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Airport To Tag Passengers With RFID
denebian devil writes "A new technology is to be trialled in Debrecen Airport in Hungary that will involve tagging all passengers with high-powered RFID tags. From the Register article: 'People will be told to wear radio tags round their necks when they get to the airport. The tag would notify a computer system of their identity and whereabouts. The system would then track their activities in the airport using a network of high definition cameras. "[The tags] have got a long range, of 10m to 20m," said Dr. Paul Brennan of University College London's antennas and radar group which developed the tags, "and the system has been designed so the tag can be located to within a meter, and it can locate thousands of tags in one area at a given time."' The system is being touted for 'Improving airport efficiency, security and passenger flow by enhanced passenger monitoring.' BBC is also reporting this story, and brings up such hurdles to the project as 'finding a way of ensuring the tags cannot be switched between passengers or removed without notification.' As for any mention of the 'hurdle' of people's rights, the article vaguely and briefly states that 'The issue of infringement of civil liberties will also be key,' but doesn't bother to go into any pesky details."
From the desciption, it sounds like the passengers will end up wearing dog collars. Anyone reminded of Battle Royale? It's one thing to be security conscious, but another thing to be paranoid.
Perhaps they should invest some of this energy into tracking luggage?
Okay, so they can keep close tabs on you in the airport. Yet, if you were intent on doing mischief, wouldn't you have done all your preparation before you even got there?
This news started to come out a few days ago when the EU started negotiating about the flight data given to the Americans.
What I wonder is will American travellers to Europe be forced to wear these, and will security teams be able to zap anyone acting suspiciously.
Could we even vote to have folks we don't like zapped?
liqbase
Just count yourself fortunate that they've given up on their branding idea...
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
What the hell's this for? Forensics after the fact?
"Yes, and as you can see that the terrorist loitered a lot near the toilets. Of course, quite a few people do that as well while waiting for relatives to finish their business, so we can't use that as a reliable indicator of evil intent. But I'm sure, in time, we'll find something that will show us for certain. Please, we need more funds for research."
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
%country_trust_level("Albania" => 5, "Andorra" => 6 ... )
...
...
if ($country_trust_level{$RFID->citizenship} < 5) {
run_1984($RFID);
}
*blinking cursor*
Great, the system can track everyone at all times, but how can anyone make any sense of this information? And what exactly is it meant to prevent anyway? Would tracking the 9/11 bombers have helped? Would it have stopped the shoe-bomber getting on the plane? If something happens we'll know exactly where the perpitrators were AFTER the event, but that won't really help. This is about as useful as knowing what colour all passengers underwear is. It's all about the appearance of doing something rather than actually doing something.
"%country_trust_level("Albania" => 5, "Andorra" => 6 ... )"
Andorra? Their twitchy antennea and their smurfy complexion always make me so nervous.
Where were you when the voynix came?
I can believe the bits about passenger flow and efficiency, but what security is this supposed to add? The security in airports is theoretically based on keeping Bad People (by whatever definition) out. Assuming some Bad Person gets in, what is tracking their movements within 1m ever going to do to indicate that they're doing something Bad?
To me, this sounds like an efficiency study that they tacked on the word "Security" in order to sidestep the civil liberties issues. We've seen this done plenty of times before, but I'm amazed at how transparent it is here.
Now all we need is trust those terrorists won't remove the tags from their necks before doing evil stuff. The perfect system.
The right to walk through an airport and not be watched?
When you leave your home, you may be monitored. In the old days, it was by a plainsclothes detective popping stay-awake pills and eating doughnuts in his car parked across the street. In modern times, it is through camera surveillance and RFID.
"You" have a right to try and elude the surveillance, by sneaking out the back door (then) and wearing tin-foil underwear (now), and "They" have the right to raise the ante by hiring smarter policemen and designing more powerful scanners.
That's the game. Play, or stay home. If "They" start spying on you in your home, *then* you can call the lawyers.
If their maximum range is only 20 meters, I would certainly hope they can be accurate to within 1.
</pedant>
Xbox reviews.. We think they're funny.
Time for the hungarians to wear their Tinfoil scarves!
Peace, Love, Unity, Respect
I thought RFID tags were passive devices. How do you make a "high powered" passive device? I guess you can increase the power of the scanners, but the tags themselves are the same no?
We're talking about a small airport! Possibly a few dozen people at best on a busy day. As a hungarian I'd preferred to have a better story posted about Hungary, but heh. Domestic flight is really small, given that the country isn't so large either. It is misleading to say that this airport is a major one, I don't think it is a terrorist target at all.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
Escort you from the premises.
From now on, I'm no longer flying.
All rites reversed 2010
People began screaming "Make us feel safer!" to the gubmint and airlines shortly after 9/11. The vast majority of people I know will welcome this, they'll sit there smugly thinking they're safe, indeed, they'll be safe in their cattle car all the way to the Final Destination.
