The audience is diverse with participants from government, business, education, non-profits, and the media. The themes are broad and forward-looking.

Pentium III-only sites coming . Intel is working with several Australian content providers to establish Web sites that are not only optimised for PCs based on the Pentium III processor but restricted to Pentium III machines.

The program intends for each Web site to probe the PC and use the chip's Processor Serial Number (PSN) to identify a Pentium III client.

CultureFinder.

CNET NEWS.COM - Intel throws weight behind Linux.

CNET NEWS.COM - Satellite seizure, blackmail reported.

ZDII Inter@ctive Investor - Hackers Seize Control of Military Satellite. In what one intelligence source calls 'a nightmare scenario,' hackers seized control of a British military communications satellite and issued blackmail threats. The intruders changed the course of a satellite used by defense planners and military personnel around the world -- and demanded money to stop the interference. The story was reported in The Sunday Business. No comment from police, who said the investigation was at a sensitive stage. Scary stuff.

Washington Post - Banking With Big Brother. On Dec. 7, 1998, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.(FDIC) posted for comment a notice of a proposed federal banking regulation. It was a kindly, unassuming Little-Engine-That-Could sort of regulation. You could tell so by its very name: It was the "Know Your Customer" rule.

A simple regulation, one that any child could understand. In the words of the official notice, the Know Your Customer rule "would require each . . . bank to develop a program designed to determine the identity of its customers; determine its customers' sources of funds; determine the normal and expected transactions of its customers; monitor account activity for transactions that are inconsistent with those normal and expected transactions; and report any transactions of its customers that are determined to be suspicious."

What this meant is that, by April 1, 2000, every FDIC bank in the country would be required to establish a program to systematically spy upon all of its customers, record the results of this spying and rat out to the Feds any suspicious customer.

Know Your Customer Proposal - CBA Background. The California Bankers Association is a nonprofit professional association incorporated in California, and represents virtually all of the commercial banks in the state.  CBA issued its formal comment letter dated February 25, 1999.  Click below to review.  Please feel free to use or adapt in your own letters.

Pressure to withdraw proposal coming from all sides.  The regulators are continuing to receive negative comment letters by the thousands.  The chair of the Senate Banking Committee, the Comptroller of the Currency and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas (author of a bill to defeat Know Your Customer) are among the top Washington figures voicing their concerns about Know Your Customer.  Nevertheless, CBA asks that its members do not abandon their efforts to send comments and talk with the legislators.

Even if the proposal is withdrawn, the agencies are extremely likely to issue further KYC "guidance" in the form of Q&As, interpretations, examination guidelines and the like, none of which need to be subject to public comment.  Indications are that some guidance has already been drafted.  The existing SAR regulations require that banks must be able to identify any transaction that has "no apparent lawful purpose or is not the sort in which the particular customer would normally be expected to engage..."  Based on this broad language, banks are now and may be made subject to further requirements to understand customers and transactions at an untenable level

Know Your Customer - CBA repsonse. The California Bankers Association is a nonprofit professional association incorporated in California, and represents virtually all of the commercial banks in the state.  CBA first delivered comments on the Know Your Customer ("KYC") proposal on December 2, 1998, before it was formally issued, to express our vigorous opposition based on policy grounds.  After meetings with representatives from the various regulating agencies culminating in the January 22, 1999 meeting in Washington D.C., and upon conferring with our member banks, CBA now believes the proposal cannot be satisfactorily reformed and, accordingly, asks that it be withdrawn.

A quick summary of ongoing media coverage of the campaign. Article list borrowed from the Defend Your Privacy site.

03-01-99 Reason magazine article "Lost in the Wash: 'Know Your Customer' rules send privacy to the cleaners" by Walter Olson.

02-26-99 MSNBC.com "Does your bank know too much? New regulations could turn tellers into tell-alls" by Tom Woodruff

02-26-99 ABCNews.com "Surveillance Society - Drawing the Line Between Privacy and Safety" by Laurent Belsie

02-25-99 The Seattle Times "No to bank snoops" (editorial)

02-25-99 Duluth News-Tribune "In computer age, Americans as chippy as ever about privacy" by David Ignatius

02-24-99 The Arizona Republic "Proposed FDIC rule draws protests" by Naamen Nickell

02-23-99 WorldNetDaily.com "Turn up the volume against 'Know Your Customer'" by Lisa Ronthal

02-22-99 USA Today "Bank privacy debate heats up" by Christine Dugas

02-22-99 WorldNetDaily.com "Why government cares about your bank account" by Harry Browne.

02-22-99 WorldNetDaily.com "Clock ticking on Big Brother Bank plan:  March 8 is deadline for public comment on Know Your Customer" by Olivia J. Johnson.

02-22-99 The Columbus Dispatch "Would Big Brother keep banker's hours?" by Steve Stephens

02-20-99 Nando Times "Banking issue galvanizes left, right in name of privacy"

02-20-99 Wired "Big Brother at the Bank?" by Declan McCullagh

02-18-99 MSNBC "Bankers fight government plan to have them keep closer tabs on you" by Elizabeth Manresa

02-03-99 Washington Post "Banking With Big Brother" by Michael Kelly

01-29-99 Fort Worth Star-Telegram "FDIC to weigh options for anti-laundering rules" by Marcy Gordon

01-20-99 Wired "Foes Target 'Know Your Customer'" by Declan McCullagh

12-10-98 Wired "Banking with Big Brother" by Declan McCullagh

11-24-98 WorldNetDaily.com "Opposition to Big Brother Banks: Activist pastor launches campaign to stop FDIC plan" by David M. Bresnahan

11-23-98 WorldNetDaily.com "Big Brother Banks? FDIC has snooping plans" by David M. Bresnahan