Wednesday, October 19, 2005

In Italy you need now to show your passport to access the Internet 

Want to check your e-mail? Bring your passport.

An anti-terror law makes Internet cafe managers check their client's IDs and track the websites they visit, reports Sophia Celeste in the Christian Science Monitor:

After Italy passed a new antiterrorism package in July, authorities ordered managers offering public communications services, like Mr. Savoni,to make passport photocopies of every customer seeking to use the Internet, phone, or fax.

This new law creates a heavy atmosphere," says Savoni, his desk cluttered with passport photocopies. He is visibly irritated, as he proceeds to halt clients at the door for their ID.

....

Like other owners of Internet cafes, Savoni had to obtain a new public communications business license, and purchase tracking software that costs up to $1,600.

The software saves a list of all sites visited by clients, and Internet cafe operators must periodically turn this list into their local police headquarters.

and he rants on:

Most tourists who wander in from the streets, he explains, leave their passports at home or are discouraged when asked to sign a security disclaimer.

Savoni says the new law violates his privacy, comparing it to America's antiterrorism law that allows authorities to monitor Internet use without notifying the person in question.

"It is a control system like America's Patriot Act," he says.

So will I have to show soon a passport also in the US if I open my laptop at Starbucks?

Does anybody think this is improving security?

On the other hand, this could be improved substancially: you get your passport on a chip and implanted in the ear, like a dog or cow, and Internet access is available. This will then be called Identity 2.o and saves you remembering tons of userIDs and passwords.

A big advantage of this could be that WindowsXP may finally recognize that you are sitting in front of the laptop and does not blank the screen after some time, e.g. if you watch a movie. WindowsXP or maybe Vista may now finally reach the intelligence level urinals have since years.

Comments:
Quote: "It is a control system like America's Patriot Act," he says.

So will I have to show soon a passport also in the US if I open my laptop at Starbucks?
-----------------------------
No, that's absurd. The act does not require showing a passport to access the internet nor is it envisioned from any debate I have read.
 
Of course it is absurd, but that does not mean it is not required at some time and at some place - see Italy
 
Richards comments may be tongue in cheek but RFID devices are already implanted in some revelers at some clubs out of the US to save them from carrying a credit card... Implant at the door, charge drinks by the swipe of an arm over reader, how convenient! move over patriot act - here comes Agents Johny Walker and Jim Beam tracking our every move! That's not dance moves!

I find myself more concerned with Financial and Identity security and privacy being eroded.

RFID blocking and various shielding technologies info:
http://www.mwt-materials.com/
 
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