularly during
inverstigations, see what they are doing to Monica Lewinski's book
purchasing records..
Chuck Kuecker
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