Big Brother watch...

From time to time, I hear about another new technology being developed that has possible scary implications for personal privacy.

I'm never quite sure how to react to them, because I don't want to be an early "chicken little" yelling that the sky is falling when we're merely experiencing a bit of sleet.

On the other hand, I do think it's important for people to be aware of these things, so that should some governing body try to slip it through quickly, we've already had time to consider the ramifications and not be bamboozled by a slick, quick marketing campaign.

Last week, there was one of these, and I think I avoided commenting on it for "chicken little" reasons. It had to do with HP and Microsoft developing a new potential national ID card, with potential to store all of your private information in one place. There was further discussion on whether this should be a radio-readable card, so that it could be easily scanned. The article claimed that proper encryption was being used to prevent theft of information. Anyone who thinks hundreds of thousands of hackers aren't smarter than 50 or 100 developers please raise your hand.

I thought not.

So, in the interest of public disclosure, not because I think we're necessarily going to find this technology put into use, but just so we know it's out there and MIGHT be, I present this link:

http://networks.silicon.com/mobile/0,39024665,39130983,00.htm


Liam.