A plan by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has been mostly unsuccessful in implementing its plan to get parents to provide blood samples from their children to create a DNA database so a child’s identity could be proven for a lifetime. The reluctance of parents to participate highlights privacy issues such programs invoke. People are concerned what the government and others with access to the information could do in the future such as tracking individuals or groups for nefarious reasons. The report said that everyone in the U.S. military must now provide a DNA sample. Plans have been suggested recently to require DNA samples also from anyone.

The police commissioner of New York City has proposed taking DNA samples of anyone arrested. He said the samples would be taken along with fingerprints and would solve crimes and help to stop repeat offenders. He was quoted as saying, "The innocents have nothing to fear ...only if you are guilty should you worry about DNA testing." (Rev. 13:15, 16)

Intel Corp. has unveiled plans to embed identification numbers in its PC processors. In doing so, the chip maker could be sounding the death knell for anonymity on the Internet.

"The application is a double edged sword. On the one hand it offers more security--for e-commerce and information security," said Barry Steinhardt, associate director and privacy expert at the American Civil Liberties Union. "As a pure privacy issue, it allows for a means of tracking individuals on the Net."

The plan calls for Intel to put a machine-specific ID and a random number generator in every processor. Users who buy a PC will have the ID number feature turned on automatically. Merchants and other "trusted" parties will be able to verify a user's identity.

"Intel says they're not keeping a database matching users to their ID numbers," said Steinhart, "but the temptation down the road for someone to keep a database will, most likely, be too great. It will happen."

Several American states are accusing the federal government of duping them into allowing pictures of millions of citizens to be gathered in a new computer database which they fear could be used to track people moving around the country.

The system was supposedly set up to prevent fraud from stolen checks and credit cards in addition to being a weapon against terrorism and illegal immigration. Some Americans, however, fear the federal government could use such a surveillance system to monitor citizens with political opinions deemed extreme or dangerous.

The state governments involved sold driving license photographs to Image Data, a New Hampshire company marketing computers to be kept next to shop tills, like credit card authorization machines. The correct, tamper-proof photograph of the owner of the check book or credit card appears on screen, helping shopkeepers to catch criminals. However, Congress put $1.5 million (£938,000) into the project and the Secret Service contributed technical support, raising suspicions that Washington wants to use the system to keep tabs on citizens for reasons other than retail fraud.

An increasing number of companies are spying on their staff, according to a new report. The Institute of Employment Rights has said surveillance techniques are being used on the workforce and are an "alarming" threat to the privacy of workers. It said that intrusive surveillance can lead to insecurity and stress and can even prevent workers organising themselves collectively.

The Institute complained of cases involving: Interception of e-mails, Bosses listening in to call-centre workers to check they are being "chirpy", The use of computers to count key strokes, Companies using infra-red transmitters to record the exact movements of workers. The report said workers at a London hospital discovered surveillance cameras had been secretly placed in staff locker rooms.

The oil company BP has temporarily switched off secret microphones at its petrol stations after staff complaints, according to a newspaper report. The company had set up 148 hidden microphones across the UK to record customers' conversations and, without their knowledge, their workers. Despite the resignation of two members of staff who only found out about the hidden devices after an engineer refurbished a service station in Ayr, the company still plans to install them into all of its 1,600 petrol stations. A BP spokesman told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that the microphones could help identify robbers who sometimes call each other by name during hold-ups.

Big Brother is watching British garbagemen from space to ensure they don't linger too long.

The satellite-based Global Positioning System is so sophisticated that it can even spot if the garbage collectors of Teignmouth in western England stop too long outside a local cafe. Waste management firm Onyx said its 60,000 pound ($100,000) investment was intended to improve service, but local councilors were enraged.

"George Orwell would have had a field day with this one. It sounds as if the days of 1984 and Big Brother have arrived at last," councilor Gordon Plahn told the Times newspaper.