Aftermath News

Shell Oil provided this photo of a Pay By Touch enrollment kiosk. Chicago drivers have a new way to pay for gasoline: with their fingertips.Ten Shell gas stations in the Windy City are testing biometric systems that let consumers walk up to the pump, scan their fingertips on a device and fill up their vehicles. The systems, also installed at Shell convenience stores, are directly linked to customers’ checking or credit-card accounts for payment.

AP | Nov 1, 2007

By LAUREN TARA LaCAPRA

NEW YORK - Chicago drivers have a new way to pay for gasoline: with their fingertips.

Ten Shell gas stations in the Windy City are testing biometric systems that let consumers walk up to the pump, scan their fingertips on a device and fill up their vehicles. The systems, also installed at Shell convenience stores, are directly linked to customers’ checking or credit-card accounts for payment.

“When we talk to customers, they’re always looking for ways to make buying gasoline quicker and easier, and always looking for ways to make their transactions faster and more secure,” said Chris Susse, Shell’s manager of global refueling innovations. “They don’t want to carry more cards, kits and keychains, and they want it to be free.”

Customers will be able to initially scan their fingerprints at a kiosk inside the gas station and can link payment information either at the store or online.

The biometric devices, made by a San Francisco-based company called Pay By Touch, are one part of a technological trifecta Shell is rolling out at its gas stations.

Shell has partnered with Fuelcast Media International LLC to offer local news, weather and sports on digital screens at the pump. Fuelcast pays Shell for the ability to display advertisements along with the content from local NBC stations. The monitors are installed at 300 Shell stations across the U.S.

In addition, gas station attendants are testing hand-held wireless devices that allow full-service customers to pay electronically at their car window.

The high-tech push is a multi-prong initiative to build customer loyalty, stay ahead of competitors on the technological curve and gain revenue from the Fuelcast deal. Shell said it is the first brand to launch the biometric systems, though expansion hinges on whether its customers take to the futuristic finger scanners.

Brandon Wright, spokesman for the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, said he had not heard of any gas stations using biometrics, but wouldn’t be surprised if they were featured on the “next generation of pumps” as consumers demand quick, convenient payment methods.

Shell, which is part of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, has not yet promoted the systems, so uptake has been minimal, Susse said.

Sunflower Market, a Chicago grocery store, also has Pay By Touch systems installed. About 2 percent of its customers signed up for the payment option, said the store’s manager, Debbie Britton.

“I think it scares people,” Britton said. “They’re more confused about the whole system. Some of them say, ‘Well, now the FBI can find me.’”

Shoppers who consider signing up for such systems should find out whether their information is shared with affiliates or third parties, said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

Shell said it will not share personal information of Pay By Touch customers with third parties, and it still offers traditional forms of payment for those uncomfortable with the system.

Shell officials note that the system is less susceptible to identity theft since it’s impossible to duplicate or steal a fingerprint. Alternatives like cash, credit cards and keychain payment cards with radio-frequency identification chips can be stolen and used by others.

Industrywide adoption depends on whether gas station owners will be willing to pay for new pumps, which can cost “thousands to tens of thousands of dollars,” the PMAA’s Wright said.

Shell is uncertain of how much the high-tech initiative will ultimately cost or how the devices will be received, although the pilot program is not a major expense, Susse said.

Nonetheless, the Houston-based company is betting that making its brand distinct from other gas stations will make customers come back.

“We’d like to see an increase in customer loyalty because we’re the only gas retailer offering this service,” Susse said.

Enabling every car with RFID would help the government track them remotely…

Economic Times | Sep 25, 2007

by Rajat Guha & Nirbhay Kumar

NEW DELHI: The ministry of heavy industries is considering a proposal to make it mandatory to fit RFIDenabled devices in the cars manufactured in India. It will be the responsibility of the car manufacturers to ensure that all new cars have these radio-frequency identification tags. It is believed that RFID tags would help in traffic management as traffic violations by motorists could be tracked and all violations identified. Also, motorists would get charged automatically as soon as they enter a toll area.

The RFID-based system that is proposed to enable tracking of vehicles relies on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transporters . An RFID tag is an object that can be fitted on any object for the purpose of identification using radiowaves.

