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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.'"
Someone is going to need a faraday cage.
Viral software licensing is not freedom, it is in fact GNU/Socialism.
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
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
You've missed the point. The concern isn't that "big brother" is going to be watching our every move (after all, that's inevitable, and why worry about the inevitable?) the concern is that a terrorist could get your passport information simply by walking close to you with an RFID reader. It's a security nightmare to have your information freely available to anyone with the hardware to read it.
like someone would benefit from stealing my Identity. They would just inherit my debt.
I guess that's one more reason to get a passport
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.
However, all of the legitimate uses of the passport involve a human being handling the passport anyway - and using a non-RFID smart chip will suffice.
Tinfoil hats aside, the primary response of the RFID proponents to the question of why RFID tags are needed is "Why not?". This is a preposterous approach to implementing a system that handles sensitive personal data that could cause severe distress to the owners of that data, if compromised. Sensitive data belonging to thousands or even millions of people! Assuming the government still considers an individual as the rightful owner of their own personal data.
Some of the conspiracy theories regarding RFID in passports are a little over the top. But there is no denying the fact that the potential for abuse is definitely enhanced by using this technology in this way. Today the scope is for Americans to be targeted using this - either by their own government, or by criminals, or by other governments, or by terrorists. Tomorrow, when more countries follow suit, that scope expands, giving birth to a rich and varied mix of uses - all of which with the legitimate exception of border control are extra-legal or downright criminal. I hate to sound like a troll but the RFID chip in your little blue book could well become the new star of david sewn into your shirt.
See that long UID - that's what you get for lurking too long
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.
Here's the schema they're using:
255 bytes: First name
1 byte: Middle initial
255 bytes: Surname
1 bit: Boolean true if user checked the 'Member of Terrorist Group' checkbox
7 bits: CIA National Boxcutter Purchase Monitoring flags
16KB: ASCII-art depiction of tubgirl courtesy of frustrated intern
16KB: Excerpts from Book of Revelation
1 byte: Flags for previous visits to Iran / Cuba / North Korea / Syria / Lebanon / Pakistan / Libya / Yavin
30KB: XML representation of above flags