+Godwinned?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I submitted this same story two days ago and it was rejected. What has changed in the intervening two days to make the story publishable?
My scarf is made of tinfoil!
What I don't get is how this system is supposed to improve security. I mean, this whole scare is about suicide bombers, right? So you tag everybody, and then they magically aren't going to be doing their thing? I don't see how these tags prevent people from blowing themselves up, taking a gun and shooting people, smuggling packages on planes, etc.
Worse, this system is actually going to make matters worse: it costs money, people need to be watching the system, and people need to investigate whateven "suspicious behavior" occurs. All this takes resources away from more effective measures.
At least, that's how I see it. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe this system is dumb. Or maybe it actually rather cleverly serves a purpose _other_ than security (e.g. putting money in the pockets of the designers).
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Reminds me of this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7fmUJmw5RRk/
Exactly how does this increase security? Terrorists are very rare. Tourists are both very common and very stupid. The only result will be security running around fishing tags out of toilets and vending machines.
Minor details like feasibility and civil rights don't really come into it. It's about who can come up with neat sounding proposals in order to get the penpushers to give you a hand-out from things like the 14bn 6th Framework fund. But don't hold your breath if you're expecting a real-world working system anytime soon.
But will they hold your plane at the gate if the computer sees that you're hauling ass to get to the terminal on time? I personally would be wearing a hoodie made out of aluminum foil, but that may just be my paranoia kicking in.
After the study has been completed:
We proudly present the results of the evaluation of the ultra airport security system. During the evaluation, no acts of terrorism were committed in this airport. Clearly, the system is a great success and well worth the investment. We recommend the system to be kept in place and be installed in other airports and public places, as well.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
I won't mind your property being tracked, any way you want to, while its in my posession, as long as it gets me on the plane and outta your hokey country .. so an RFIDPass would work, in my opinion.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
When your tag begins to flash it means your LastDay has come, and it's off to the SleepShop with you.
These stories are free but worth money.
How about tags that cannot be so easily swapped? RFID tags could be placed on the passengers forehead with glue that can only be removed after 12 hours or maybe with a glue disolving, tag removing gun.
Or how about RFID clothing. Passengers normally wear clothes, which, lets face it, could be composed of explosive or accelerant fibres, or stuff that decomposes in to toxic gas after 3 hours. So, build a load of changing rooms at each airport and exchange the passengers clothes for a type approved travel suit, with enhanced safety features, like a built in smoke hood, reflective patches and of course, RFID tags to help rescue them in an emergency.
The passengers own clothes would be scanned for dangerous substances, drugs, etc before sealing in fire retardant bags for stowage on the flight.
If the passenger looks like they could be dangerous, like they might overpower someone with their hands, they could be tranquilised prior to flight.
Thinking laterally, why not combine some of these ideas?
Anethetise passengers, strip them down, scan them, pack them in fire retardant survival packs, then load them on to a cargo plane. Problem solved.
My hyperlinks aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
The tag provides a convenient decoy mechanism for the terrorists. Drop/hide the tag somewhere or give it to somebody else, and the authorities tracking the RFIDs will think they're in one particular place when they're really somewhere else.
---------
There is inferior bacteria on the interior of your posterior.
Step 2: http://imdb.com/title/tt0103239/
I've heard about being treated like a dog at airports, now they'll just make it official, collar and all.
Onda Technology Institute
Seriously is there no civil liberty that we are allowed to keep. I know DC and Chicago want CCTV on all their streets and many other cities are following. The feds want to be able to phone tap at will. Trial by jury is sinking away. Defendants rights are also going south. We will never get these rights back. Once gone nobody will return them..... I fume every time I hear another one of these stories. There also seems to be another sinister subtext: That the constitution is just a bit of paper. And no longer will it really provide de fefacto protections.....
the article vaguely and briefly states that 'The issue of infringement of civil liberties will also be key,' but doesn't bother to go into any pesky details."
That's because the people setting all this up consider "civil liberties" to be one of those "pesky details".
Civil Liberties is not a set of rules that inconvenience you, that you should work to find ways around. If you are trying to find ways around laws designed to protect the public from abuse, you are not assulting the law, you are assulting the principles and ideals that the law was made for, and endangering those people whom those laws are designed to protect.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
What makes you think that you can get a refund. Getting escorted from an airport for "security reasons" does not entitle you to a refund. It was "your choice" to act in a manor that did not allow them to put you on a plane. You will also be reported to the authoraties as having suspicious behavior, and placed on a U.S. watch list. It doesn't matter what country your are from or what country you were in when it happened, you will be placed on a U.S. watch list. You will probably be placed on several list for several other countries. You are now a suspected terrorist, you have forfieted any rights as a human being, and the rights of anyone associated with you. I hope you don't have to travel for business, they will probably let you on the plane if you don't mouth off during the now required body search anytime you want to get on a plane. Maybe it is your sister that needs to travel for business, after missing a few flights due to searches taking a little too long, she will be looking at you for a new source of income.