“The expected increase of cars and SUVs from 2005 to 2035 is 13 times (35.8 million to 236.4 million vehicles), while two wheelers are expected to increase about 6.6 times (35.8 million to 236.4 million vehicles). This coupled with declining share of public transport is leading to severe problem of congestion , inflicting a high cost on the economy in the form of travel delays, loss of productivity and increase in road fatalities and air quality deterioration. Therefore, enabling every car with RFID would help the government track them remotely,” an official said.

In Singapore, public transport buses and trains employ passive RFID cards known as EZ-Link cards. Traffic into crowded downtown areas is regulated by variable tolls imposed using an active tagging system combined with the use of stored-value cards (known as cash cards). RFID is also used in Malaysia Expressways payment system, known as ‘Touch ‘n Go’ . Due to the name and design, the card needs to be touched for usage.

The ministry of urban development has already discussed a similar agenda with many states. The ministry has proposed a ‘core area charge’ for different cities to reduce traffic congestion in the city’s nerve centre. So, people could end up paying a special levy to drive into Connaught Circus, the heart of the Capital.

According to government officials, the important areas in major metropolitan cities like Connaught Place in Delhi, MG Road in Bangalore and Colaba and Andheri in Mumbai have been facing chaotic traffic and attendant environment problems. The Delhi government is planning to substantially increase the parking fee and entrance charge in such core areas to convert them into traffic-free zones.

RFID News | Sep 17, 2007

McDonald’s RFID Reader on PnoneMcDonald’s has teamed up with SK Telecom to offer a new way of ordering. The new ordering scheme, which uses RFID was unveiled at a McDonald’s in western Seoul. According to an article in The Korea Times, customers have to first download a program to their handsets using SK Telecom’s Nate mobile Internet service in order to use the system. Once inside McDonald’s, each table has an RFID enabled menu as well as an RFID reader that plugs into the handsets. Customers plug the reader into their mobile phones, and point them at the item on the menu that they wish to eat or drink. The bill is then charged through the mobile phone and when the meal is ready, the system sends a text message to the phone so the customer can pick up the ready tray at a designated counter.

AP | Jul 31, 2007

by Wayne Parry

OCEAN CITY, N.J.— At the beach of the future, high tide will meet high-tech.

And people won’t even think about trying to sneak in: Beach checkers could scan the sands with handheld devices and instantly know who didn’t pay.

This southern New Jersey city plans to deliver a variety of public services and Internet access using radio-frequency identification chips and Wi-Fi wireless technology. The $3 million project is expected to be finished by next summer.
Beach badges, those plastic or cloth scourges of the Jersey shore, could become a thing of the past. The beach-access fees — $5 per day, $10 for a week, or $20 for the entire summer — will remain.

“This is the future,” said Karen Kinloch, a summer resident. “It’s where we’re at right now. It’s probably overdue. It’s kind of antiquated to take a piece of plastic and pin it to your swimsuit.”

Will McKinley, a badge checker stationed on boardwalk at the 19th Street beach, said the new system would make his job easier.

“It will take the hassle out of going up to people and asking to see their badges,” he said. “They’re more OK with it up here. On the beach, they don’t like to be hassled.”

But the new system also could eliminate McKinley’s job. Last year, Ocean City spent more than $282,000 to pay 170 badge checkers. Jonathan Baltuch, whose Atlanta-based Marketing Resources Inc. is helping the city plan the system, estimated the new gear could cut that cost in half.

Nationwide, nearly 20 coastal municipalities have wireless Internet systems, mostly in California and Florida, according to the Web site MuniWireless.com. But few, if any, boast the kind of features Ocean City is planning.

The system Ocean City is envisioning should be relatively easy to build and operate, said Esme Vos, MuniWireless’ founder. The wide, unobstructed beach, combined with relatively few trees and almost no tall buildings to interfere with wireless signals, all work in Ocean City’s favor, Baltuch said.

Ocean City would use a combination of Wi-Fi to provide Internet access, and RFID, which is the type of tracking technology that libraries and department stores use to make sure no one sneaks books or merchandise out the door.

