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[mouse]

A little bird tells me there is far more of this biometric thing to come in the following year.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-28/popcorn-peanuts-iris-scan-nba-mlb-teams-enter-high-tech-age

Lazaro Torres, a die-hard Miami Heat fan, was scurrying to reach his seat before tip-off one night last month when he hit an all-too-common roadblock: Two dozen fans stirring impatiently in the security-check line. Not a problem. He slid into a special entrance line, laid two fingers on a print scanner and, with the Heat’s rapid blessing, cruised into the arena.

snip

Other companies offer streamlining at stadiums and other venues to government-vetted members of PreCheck, the Transportation Security Administration’s service for airline travelers. And Walt Disney Co. theme parks offer expedited fingerprint-based identity scanning to customers who’ve bought certain passes.

Security advocates and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have been calling for stronger protection at large gatherings since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes. Attacks such as the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 that killed three people added urgency, said Lou Marciani, director of the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security at the University of Southern Mississippi.

snip

[MamaLiberty]

No interest whatsoever in seeing any sports, with or without scans, metal detectors or pat downs. If people truly didn't want that, they wouldn't go to these "games" either.

[mouse]

The thing is that a lot of people DO want to see these games and will fall for the "convenience" argument.  This "opens the door" to biometrics (compulsory eventually) being accepted for a lot of other things.

"The grapevine" says that 2017 is to be  the year of biometrics, and so there will be a "biometrics option" introduced into just about everything.  Then - very soon after - it will become "compulsory" and (probably by the end of the year) you won't be able to do anything at all without surrendering your biometric measurements.

Let me set the scene:  You go to the shooting range, you get all your gear out of the car like you've done thousands of times before, then - DESPITE THE FACT THAT YOU KNOW EVERYONE THERE, HAVE DONE FOR YEARS, AND THINK "YOU ARE AMONG FRIENDS", you are told that you have to have your fingerprints taken, your iris scanned and show "photo id" before you are "allowed" to enter the area and begin shooting.  If you raise an objection, you are confronted with a spiel about "9.11", and "security" (after all it is a "privilege to shoot") and it is argued - or rather you are TOLD - "this is government controlled and you know you can trust the government" and "there is nothing wrong with biometrics", then "this decision has been democratically decided and we HAVE to do this".

Then you go to your bank to get money to buy food for the week, same scenario, looks like without you giving them your biometric measurements you have "forfeited" all your money.

Then you look in your purse and are grateful  that you have "some" money that you managed to get out last week, but when you try to spend it .... biometrics are demanded again.

You despondently go home thinking "at least I have some food at home to feed my dog with", then you see flashing lights behind you and hear a siren, the cop confronts you and says "your driving licence has expired and you will have to produce your biometric info. to get another one, in the meantime I am impounding your car".  You protest "saying what are you talking about?  My licence has not expired", he merely says "new rules, you should have checked" while he calls a tow truck and you are left by the side of the road without your arms (which were in the car) and are left to walk home.

Meanwhile the dog goes hungry.

[DiabloLoco]

The scenario that you are describing is not very probable. Mountains out of molehills and all that.

[mouse]

The scenario that you are describing is not very probable. Mountains out of molehills and all that.

I'm working on the theory that to make a point, you state the absolute worst case scenario - even if a lot of people will dismiss it as you exaggerating.

I can absolutely see those things happening - though perhaps not in this generation - definitely not in my lifetime (but maybe yours, I really have no idea) - I would be greatly surprised if things do not occur exactly as stated above at "some time".  I can see these things happening to my grandchildren, maybe their children, and they would be - pretty much rightly so - blaming me for "letting it happen", for not "sounding the alarm", for "embracing this technology".

You might see it as far fetched but recently (by "recently" I mean about a year and a half ago) lost my only credit card because I was not willing to provide "my driving licence" or "similar digital image - presumably meaning face recognition capable - photo-id".  I still have a debit card, but for how long?  The rules have been changed so that it "expires" every three years or so, and every time I know it is about to "expire" I expect a letter setting out "new security rules" that include some form of biometrics.

I think I posted the "continuing saga of the biometric timeclock" battle that I was involved in about 4 or 5 years ago at the factory where I work.  I didn't want to provide my fingerprints (purely on principle) and won  that battle when our supervisor on the nightshift worked out a way that we could "clock in" using a pin number instead of the fingerprint.  When the rest of the factory found out that this was possible, 90% of them wanted pin numbers, however, they'd already surrendered their fingerprints.

When "new rules" arrive on the scene there is always a flurry of "why didn't I see it coming?".  Well, this "option" at the ball game is the "thin end of the wedge".  When the "compulsory seat belt law" came in I remember people blaming each other for not "seeing it coming" and jokes about "how long will it be before you are "fined" for letting your children ride on the back of a truck? And other such (seemingly ridiculous, but didn't turn out to be so) eventualities.  They all pretty much came true.  I remember doing "health care" work in the 1990s for an old man who was born in 1908 and he blamed his parents generation for not protesting the imposition of the "driving licence" on the population in 1925.  He was really bitter about having driven a car for 3 years or so and all of a sudden having to cowtow to the local policeman, pay money, take time off work and "sit a test".  He showed me a letter to the editor of the local paper that his older brother had written predicting a horror scenario for the future with regard to "driving licences".  What was in that letter came absolutely true.  His brother worked on the theory of "put out the worst case scenario to get peoples' attention too.

[MamaLiberty]

The thing is that a lot of people DO want to see these games and will fall for the "convenience" argument.

Not my problem. And not something I can do anything about. It's actually mostly a problem for the cities and metro areas. Again, not my problem. If someone tried something like that here, I suspect they'd run into serious resistance, one way or another. Such as... an empty sports "venue" would send a powerful message. The filled stadiums, etc., at the insane prices for admission, send a powerful message that none of these customers object to the police state in reality.