Updated Schedule for U.S. Biometric Passports

SRain315 writes "The story from the Chicago Times via Yahoo! give more details about biometric information to be added to U.S. passports. Trial run this fall, full production next year. Slashdot covered this last year."

Comments

You don't get it.

[John Harrison]

And neither does 99.9% of /.

There are cryptographic protocols that are well known and widely implemented to make sure that your smart card won't even talk to anything but an authorized system. There is no way that somebody can just go out and buy an ISO 14443 reader and war drive your pocket. They need the proper keys to talk to the card and if they don't have them they are out of luck.

Re:prove it

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Name a single Constitutional right which has been curtailed since September 11

The 1st Amendment

The 4th Amendment

Can make things worse

[Stevyn]

So once these are issued, a little while later they're cracked and people make fakes relying on the notion that the passport will be checked with less scrutiny because it checks out on the computer. This is like how digital licenses are swiped to validate age when buying alcohol, but they look less at the photo. Technology like this can have the effect of making people less careful when checking someone's identity.