That was easy :-)

Stopping bad stuff at conseption is easy than doing it when the bad stuff is fully implimented.

I like to think that my lunch-hour sabotage may have contributed to the failure...

We need to keep our eyes on this one as I'm sure that the chip makers will find another unscrupulous corp to pilot it's chips as quick as you can say 'unscrupulous microchipping bastards'

It'll take much more concerted opposition to resist ID cards...

As of 1 Oct 2003, French citizens with "old", non-computer-readable
passports will no longer be able to visit the USA for short visits
(<90days) without a visa, we'll have to apply for a visa, expect to wait
up to 8 weeks, and have an interview at the US embassy/consulate. But if
we have a computer-readable passport, all is hunky dory, no
visa needed.

The reason is clear. When it's difficult for a middle class person to
buy an "ordinary" computer with *less* than 40Gb of memory, the idea of
storing and circulating a page or two of data on, say, 500 million people
is extremely practical and tempting for authorities, who can certainly pay
for 10-100 times this amount of data storage and handling. 60 years ago all
the "Jews" had to be tracked, now all these "foreigners" have to be tracked.

Orwell, eat your heart out!

 http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=43&ItemID=4031

How is it in the UK? Are passports computer readable? Will UK citizens
with non-computer-readable passports be required to apply for visas, even for
short visits, to the USA?

Time to reread "1984"...

Kudos to the Boston Globe for initially running such an article.

So Gillette have got the message but the fight against this stuff has really only just begun. As the AutoID Centre's ultimate aim is to "Identify Any Object, Anywhere, Automatically" I think we still have much to do. Well done to Indymedia for picking up and running with the RFID issue.

British passports are "machine-readable" as with all EU passports now. Don't know if that's different from 'computer-readable'.

Stop ID cards being introduced (perhaps a bigger battle) www.defy-id.org.uk