RFID Tags in Law Enforcement

RFID tags seem to be the flavor of the month for law enforcement officials in the tracking of individuals both foreign and domestic. pin_gween writes "In an effort to speed up entry to the US, The Dept. of Homeland Security has begun a trial using RFID tags in certain visitors' papers. The tag is embedded in paperwork and "chip readers note the entry or exit of visitors who pass by and transmit that information to a government-maintained database." In addition, Saeed al-Sahaf writes "Security officials gathered Monday at a Canadian border crossing to mark the first test of this radio RFID system" Relatedly LexNaturalis writes "Wired News has an article about England testing RFID chips in license plates that can transmit VINs and other data to appropriate receivers. According to the article, the United States will be 'closely watching the British trial as they contemplate initiating their own tests of the plates, which incorporate radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags to make vehicles electronically trackable.' Naturally privacy advocates are decrying the move by stating that unlike electronic toll passes, these new plates will not be anonymous." We mentioned the concept of tracking visitors via RFID in July.

Comments

RFID in plates

[romka1]

RFID in plates could help catch stolen vechiles... Right now if your car get stolen you can file a report and that will be the end of the story (that what happend with me at least)

Re:RFID in plates

[maxpublic]

As with all of these moves, the point isn't to improve the security or safety of the average citizen, but to make it easier for the government to track every aspect of that citizens life. Criminals will find ways to circumvent the new devices, making them useless for any other purpose.

The more you know about a person, the easier it is to control them. And I think it's painfully apparent at this point that our government has a vested, intense interest in making sure it can control each and every one of us in order to preserve the status quo (people in power stay in power, the rest of us remain proles forever).

Tinfoil-hat stuff, I know, but with every one of these stories I wonder more and more often if the paranoids don't have it right.

Max

Why extra RFID?

[Keruo]

> The tag is embedded in paperwork and "chip readers note the entry or exit of visitors who pass by and transmit that information to a government-maintained database.

What's preventing people from storing their tickets and passports at locked storage boxes at airport?

That way they have complete freedom to roam around the country without being followed, the database doesn't even show them ever leaving the airport if the reader is at the front exit.

Or is there some limiting law that visitor must have his/her visa with him/her all times when moving outdoors that I missed?

Use with guns?

[chilledinsanity]

As I understand it, most RFID tags have a very limited range. If it was small enough, I'm wondering if you could have an officer's gun respond only when fired by a person wearing a RFID enabling ring or wristband. I say this because out of the majority of police officers who die each year in the line of duty, most are killed with their own weapons.

RFID tags on our elected officials

[ScooterBill]

Why not go the extra mile and put RFID tags on cops, judges, politicians, doctors, bankers, pharmacists, etc.

Then publish their whereabouts on a googlized map system. Now when you need a doctor or a cop, you know where to go. When there's an accusation of corruption or impropriety, you can check the map logs and see if Congressman Joe "show me the money" Smith was visiting the local corporate ganstas. I think this idea has merits.

England leading the march

[chihowa]

With all of the criticism of the US and its increasingly authoritarian feel (and there's no lack of it coming from me), it's interesting to note that England appears to be much farther ahead of us in the march to 1984.

Even more interestingly, they seem pretty content with that fact. The fact that they're an unarmed populace with an armed (and dangerous!) government seems to please them greatly. The cameras and microphones in public places seem to get constant praise, or at least little outraged criticism (at least here on Slashdot). Some of the biggest gripes I heard in a previous article about the governor chips in cars in lieu of congestion fees were about how they weren't related (speeding in a congestion zone?).

What gives? When the US gets to the level of government involvement that England is currently experiencing, will we be happy with it, too?