Slashdot Mirror
Passport Chip Could Attract High-Tech Muggers
Orangez writes "Wired.com reports that 'business travel groups, security experts and privacy advocates are looking to derail a government plan to insert remotely readable chips in American passports, calling the chips homing devices for high-tech muggers, identity thieves and even terrorists.' and that 'The 64-KB chips will include the information from the photo page of the passport, including name, date of birth and a digitized form of the passport picture.'"
the article states having a barcode or some other form of security that must actually be read, how about encrypting the data on the rfid and putting the key on the barcode?
just a thought
The Answer
Now they don't even have to steal my passport before they can use all my info. That's an improvement. If I get a new passport, I think I'll carry it in an aluminum foil pouch.
No good deed goes unpunished. - Avon, Blake's 7
Well folks, it's a dupe.
1 28248&tid=158&tid=17
3 25238&tid=158&tid=126&tid=17
0 26222&tid=103&tid=158&tid=172
2 29221&tid=158&tid=103&tid=1
.. can anyone find Sex for me?
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/28/1
Or is it a trip?
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/23/2
A quad? (Quap?)
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/27/0
Quint? Penta?
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/22/0
So
Human beings are funny like that. We're members of the animal kingdom and animals, for whatever natural reason, just don't like being followed or tracked unless it's by their children and/or mate or they're traveling in a coordinated herd. Attempting to rationalize a violation of basic natural psychology by invoking security isn't going to invalidate primal instincts. If mother nature has instilled us with an instinct that dislikes being tracked or followed there's probably a very good reason for it. It's probably because, whatever the rationalization is, the truth is that animals track and follow prey. Very rarely is the stranger following you interested solely in your welfare for no selfish reason of their own.
Stalking is illegal for a reason. Even if no physical contact is ever made it constitutes harassment. Harassment leads to a degradation of the quality of life, poor performance at work, and after extended periods of time can lead to a psychological breakdown. Creating a population of paranoid schizophrenics isn't all bad. Once they come apart at the seams we can lock them in a cell with a bicycle and use them to produce energy, thus breaking our dependence on oil and negating the need for nuclear fuel. It'll also solve the overpopulation problem if we keep the sexes separated. In the end it'll allow some members of the population, who aren't being harassed or seem to be immune to natural instincts (are they even human then?), to live a life of leisure using the energy of those we have harassed and then locked up.
What are the implications of disabling the chip? A huge dose of ESD would probably do the job without harming paper and ink. You could just claim ignorance.
My question at that point is: why not use another technology? The whole point of RFID is that it is readable from a distance without jumping through any hoops. If TFA is correct they are negating the whole point of RFID and fighting it's inherent nature to do so. It seems that some kind of optical technology would be perfectly suited to do exactly what they want to do with RFID.