Wal-Mart plans to roll out sophisticated electronic ID tags to track individual pairs of jeans and underwear, the first step in a system that advocates say better controls inventory but some critics say raises privacy concerns.

While the tags can be removed from clothing and packages, they can't be turned off, and they are trackable. Some privacy advocates hypothesize that unscrupulous marketers or criminals will be able to drive by consumers' homes and scan their garbage to discover what they have recently bought.

They also worry that retailers will be able to scan customers who carry new types of personal ID cards as they walk through a store, without their knowledge. Several states, including Washington and New York, have begun issuing enhanced driver's licenses that contain radio- frequency tags with unique ID numbers, to make border crossings easier for frequent travelers. Some privacy advocates contend that retailers could theoretically scan people with such licenses as they make purchases, combine the info with their credit card data, and then know the person's identity the next time they stepped into the store.

Wal-mart clothing tracking a privacy concern?

A former Army commander who underwent a sex change operation was discriminated against by the U.S. government, a federal judge ruled Friday in an important victory for transgenders claiming bias in the workplace.
Diane Schroer won her federal lawsuit against the Library of Congress after officials backed out of a 2005 job offer when told of her intention to become a transsexual. At the time of the job interview for a position as a senior terrorism research analyst, David Schroer was a male. He had been a onetime Army Special Forces commander.
U.S. District Court Judge James Robinson said Schroer's civil rights were violated.
"The evidence established that the Library was enthusiastic about hiring David Schroer -- until she disclosed her transsexuality," Robinson wrote. "The Library revoked the offer when it learned that a man named David intended to become, legally, culturally and physically, a woman named Diane. This was discrimination 'because of ... sex.' "

Good for them! It is nice to see them do something right. :)

Transsexual wins lawsuit against Library of Congress

When people post on any forum, whether it's a serious Mozart discussion forum, Something Awful, or PayMeToHumpThings.net, they usually act in a manner that's presentable to the outside world. Of course they do, because someone else is going to read that and they wouldn't want to look like a fruitcake in front of everybody. But behind that relatively normal exterior there are things they're wondering about and want to know, and they type these things where they think nobody will ever see them, like into search engines for example.

If you're more of a nerd than most, (and let's face it, you're reading Something Awful) you probably heard that a week or two ago AOL mistakenly released 3 months of logs from its AOL Search engine, and now the logs are all over the place online. AOL has already apologized for the error, but they shouldn't because these are some of the most awesome things I've ever seen.

Before we get down to business, let me explain what's happening in these images. One of our forum goons, xGryph, coded up a nice little search tool to let us easily look through the 2 gigabytes of logs. The big number on the left is an anonymous user ID AOL provided so advertisers or researchers or whoever's looking at the logs can track an individual account's search habits. Next to that is the search term used.

Someone pointed out this link to me

The Internet Makes You Stupid