ID chips in new US Passports -- a good idea?
I just read on CNN that beginning this year, new US passports will have a identification chip inside the cover. This chip will contain all the information that a paper passport contains, as well as a digitized photo and a face template for facial recognition software.
The fact that this information will be unencrypted has the ACLU alarmed. Apparently anyone with a reader within 30 feet of a passport holder could gain access to all the information on their passport. Some of the reasons for concern are identity theft, possible targeting of Americans abroad by terrorists, government tracking and monitoring, and marketing. If a retail shop put readers in their doorways, they could get the information on each person carrying one of these ID chip-enabled passports. The government could scan members at meetings to find out who's present. Scary.
At CNN, they suggest wrapping the passport in aluminum foil to prevent unauthorised reading of the card, creating a Faraday Cage. Nice.
The fact that this information will be unencrypted has the ACLU alarmed. Apparently anyone with a reader within 30 feet of a passport holder could gain access to all the information on their passport. Some of the reasons for concern are identity theft, possible targeting of Americans abroad by terrorists, government tracking and monitoring, and marketing. If a retail shop put readers in their doorways, they could get the information on each person carrying one of these ID chip-enabled passports. The government could scan members at meetings to find out who's present. Scary.
At CNN, they suggest wrapping the passport in aluminum foil to prevent unauthorised reading of the card, creating a Faraday Cage. Nice.
posted by carrie at 1/11/2005 07:09:00 a.m.
2 Comments:
Yikes. I think that sounds rather scary personally...Surely they are going to realize how potentially dangerous this is!!
BTW, I think you would be interested in the update at Chez Miscarriage regarding the miscarriage bill...
The sandwich thing was what I was thinking about. And how paranoid will you look when you pull out your passport and remove it from its foil wrapper?
And Katrina, from what I've read, the US is aware of the risks involved, but doesn't want to encrypt the information so as not to put an undue burden on poorer countries since it would cost more to implement readers capable of unencrypting the information. At least that's the official story.
And this is against the urging of other countries, such as Britain and Germany.
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