One feature of the planned technology should prove itself popular with parents — the ability to link one wristband to others. A mother going to the beach with three small children, for instance, could have her bracelet linked to those of her children.

If one of them passes an electronic sensor at the entrance or exit to the boardwalk without the right adult, a text message would instantly be sent to her cell phone.

“I’ve helped lost children try to find their parents on the beach, and that would be a great thing,” Kinloch said. “It’s easy for them to stray off. You only turn your head for a second, and they can be gone. It does happen.”

Even the trash cans on this beach would be high-tech. Special solar-powered units would have sensors that, when the container is three-quarters full, would automatically send an e-mail to the public works department asking a worker to come empty them.

And parking lots near the beach would have signs that would tell drivers the location and number of open spots.

The network would be owned by the city but paid for by a vendor. The city has requested proposals from interested companies, and hopes to award a contract by early September.

The network would enable city officials to know exactly how many people are on the beach at a particular time.

“They can see that at 1:30, there are 60,000 people on the beach, and say ‘Hey, we need to get some more police into that area,’ ” said Baltuch, the consultant.

He estimated the network could generate $14 million in revenue for the city over the first five years, and $12 million for the company that operates it, through user fees and advertisements to be sold on the network.

Security Park | Jul 16, 2007

The smoking ban which came into force on the 1st of July is providing a boost for Newcastle upon Tyne based ‘fingerprint entry’ specialist UK Biometrics Ltd, as nightclubs seek a secure way to allow customers out of their venue for a cigarette.

The city centre location of many nightclubs means installing an outdoor smoking area is not an option. Current ticket, swipe card or hand-stamp identification methods are open to abuse since they can be swapped outside the venue, putting owners at risk of allowing under age drinkers or known trouble makers entrance.

With the UK Biometrics Membership System, developed on Tyneside, nightclub management know that the person re-entering the club after a cigarette break is the person who originally paid to enter.

UK Biometrics Managing Director Matthew James said: “Allowing exit and re-entry to a venue has always been a feature of our system, but we noticed a massive increase in interest when we attended BAR07 exhibition at Earls Court in early June this year. Since then we have been demonstrating the system to venue owners and managers throughout the UK. Our ability to allow people to leave for a smoke and re-enter is a welcome catalyst to sales”.

The first UK nightclub to install a biometric access system was Blu Bambu in Newcastle’s Bigg Market in April 2005 when it was haled by Newcastle City Commander, Chief Superintendent Chris Matchell as “an absolutely brilliant idea”. Since then the system has been installed in clubs and venues throughout the UK.

Customers bring quality ID (passport, driving licence) only once, register their fingerprint on the system, and thereafter staff know exactly who they are. No actual fingerprints are stored so concerns over human rights can be allayed. Instead the system recognises key points on the fingerprint and converts these into data which is then encrypted and stored.

TIMES NEWS NETWORK | JUN 24, 2007

by SHELLEY SINGH

Care to eat chips — not the potato ones in colourful packaging and different flavours but the digital ones, info rich variety! For starters, swallow this: If you happen to be among the select VIP members of the Baja Beach Club, one of Barcelona’s hottest night spots, you’ll not only be in the company of some very exclusive people, but also among the few with an implantable microchip. The chip was club owner Conrad Chase’s idea of offering a unique identity to the club’s VIP patrons.

Slightly larger than a grain of rice, the chip is used to identify people when they enter and pay for drinks. It is injected by a nurse under a local anesthetic. It is an RFID tag — radio frequency identification. RFID tags are miniscule microchips which listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response.

At the Baja Club if a special tag-reader is waved near the arm, a radio signal prompts the chip to transmit an identification number which is used to access information about the wearer from a database. Otherwise the chip is dormant. But its applications are wider.

The Baja club members are not the only users of such geeky stuff. Very soon most people might have some kind of a chip implanted in them, as a means to identify, deliver medicines, monitor health, give access to secure areas and also functions as digital door locks.

Just recently Kodak filed a patent for edible RFID chips. They’re designed for monitoring a patient’s gastric tract. The chips are covered in a harmless gelatin, which eventually dissolves. These RFID chips embed deep in the body and can be read by a scanner. After swallowing a tag a patient need only sit next to a radio source and receiver.

