John and Doves,

First of all, thank you Patty for the encouraging words. It means a lot to my wife and I. You are right about each person looking up info on the search engines. The system makes it difficult since they changes their keywords constantly.
For "smart card" you also need "chip card", REAL ID ( America) , National ID, Citizen ID ( Europe) ,
crisis card ( Australia) , PIV, multipurpose smart card, multifunction card ( Far East ) , "dream card" ( MidEast) and it is endless.

And to Peggy and Richard McIlveen,
We have been continuously keeping your daughter Shelly in our prayers. May we hear a good report on her surgery ( Thursday the 29th). Also we have posted your news-filled site to our Bulletin Board page and to our links. It is a great help to all of us. Thanks so much.

MJMartin: How right you are that this whole thing is more than just a number; it is an enclosed economic system.
Google is helping out with "Gbuy"
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2248960,00.html

Donna, thanks for "electronic identity cards." It is so hard to believe that children under 12 will be ID-ed, profiled, labeled, numbered, and codified. They've only just begun and have so much of life ahead of them.

To ALL: Where would we all be without the encouragement of each other here at the Doves and John's faithful posting? Thanks again John for this forum and for your diligence.
 

Now here are some good articles relating to RFID and biometric identity.

Last Days of Privacy
"As consumer confidence grows in the large-scale usage of (biometric technology) and standards are more generally comfortably adopted, you're going to see a pretty rapid migration" to it, says Mark Cohn, Unisys vice president for homeland security solutions.
Cohn, a principal architect of the Department of Homeland Security's US-VISIT Exit system, which uses fingerprint technology to run background checks on visa applicants and verify their entry to and arrival from the United States, says Malaysia offers a preview of how the United States may change in the coming years.

Since 2001, the Malay government has issued a biometric "multipurpose card" to Malaysians 12 years and older. The card, which features a thumbprint and photograph, acts as a passport, driver's license, ATM card, toll and parking pass, and medical record that lists blood type and any allergies.

The card is convenient to use -- but it's a nightmare for Malaysians who lose it or have it stolen. Crime syndicates in Malaysia have altered cards with different photographs and used them to give members new identities, though the Malay government insists these identity thieves can't access the original cardholders' personal information. Special chip technology and other password features prevent this, they say. Also, the cardholder's fingerprint -- rather than being visible on the card -- is encrypted in the card itself: To reveal the fingerprint, the card must be inserted into a special biometric device that compares the encrypted print with that of the person claiming to be the cardholder.

For anyone who has read Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four," where "telescreens" keep track of people's lives, this new biometric technology will seem like fiction come to life. It's showing up everywhere. By the end of this year, U.S. passport agencies hope to issue "electronic passports" with computer chips that have digital photos of the holders. With the help of face-recognition machines, airport security can compare a photo with the face of the passport holder. For two years, an American corporation, VeriChip, has sold government-approved electronic chips that are inserted under people's skin to give doctors instant access to patients' medical histories.

In 2008, as mandated by the Real ID Act, states plan to issue driver's licenses linked to a database that includes each license holder's photo and Social Security number. These licenses (civil liberties groups call them national identity cards) will likely include a biometric photo of the driver accessible by authorities.

In the meantime, banks are considering using iris scans and even palm scans at ATMs in an effort to cut down on fraud. (In 1999, Bank United in Texas adopted iris-scan technology at three of its ATMs in a test that was discontinued when Washington Mutual took over the bank.)

Some people love the new technology. Others shun it. "
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/25/ING4DJHBDU1.DTL
 
 

RFID everywhere
More recently, the technology has shown up in contactless payment cards such as Chase's Blink or MasterCard PayPass, on individual items at Wal-Mart and Best Buy, in library books and in U.S. passports. The use of RFID tags is growing so explosively that analysts forecast sales this year alone of 1.3 billion units -- more than half as many tags as were sold in all years up through early 2006.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/articles/3226496.html
 

RFID in the workplace
" We were pleased to see the significance you gave to issues of privacy and surveillance in your speech at the CeBIT summit in Hannover last month and we strongly welcome your pledge that RFID will not compromise the liberty of citizens and their fundamental rights."
Ed ?????

http://www.union-network.org/uniindep.nsf/0/4606CF32F49004EAC1257199002F327B?OpenDocument