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Make an RFID-proof wallet
99luftballon writes "If, like me, you're more than a little concerned about the privacy aspects of RFID there's a useful enthusiast's web page on making your own RFID-blocking wallet. OK, it's never going to win any prizes for beauty or garner fashion awards but should be effective and seems perfectly practical. "
Article summary is a trifle misleading...I was hoping to see a modification to a real wallet, not a wallet made out of duct tape with foil added.
It seems to me that I could simply line the pockets of my actual wallet with foil...this would have several benefits over the duct-tape wallet:
I'll admit that the duct tape wallet has a certain Red Green-esque appeal, but I'd rather have a more practical solution.
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
Then I'd have the inconvenience of having to remove my Metro Smartrip card from my wallet everytime I enter or exit a station.
I used to make duct tape wallets in high school but had a very bad experience with them. Most duct tape has a shiny backside that isn't very cohesive with the sticky substance on the underside. What happens is when these overlap or your design depends on these two surfaces to stick together, you get a mess.
:-).
Now, there may be some kind of duct tape out there that avoids this issue, I'm not sure. Maybe these guys would know which brand is best but my wallet nearly destroyed my license at the time. Essentially, you need to look for duct tape that will adequately hold against itself when you need it to. After years of sliding it in and out of my back pocket and sitting on it, the tape started to smear against the shiny part and separate. As a result, the goo (bottom ply) and meshing (middle ply) were slipping out from underneath the shiny part (top ply) and getting goo all over my cards and ID.
Essentially, it comes down to how many mils of adhesive you are working with. A lot of times, the more expensive stuff will have around 12 mils of glue which means that it is ideal for construction. However, this may result in more sliding and more goo seepage in your wallet. I would recommend something in between the range of 7.5 and 12 mils. You're not going to be concerned about tensile strength, just thickness and what the coating is on the back. If the coating is non bonding to the adhesive used, you don't want that tape!
The actual design can be very much up to you although the article does provide a link to a nice standard model. I would suggest to try to use as many whole pieces as possible and when you're thinking about the design, rely on adhesive/adhesive bonds instead of adhesive/polyethylene since the cohesion is vastly different.
So if you venture on this, for the love of god, RESEARCH THE TAPE! Honestly, I estimate the life of these things to be a month unless you want to also pay for a new license often. I think back to my dad's wallet which was this old beat up piece of leather with its seams showing. But he's had it as long as I can remember and that thing has taken a beating. There's a reason why wallets are made from leather.
Remember, if you can't fix something with duct tape and WD-40, you're just not trying hard enough
If it's not stuck and it's supposed to be, duct tape it. If it's stuck and it's not supposed to be, WD-40 it. If it's not broken--keep me away from it!
My work here is dung.
So now I have to pull my rail pass out instead of just waiving my wallet or walking near the turn style...doesn't that defeat the point of the RFID objects you have inside your wallet.
Why not just avoid getting the objects if you don't want to use them?
I've dirtied my hands writing poetry, for the sake of seduction; that is, for the sake of a useful cause. --Dostoevsky
My missus has a knack of emptying my wallet before I even see the contents!
After securing your wallet against the female gender, RFID should just bounce off by default.
liqbase
Concerned about privacy issue and the thing you're trying to protect is your VIP Shoppers card? Wow.
I'm going to make a tinfoil condom for my Speedpass after lunch.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
A more practical approach, if you are only looking at stopping cusual walk-by snooping, would be to carry a conventionnal wallet into a pocket lined with aluminium foil.
:wq
I also transfered all my credit cards to plain blank cards by copying the magnetic card stripes on to blanks that I buy through a Panamanian company in bulk. Unfortunately, this has two disadvantages:
Thankfully, for me this is generally never a problem, because I'm almost always stay at home in my home-made Faraday cage, in order to protect myself from the NSA mind control beams.
What do you get if you combine the words "Duct" and "Tape"? Dupe!
I work for a small security outfit and we put in access control systems with RFID tag badges, fobs, etc. The chances of someone carrying around a reader and the equipment needed to decode whatever cards they find is pretty minimal, and with the minimal read range of the ID tags you need to have a pretty serious setup to get a valid read. Even the standard size proximity card reader can only read at a range of about 2-4" max. HID makes a reader called the Pro Prox that is about 15" x 15" and has a read range of around a foot. I wouldn't worry so much. Nobody is going to be snagging your credit card numbers from space. If you see someone walking around with a backpack and a car battery tied to his leg and your hair stands on end when you get within a couple feet, then maybe be concerned. These readers really aren't what people make them out to be. Hell, most of the smaller RFID devices require contact with the reader to work.