A while back, I talked about a solution to the growing problems of ID theft, fraud, and the threat to National Security. Recently the government announced the move to use “Biometrics” for Identifying Immigrants etc. A very good move since many countries now use “Biometrics” as the technology evolves. It is a sophisticated, and much less costly means of protecting ones Identity.
I keep seeing or hearing the term “fair and balanced” in the news almost all the time, but what they do give us is just a “fair” assessment of what is important to report. Usually its mostly negative because that’s what seems to sell the most. But if we were to ask for the “balanced” part of the news, we would then see an entirely different picture of the same news.
This I say because they always skip over what really counts, and to not do so, would shorten the life of what they would like to keep reporting. After all, once they speak of solutions to problems, then there wouldn’t be much in the way to report. Keeping that in mind, lets peek into a recent report from a veteran journalist who speaks of how much of a role, and how much it will cost, to make using Biometrics for Id verification.
The reporter states that it will cost taxpayers a “lot” to build a biometric computer system that can track the fingerprints and photographs of newly arrived foreigners. He goes on to say, it will cost $10 billion, and suggests we hang onto our wallets, as well as a copy of the bill of rights. The task as he says, will be so monumental it will be like building the space shuttle from scratch. Matter of fact his whole article was so full of negative responses to this technology, its a small wonder that most who read it aren’t scared out of their wits.
We also have the “ACLU” who try to speak for the majority in trying to make us aware of the government taking away our invisibility, afforded us by the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights. And that is the right to remain invisible, “if” you obeyed the law, paid your taxes, worked and lived a quiet life, the government would pay no attention to your comings and goings.
Great deal if we still lived in the fifties. But we chased technology back then, and since then we created a monster, because its now chasing us. In other words, we virtually lost control of what we created. We did not prepare for the negative side of what we created. So here we have reports, mostly negative about the costs involved, with the ACLU keeping their heads buried in the sand about the real threat to our invisibility. There isn’t any doubt its “not” the government we have to worry about, but it is those who the government is trying to protect us from.
The real threats are foreign terrorist, as well as domestic terrorist types. They are the sick who seek to destroy ordinary lives by stealing their Identity, and causing financial chaos. They both have in common one thing. They use technology to do it all. The same that protects, can also be used to ruin us.
So getting back to the $10 billion costs involved, I can’t even imagine the logic for concern over that amount, when in my last article, I said, it cost the lending institution $48 billion, and the victims out of pocket loss at $5 billion. I didn’t even mention the cost to the economy of over $50 billion.
Add that up for just last year alone, and project almost double for the coming year, and see if its not worth the effort to spend the paltry $10 billion to rid us of this type of terrorism. Even if the costs were to be triple that amount, its still a bargain when you consider year after year of increasing costs and losses.
Now we come to reality. We no longer live free of intrusion in our lives. Anyone with a computer with some savvy, can get to you one way or another. They do it for sinister reasons. The government would do it to ensure you’re not doing something you shouldn’t be doing. No harm there if you’re innocent, right? So the right to invisibility is no longer a valid expectation, and the cost to the taxpayers for this added protection Biometrics can afford, would be a drop in the bucket compared to what it will cost us if we don’t pay attention.
Our future depends on building our defenses “against” what technology used the wrong way can do to us. Reporting of events “should” be “fair and balanced.” But since it’s almost all negative, I feel the need to share what I believe is very important to all of us by presenting in this article, what the inevitable will be whether we want it or not.
