HAPPY 4th of July: Unique News with a BTC Spin

We here at BeatTheChip can get bored with all the same old "Real ID IS REALLY REALLY BAD," all of the time.  So we decided to freshen it up with some World and Technology news.

So get some BBQ'd food  and a drink and read this, it may free your mind...

What happens when Nacho Libre meets federales imposing consequences over his national ID?  No better story than the truth, as NewsWeek tells the story of a Mexican boxing contender fighting his way out of a bureaucratic comedy of errors with his national ID.

A Juneau travel agent has had it with TSA "abusing it" when it comes to travellers who can't board their flight over possessing a Real ID license. He is suing Alaska's DMV for implementing the Real ID Act saying , "As of 1 July, it is a pain in the ass to get a driver's license," Scannell said.

It's good that he has this Alaskan running for Senate to help out. (Listen carefully - there are fireworks going off!):

Apparently the UK has similar problems with a national ID program and their "vunterland" security chief . They are fighting back, as The Guardian UK reports:

"Britain's leading airline bosses have accused the government of using their industry as a political pawn in the national identity card debate by forcing aviation workers to join the scheme next year.

In a scathing letter to the home secretary, Jaqui Smith, the chief executives of British Airways, easyJet, Virgin Atlantic and BMI said that forcing airport workers to have and ID card from November next year was "unnecessary" and  "unjustified".

Here's a story on the burgeoning market for surveillance technologies that can track you AND attack you.  Apparently 2008 is a great year to being the war and surveillance technologies business, as Seeking Alpha reports.  Amid our "resilient" heros is L1 Technologies.  I wonder if they ever got us that head shot of their Board Member- former CIA chief, George Tenet.

Canada is getting in on the new money, making all kinds of weird demands on Real Estate brokers for ID reporting with every single transaction.  You might want to look for these mild mannered looking guys while you're at it.

Meanwhile back in the U.S. - Virginia to be exact - a retail employee with some balls and ethics teams up with Congressman Ed Markey to AVENGE RIGHTEOUSLY the following:

"An unknown number of customers had their personal information stolen  in {a corporate} hacking - which may have been going on for up to three years, according to TJX officials."

WHAT?!  CORPORATIONS HACK INTO DATABASES FOR PRIVATE INFORMATION?!!

Oh well, public-private entities have just made all of that insidious dirt work legal parsing for the course. Our favorite legal cretin is AAMVA- if you have a magnetic strip on your license they've been selling your information in their "private" sector for years.

I am still tracking down an absolutely BRILLIANT story I read about a man in Florida the suing the US government over the sale of his facial biometrics as "information".  The lawsuit has more to do with a type of copyright infringement, the US government didn't get his express consent to license his image to sale to corporate vendors (through people like AAMVA).   

We can do that? We can sue our government over selling our images and private information?

Hell - class action lawsuits may pile up after all!

DHS thinks they are superbad if they can have your biometrics WATERPROOFED!!