Kodak says that similar radio tags could also be embedded in an artificial knee or hip joint in such a way that they disintegrate as the joint does, warning of the need for surgery. Attaching tags to ordinary pills could also help nurses confirm that a patient has really taken their medicine as ordered.

VeriChip, another American company provides chips to hospitals to manage patients. It also provided chips to the Baja Club. An Israeli company Given Imaging has developed PillCam, a tiny two-sided camera the size of a large pill which patients swallow. It has been used for gastro-intestinal endoscopy tests to diagnose disorders of the oesophagus and the small intestine.

It takes pictures and sends them wirelessly to a recorder worn on the patient’s waist. The images are downloaded to a computer for diagnosis. The $450 capsule passes through the bowel naturally and is flushed down the toilet.

All this is part of what experts like to call “intra-body wireless communications”. In this more than one chip could be embedded in humans and these chips relay information to each other or to a receiver without interference, just as a radio can be tuned to different stations. So in diabetics, for example, an implanted glucose-level reader in one part of the body can communicate with an implanted insulin-pump elsewhere.

With such new innovations it will be more common in future to have some wireless devices which are ingested, implanted or simply attached to the body and linked to a network. It is still early days, but a wireless future with edible chips is clearly looming large on the horizon.

Daily Mail | Apr 8, 2007

Up to 5.9million children face having their fingerprints taken by schools in another move towards a ‘Big Brother’ society.

Pupils will have to hand over their biometric details simply to borrow library books or gain access to school dinners.

£20m payout as the blame culture hits the classroom

A million children’s fingerprints are believed to have been taken already, some without parental approval and even by ‘con tricks’ such as pretend spy games.

Freedom of Information data obtained by the Tories reveals a further 4.9 million sets of prints could now be added to school computers after the vast majority of local education authorities sanctioned the practice.

Critics say it is part of a ’softening-up’ exercise to condition children to accept a creeping surveillance society. They also point to the danger of identity theft, if hackers manage to access school databases.

Phil Booth, of the NO2ID campaign, said: “This is an abrogation of moral duty. Schools should be teaching children to look after their biometric information.

“They are going to grow up in a world where keeping it secure is enormously important, yet they are being taught that it is OK to hand it over for the most trivial of matters. It is a disgrace.”

He added the Government could ultimately seek access to huge amounts of sensitive information by the ‘back door’.

More than 3,500 schools already use systems which allow pupils to take out books by scanning their thumbprints instead of using a card. The technique is also being used in dinner queues.

Now the Conservatives have surveyed every education authority in the country to see if they allow the practice. Only 39 of the 171 that replied said they do not allow it. This means that up to 17,000 schools, with a total of 5.9million children, may already be allowed to fingerprint.

The Tories say that, in some cases, it is being done without parents’ permission. Last month, it emerged a primary school headmaster had persuaded pupils to give their prints by pretending they were playing at being spies.

He reportedly told youngsters at Ghyllside Primary School in Kendal, Cumbria, it was ‘just a game … so there’s no need to tell your parents’. The prints are used to operate the school’s new library system.

Tory frontbencher Damian Green called for a new code to protect youngsters, consisting of the following four points:

• No fingerprinting of children without prior parental consent;

• Coding of information so that no child can be identified from the school database;

• Information should be used only for purposes specified by the school in advance;

• All data to be destroyed when the child leaves the school.

Mr Green said: “Schools use fingerprints as security for libraries, and sometimes to allow access to canteens. If parents have given permission, this is acceptable, but only on strict conditions that every school should follow.

“We must not allow children to assume they are growing up in a world where their private information belongs to someone else. The surveillance state is creeping up on us, and it needs resisting.”

Participating schools, however, insist there is nothing ’sinister’ going on, and that fingerprints are destroyed when the child leaves. They insist it makes libraries a ‘cool’ place to visit.

KFMB News 8 | Mar 16, 2007

Keep in mind, a very large chunk of the economy is being sidetracked into the multi-billion dollar Big Brother Homeland Security boondoggle which sprang up almost overnight since 9/11. Its aim is to create a vast all-encompassing cashless Matrix of total control over every single detail of your life. It also makes billions more for the corrupt elite and their political minions.

