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US sets date for biometric passports
 The US Department of State announced today a timeframe for issuing electronic passports that supporters say will improve the government's ability to protect its borders and critics say are a dangerous step towards a Big Brother-like surveillance society.
| Sigh. Can we have a simple description of the passport specifics *before* we get to the (unnamed) critics? |
| The (unnamed) critics are the point of the whole story, not the passports... |
The state department has publicized its plans to issue 'biometric' passports for some time; today the department solidified the calendar for issuing such passports, which will combine facial recognition technology, a radio-frequency chip that contains all the information written on the inside cover of the passport, and a digital signature intended to prevent unauthorized alterations.
| They must be taking the gas pipe in Quetta. They'll probably riot when they discover there's no religion column... |
The department confirmed that it will issue the first such passports this December, as anticipated. The current plan calls for all domestic passport agencies to issue them by October 2006. In anticipation of this changeover, the National Passport Center tacked on a $12 surcharge in March 2005 for all passport renewals; renewal by mail now costs $67 or $97 if you have to show up in person.
| And now the cavalcade of critics: |
Critics are wary of the biometric passports for two reasons. First, they say the technology doesn't actually work very well and will cause even longer delays at security checkpoints, for example, when the facial reader doesn't recognize the carrier or when signals from multiple chips interfere with each other. To address the specific complaint that chips may be susceptible to unauthorized reading, referred to 'skimming', the Department today said it would incorporate anti-skimming technology in the front cover. It provided no technical details as to how that would work.
| As if the Expatica reporter has any idea of the technical details of anti-skimming technology. |
"Mahmoud! How're we going to fool the face scanner?"
"I got a generic picture of a Bugti. It'll crash the INS server and we just walk through!" |
The Department also said it is "seriously considering" using a technology called Basic Access Control intended to prevent the chip from being accessed until the passport is opened. But an even more pressing worry, say civil liberties activists, is the potential use of such passports as what will amount to "global identity cards''; opponents also fear they will help the government track citizen's movements too closely.
| That's one of the purposes of a passport. That's why they put all those stamps in them... |
"What we are witnessing amounts to an effort by the U.S. government and others (whether conscious or not) to leapfrog over the politically untenable idea of adopting a national identity card, and set a course directly toward the creation of a global identity document," said a white paper from the ACLU issued last November.
| You don't need to get a passport if you don't want one. You just can't go to Kashmir without it. |
The European Union likewise has comparable plans to create biometric passports, plans that have met with comparable opposition. "These proposals are yet another result of the 'war on terrorism' which show that the EU is just as keen as the USA to introduce systems of mass surveillance which have much more to do with political and social control than fighting terrorism," wrote editor Tony Bunyan on his civil liberties online newsletter Statewatch.
| It sounds to me like Tony's found the Secret Plan⢠behind it all. He must be a highly trained observer, since it's invisible to the rest of us. |
Posted by: Seafarious 2005-08-11 |
