Mulling over George Pope to STEVE ASHER 30 May 2004

SA> The Beattie Government is considering partnering with commercial
SA> service providers on the project.

 GP> Of course they are -- whenever the government introduces new
 GP> measures to take away privacy, there's always a corporate shill
 GP> behind it, egging it on. . . :| 

Of course. The good thing is that privacy will always be valued and
respected, and the corporate partners will never misuse the data - the
laws are framed to ensure that any use is not misuse. :)

SA>  The Government said partnering would not compromise the privacy of
SA> licence holders as the different types of information stored on the
SA> chip would be physically separated.

 GP> And, certainly, the government MUST say this!

 GP> After all, they're never held accountable later when such schemes
 GP> are exposed to be nothing but corporate information-gathering!

There was a time when a driver's licence was simply a licence to drive
a motor vehicle - not a licence to enter bars, buy alcohol & tobacco,
book motel rooms etc. Those who keep telling us we need to fight wars
on (insert boogeyman of choice) & preserve freedom would never force
us to carry ID cards ("papers, please") - they will simply make it
impossible or impractical to live without them.

Cheers, Steve..

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