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RFID Drivers' Licenses Debated

Posted by michael on from the mylar-wallets-suddenly-popular dept.

meganthom writes "How would you feel about having an RFID chip in your driver's license? Virginia is considering just such a measure, largely because several of the 9/11 hijackers were licensed there. Civil rights advocates are obviously unhappy with this turn of events, and it seems the ACLU has already taken the case. Proponents claim it would help law enforcement determine that you are who you claim to be and would make forgeries less common. The Federal government is also considering uniform 'smart card' standards."

10 of 514 comments (clear)

  1. Oh great... by Jhon · · Score: 5, Insightful
    How would you feel about having an RFID chip in your driver's license?
    I wouldn't like it.

    How soon until you can buy a pocket ID sniffer/cloner? Or the plans become available on the latest 'warez' site? Great. Just by walking down the street 20 people can steal my identity...
    1. Re:Oh great... by GoodNicsTken · · Score: 5, Insightful

      RFID tag is not going to bounce back your life history. It's the equivelant of a barcode.

      The problem come into play when someone or some company can start collecting information about you, tie it to your RFID profile (because they will be in your clothes, wallet, cellphone, etc.) That could then be tied to your movements.

      RFID tags at the consumer level are a complete privacy invasion. All up for sale to the highest bidder. Who knows what kind of abuses will come out of this.

    2. Re:Oh great... by Jhon · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Maybe some voyeuristic ID thieves might have a reader implanted in a glove and grab your ass some night at a bar and they could get the number then
      Or a small scanner/recorder/transmitter is placed under a theater seat, a park bench, a restaurant...

      Just my opinion, but I have serious problems about ANY form of identification that doesn't need to be PHYSICALLY viewed/handled...
      This could be (should be) just adding another layer of authentication to the "getting carded" process.
      To what end? If it's another layer, and you STILL need to pull out your ID, how does this help? Perhaps as a replacement for the mag strip? I doubt this would be more efficent or accurate... At least with the mag-strip, you can hawk-eye your cards as someone handles them and you can SEE if they swipe it with some type of hand-held reader... It would be kind of hard to do that with RF if they had a scanner in their pocket they never had to remove...

      Dont get me wrong, you brought up some interesting points -- but nowhere near close enough to convince that this is or can be a 'good' thing...
  2. New wallets for everybody! by erick99 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can you imagine how quickly wallet manufacturers would come out with new wallets that either sandwich your drivers license between two pieces of metal (aluminum foil I guess) or shield the entire wallet? I don't usually get too excited about privacy issues because I don't believe we have any these days. But, it is way too easy to imagine thieves walking around with readers and harvesting drivers licenses numbers and info in crowds. A drivers license often has all you need to get a credit card, especially if your state uses your social security number as your drivers license number (do any states do that anymore?).

    --
    http://www.busyweather.com/
  3. I'm Born 'n' Bred Virginian by The+Queen · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will now be a New and Improved Canadian.

    *sigh*

    Anybody got some tin foil?

    --

    The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
    1. Re:I'm Born 'n' Bred Virginian by aardwolf204 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Who modded this funny? Maybe it was the tin foil keyword filter. I'm a Virginian thats seriously thinking about moving way up north if things get much worse.

      --
      Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the /.crowd.May ur days b merry & bright & may al
  4. Re:I wouldn't mind by hype7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    fair enough, you wouldn't mind.

    but I'm not getting Viriginia's apparent reasoning for introducing the RFIDs - "Virginia is considering just such a measure, largely because several of the 9/11 hijackers were licensed there". How would have RFID helped? It's a non sequitur.

    As I understand it, the issue wasn't that identification failed at the airport. So how would RFID have helped?

    -- james

  5. Project TinFoilHat by Catbeller · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How, EXACTLY, would the 9-11 attackers been stopped if they had been issued RFID drivers licenses? There is no sane connection. I can't think of any easier examples to prove that government and businesses are taking advantage of the 9-11 fear to lock us down. PATRIOT acts, car transponders, GPSed cell phones, RFID armbands, implants, RFIDed ID cards, biometrics... NONE OF THESE THINGS would have stopped those men from crashing those planes into the towers. But that attack is used to justify every possible wet dream of a police state.

    Now, onto Project TinFoilHat. If issued such a card, I will build a Faraday cage into a belt pouch, and there their assine tracking device can sit until a POLICEMAN asks to see it. I know damned well they can build RFID detectors that can work at great distances; I will not cooperate and being tracked on a giant Ms. Pac Man screen by whomever can afford the equipment.

    As for those of you who don't care about this, you are good Germans. What else can I say.

  6. Even easier by Engineer-Poet · · Score: 5, Informative
    Laminate some aluminum foil to card stock with spray glue. Fold in half. Keep your RFID cards inside unless they're in use; the pair of ground planes will make it effectively impossible to get signal to or from the cards. If you want to be able to flash your card/DL without allowing it to be read without extreme difficulty, put foil on one side of a clear envelope or card holder and keep the card inside.

    Another thing to do would be to make a reader-detector, to see who is trying to scan your cards surreptitiously. That would be a great way to embarass people and businesses trying to play Big Brother, and you might even be able to get such snooping prohibited by law.

    --

    Sustainability and energy independence essay
  7. A good idea but... by baudilus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    what makes you think that the people passing this law won't also make it illegal to purposely block or interfere with the signal?

    It seems to me that the proper course of action would be to prevent this from becoming law in the first place.