RFID Passports Raise Safety Concerns

CurtMonash writes "CNNMoney.com features a skeptical article about the US State Department's plans to soon issue RFID passports (currently being tested on State Department employees). One fear is that they can be hacked for information about you. And even if they can't, carrying around a little transmitter saying 'I'm an American! I'm an American!' isn't a fun and safe thing to do in all parts of the world." From the article: "Basically, you've given everybody a little radio-frequency doodad that silently declares 'Hey, I'm a foreigner,' says author and futurist Bruce Sterling, who lectures on the future of RFID technology. 'If nobody bothers to listen, great. If people figure out they can listen to passport IDs, there will be a lot of strange and inventive ways to exploit that for criminal purposes.'"

Comments

Bruce Sterling would say that

[91degrees]

But he's a paranoid idiot.

People can spot Americans abroad from a mile away. Their tendency towards hanging around in tourist areas, acting like tourists and speaking to each other in English with an American accent is probably a much better way of telling if someone's an American than getting an expensive RFID reader. If you want to know whether they have their passport, hold a knife to their throat and ask for it.

Re:yeah

[trigeek]

Yeah, that's right. All Americans are cultureless idiots. (note the sarcasm dripping from the letters)

Probably more accurately: The Europeans looking to get drunk in an exotic location go someplace closer to Europe (perhaps Minorca?).