TWIC port card pilot program on the ropes

c/o HSToday.us

"Data collected by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) during a pilot for readers of transportation worker identification cards is so bad that Congress should ignore it and order a new security assessment of the project, congressional investigators have reported." 

:::MORE HERE::: 

Big Data is not what you want in exchange for Christmas

Ask customer service about return/exchange policies before you buy this Holiday Season

UPDATE 11/23 - Correction - Liz at Spychips wants to do something with the idea, but can't officiate CASPIAN as spokesperson. 

UPDATE 2PM CST -  CASPIAN teaming up on the Greedy/Vice list. 

BTC Commentary --  Last Christmas it was Best Buy. This Summer it was Walgreens. This fall it was Target. Now pushing into this Christmas, Michael's Art Supply started scanning driver's licenses during retail exchanges at the register.  These businesses disclose demand for photo ID as consumer policy, typically on receipts after the shopping is done. Typically, there is no privacy protection offered to you for information you voluntarily give up to these stores.  They demand it and then they sell it to whomever they want.  That's a bad bargain.

In American shopping culture, where impulse is encouraged during holiday season, more people will be asked for a drivers license before, during or after during returns or exchanges gifts or purchases as POS policy.  I expect a third of shopping America to go along with it. However, if your reading this blog, that won't be you.

How can you beat Big Christmas when it's marketing the sales of drivers license information to 3rd party Big Data monitors?

RT @garrettcobarr: #PrivChat A2: I do not see any particular problem with #BigData if it is thoroughly anonymized |Not sure this can be done
— Privacyactivism (@Privacyactivism) November 20, 2012

STAND & DELIVER: Hernandez takes her business elsewhere

UPDATE 2PM 11/21: Bexar County Judge grants court restraint of expulsion order, in favor of Andrea Hernandez.

c/o GovtSlaves by way of Aaron Dykes at Infowars.com 

"After months of protesting a policy requiring high school students to wear an RFID-enabled ID badge around their necks at all times, Andrea Hernandez is being involuntarily withdrawn from John Jay High School in San Antonio effective November 26th, according to a letter sent by the district that has now been made public. 

The letter, sent on November 13, informs her father that the Smart ID program, which was phased in with the new school year, is now in “full implementation” and requires all students to comply by wearing the location-tracking badges. 

Since Andrea Hernandez has refused to wear the badge, she is being withdrawn from the magnate school and her program at the Science and Engineering Academy, and instead will have to attend William Howard Taft HS, which is not currently involved in the ID scheme, unless she changes her position."

BTC Commentary --  Andrea Hernandez has been the frontrunner in a fight where technology demands unconditional obedience to a hidden instructor.  Whether it's militarized drones or the call of Big Data on your Christmas shopping, you can't turn your neck anymore without some element of the surveillance state wanting something they don't deserve.  Ms. Hernandez is proof there is an evolving market for those who want options to distance themselves from digital surveillance mandates.

Rival PA lawmakers finding common ground in debate over tracking private information

".. the so-called "REAL ID ban," Senate bill No. 354, which passed by overwhelming majorities in both houses, is one of a number of privacy bills that have come before the Legislature during the 2011-2012 session, creating, at times, odd bipartisan bed-fellowships."

:::MORE HERE:::

California State bill would restrict data from license-plate scanners

REDUX: Weekend Review

BTC - Corporations... Government data surveillance; same difference. They both do it.

Here is second life for news that matters.

Mexico starts to use iris scans on ID cards

A National ID Card for Every American c/o Fellowship of The Minds

"In 1998 the Clinton Administration tested such a privately-funded card without the consent or knowledge of Congress. Their card was part of a special healthcare program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The program was initated in five western States and entailed giving women with dependent children free healthcare in the pilot project that actually tested the effectiveness of the biometric cards, which electronically monitored the whereabouts of the cardholder 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by GPS. The test lasted one year. It was deemed to be a success. Our federal government does have the ability, and the desire, to track the whereabouts of its human capital while they work, when they play, and where they sleep. REAL ID, in other words, is REAL Intrusive."

Trial Begins For Seattle Man Who Refused To Show ID At TSA Checkpoint In Albuquerque

Governor gives voter ID bill emergency status in legislative session

U.S. Cancels "Virtual Fence" with Mexico

USCIS e-Verify still flags eligible employees, says GAO

RE: Corporate Data Surveillance, Watch what you say and text

DIY Government: FTC Comment period on *PRIVACY PRACTICES* extended until 2-18-2011

OTHER RELATED NEWS:

Black Budget in the Red

Facebook suspends personal data-sharing feature

The Companies Who Support Censoring the Internet

How Big Brother is watching you from Israel

FILMS TO GO SEE:

Operation Endgame - Illuminates bureaucracy, comedic lunacy of the underground US Intelligence complex; straight to DVD, comes *highly recommended* for entertainment's sake.

Smash His Camera -  Classic rivalry of privacy in the face of public living. Example here.