Your Papers, Please
Oct 26th, 2005 at 5:38 am by Susie
Why, I’m feeling safer already:
The State Department yesterday issued final rules for implanting electronic identification chips into all U.S. passports, despite continuing controversy over the security of the system and its impact on personal privacy.
The regulations mean that as of October 2006, all new and renewed U.S. passports will contain radio frequency identification chips that will include a digital photo and all other information currently printed in passports.
Over time, as older passports expire, everyone who holds a passport will get an electronic version.
My EZ Pass (for highway tolls) came with a (lead?) foil bag for those times when I might not want the RFIC to be read.
I see a market for personalized passport wallets with the same foil so that the passport can only be read at when taken out of the wallet while passing through border controls. The bar code on the current passport is already read when we pass through immigration. The government is just providing another opportunity to private enterprise. What could be more Bushy?
What happens if your chip gets fried, or better yet its info is hyjacked by someone else?
“The department rejected calls to encrypt, or scramble, the data on the passport. Instead, the transmission stream when the data is passing from the passport to the reader will be encrypted.”
Are these people really that stupid???