More and more of you ignorant, gullible and corrupted boneheads are being sucked into this Orwellian economy, basing your very careers on building your own prison-planet complete with electronic bars. And the CFR elites like Nick Rockefeller surely do laugh at you, thinking just what dumb suckers and marks you are because he knows full well that 9/11 was an inside job designed as a pretext for this very same totalitarian system.

Look, even a caveman figured it out. So when will YOU wake up?

PW

Todd Fortier is banking on the day when ATMs will be required to confirm a user’s face, voice or thumbprint before spitting out cash.

Fortier, 19, is seeking a degree in biometric security at Davenport University, one of the first such programs in the nation. He’s seen trends in favor of biometrics and is confident he’ll be getting into a lucrative field by the time he graduates.

“I think with the advancements in this technology and with how security is becoming a really important issue … I think there’s going to be huge job growth in this field,” Fortier said.

About 55 students are enrolled in either the two- or four-year biometric security degree programs at Davenport, a 141-year-old school of 13,500 students with its main campus in Grand Rapids.

Biometric security - which identifies people based on unique personal characteristics - has become more common since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Government agencies and private businesses are investing in biometric devices that grant or block access after scanning fingerprints, eyes, facial features or vocal patterns.

The industry has grown from barely $300 million in 2001 to more than $2 billion last year, said Russ Ryan of the National Biometric Security Project, a nonprofit consulting service.

Fingerprint scanners have been installed at Walt Disney World theme parks in Florida to help block phony tickets. Iris-recognition devices in airports in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Frankfurt, Germany, are used to help move passengers along.

“Biometrics is the wave of the future. You’re seeing fingerprint scanners or readers on every device, from your laptops to your door entry,” said Scott Meuser, systems specialist for D/A Central Inc., a 50-year-old security company based in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park.

West Virginia University is the only other college in the country with a degree program in biometrics, officials at the two schools said. Since 2000, West Virginia has offered a bachelor’s of science in biometric systems that focuses on the engineering and design of biometric devices.

Free Market News | Mar 13, 2007

The top brass at American Express, chagrined at the discovery of its people tracking plans, met with CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) last week to discuss the issue. One outcome of the meeting was a promise by American Express to review its entire patent portfolio and ensure that any people-tracking plans be accompanied by language requiring consumer notice and consent.

The meeting was organized after CASPIAN called attention to one of the company’s more troublesome patent applications. That patent application, titled “Method and System for Facilitating a Shopping Experience,” describes a Minority Report style blueprint for monitoring consumers through RFID-enabled objects, like the American Express Blue Card.

According to the patent, RFID readers called “consumer trackers” would be placed in store shelving to pick up “consumer identification signals” emitted by RFID-embedded objects carried by shoppers. These would be used to identify people, track their movements, and observe their behavior.

The patent also suggested such people-tracking systems could “be located in a common area of a school, shopping center, bus station or other place of public accommodation.”

Allegations of American Express people-tracking blueprints first came to light at a conference sponsored by the Consumer Federation of America in Washington, D.C. last month. There, Dr. Katherine Albrecht, Founder and Director of CASPIAN, revealed the patent pending plans that she and her “Spychips” co-author Liz McIntyre uncovered in their ongoing RFID research.

Independent | Mar 12, 2007  

Paying for goods with notes and coins could be consigned to history within five years, according to the chief executive of Visa Europe.

Peter Ayliffe said that, by 2012, using credit and debit cards should be cheaper and more convenient than cash.

Some retailers could soon start surcharging customers if they choose to buy products with cash, because of the greater cost of processing these payments, he warned.

Visa Europe briefed the British Retail Consortium last month on new “contactless” cards that can be waved in front of a scanner to make small payments.

However, the consortium dismissed this vision and claimed that card processing fees, which regulators are investigating, are still too high.

One member of the consurtium said that the estimated “interchange” fee charged to retailers amounts to some 4p for each transaction.

Nick Mourant, treasurer at Tesco, said: “There is a duopoly between Mastercard and Visa in the UK. Their setting of fees is anti-competitive.”