ABC News in Australia reports on a proposal that raises substantial privacy questions:

The Federal Government is considering implementing a system that would see welfare spending monitored through the use of debit cards.

The cards would only allow people to buy certain products, such as food and household goods. [...]

“… there could be the possibility of tracking the lifestyles of people who receive social security payments and making judgments about how they use their money and surveilling what they do,” [said Welfare Rights Centre director Maree O'Halloran.]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 and is filed under Anonymity, Civil liberties, Identification, International, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Possibly related posts:

• ABC News (Australia): Victoria police ban DNA evidence because of problems with statistical analysis
• ABC News (Australia): Court told former officer breached privacy
• San Jose Mercury News Columnist: Location tracking on cell phones raises privacy concerns