|
All US passports to be RFID chipped
All US passports will be implanted with remotely readable computer chips starting in October 2006, the Bush administration has announced. Man am I glad I already have my passport Sweeping new State Department regulations issued on Tuesday say passports issued after that time will have tiny RFID chips that can transmit personal information including the name, nationality, sex, date of birth, place of birth and digitised photograph of the passport holder. Yeah right, name rank and serial number is all Eventually, the government contemplates adding additional digitised data such as "fingerprints or iris scans". Over the last year, opposition to the idea of implanting RFID chips in passports has grown amidst worries that identity thieves could snatch personal information out of the air simply by aiming a high-powered antenna at a person or a vehicle carrying a passport. Out of the 2,335 comments on the plan that were received by the State Department this year, 98.5 per cent were negative. The objections mostly focused on security and privacy concerns. So this is why we're proceeding with this, because 98% oppose it But the Bush administration chose to go ahead with embedding 64KB chips in future passports, citing a desire to abide by "globally interoperable" standards devised by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency. Other nations, including the United Kingdom and Germany, have announced similar plans. In regulations published on Tuesday, the State Department claims it has addressed privacy concerns. The chipped passports "will not permit 'tracking' of individuals", the department said. "It will only permit governmental authorities to know that an individual has arrived at a port of entry - which governmental authorities already know from presentation of non-electronic passports - with greater assurance that the person who presents the passport is the legitimate holder of the passport." To address citizens' concerns about ID theft, the Bush administration said the new passports will be outfitted with "anti-skimming material" in the front cover to "mitigate" the threat of the information being surreptitiously scanned from afar. It's not clear, though, how well the technique will work against high-powered readers that have been demonstrated to read RFID chips from about 160 feet away. A State Department official, who did not wish to be identified by name, I wonder why said on Tuesday: "The shielding in the passport is a physical device that basically, when the passport cover is closed, it's very difficult to read the chip." The official was unable to provide details about the material's composition. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which has been working to evaluate the chip's vulnerability to skimming, was unable to provide further information on Tuesday. I know we need some type of ID, but I don't think this is it, what are your thoughts For the whole article: http://networks.silicon.com/lans/0,39024663,39153665,00.htm Posted by: Jan 2005-10-27 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=133295 |