The idea of collars sounds horrible, but after people realize that the consequences of "their choise" to not wear one are much worse, people will start to accept them.
Stay citizen, come here citizen, fetch your papers citizen. Good citizen, here is a boarding pass for you.( Pats citizen on head )
Perhaps they should rig the tags so they explode if the wearer tries to remove them.
Curse you plastic mold maker!
What I really hate is how they always have to shoot you with a tranquilizer dart, first.
The good news is that this will allow us to learn about the migratory patterns of airline passengers, so maybe we can get ahead of them and into position to photograph their mating rituals.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Security is an illusion created by those who would pilfer your wallet.
You are not safe, and no one can make you safe. Once you accept that you attain a level of freedom you never knew existed.
Let's see how funny it is once the terrorists roll out their new plot......"The PacMan Initiative"
If they are so concerned about passengers exchanging or placing collars in the trash in the sterile area, why don't they just embed the RFID tag in the boarding pass itself? The paper has the person's name on it, and you surely wouldn't want to trade that with a stranger, would you? After all, you can't get on your flight without it!
It's not that they would hide it somewhere in the plane tickets or give people an
'Airport Access Card' or something. No, this is something that goes around the neck
like a noose or a slave collars - which is what it is.
I guess by now a dozen people have already screamed possibly ALL-CAPS into the discussion with fury over
this, but this is really just the beginning. They were talking about implanting you
with an RFID chip at the hospital in order for you to get further treatment ("oh and
of course better treatment that would purportedly not be possible without being able to
swipe a scanner over you to get your ID). Now it's airports and oh it already has
happened in US school (nurseries of the future obedient serfs of America) many times over.
I'm not kidding you, flamebaiting, trolling, you, godwinning you or whatever else you
might think for you who this is hard to swallow. For me it's being forced to wear something
around my neck that can make them track and monitor even the slightest twitch I make
what is too hard to swallow.
... and if anyone tries to leave the airport or enter restricted areas, the collars explode !
A million monkeys and this is the best sig they could come up with...
So, is the thing going to panic and start beeping if you take it off? Better yet, if the computer uses an algorithm to detect suspicious movement, it should start making you beep like a car alarm! (The only way to make it stop is by up,up,down,down,left,right,left,right,a,b,start.)
On a side note, how are you going to get little kids to wear this?
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
People's rights? What rights?
The airport isn't yours. When you walk into an airport you have to agree to abide by the rules established by the owner of the airport. You have no right to demand that they be changed. Feel free to establish rules in your own house, but when you enter someone else's property you abide by their rules.
You have no more right to avoid the airport's tracking requirements than you'd have to demand free flights or free meals at their overpriced sandwich bars.
I'm sorry you may not like it, but owner's rights trump this sort of misguided "privacy rights" demand any day.
This was done a couple of times on the orignal Star Trek.
It didn't turn out too well as I recall.
Debrecen Airport (DEB) != Budapest Airport (BUD). TFA is about DEB, a small county airport which serves only 2-3 scheduled flights a day, most of them are domestic (Schedule: http://www.airportdebrecen.hu/flights). So I have to say I agree with the original poster, although I guess the general incompetence of my compatriots assures that there will be no working RFID system at DEB in the next few (hundred) years, so it's a little early to put on a tinfoil hat.
1) Develop some idea...
2) Devise some bizarre, convoluted and obscure way it could be applied to "security" - extreme hand waving is obligatory.
3) Stand by while it starts to rain money on your research group courtesy of gullible government departments, research councils and investors.
4) Don't miss any sleep worrying about exactly what terrorist attack scenario would be averted by this technology. Or whether you are, in fact, plugging a security hole that doesn't exist.
5) Next month, when the cause de jour has shifted to, say for example, back to kiddie-porn, claim your technology is will be the panacia for that - go back to (2).
But the question is really: Why would you need such a technology for an airport where the waiting room also functions as check in, security check and airport bar (granted, I am talkin out of my arse here).
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
...they want to do this not just in airports but everywhere? (or just in major cities to start with, since you'd need receivers.) I dont disagree with what they are doing. I disagree with where it will lead us.
... with a DIFRWEAR wallet hanging around my neck?
But we will finally know the mastermind behind 9/11 when they track down the dot that dropped a fudge dragon in the urinal.
Hi Super Nintendo Chalmers! - Ralph Wiggum
Of course, the down side was that someone's neck would get broken from time to time. In a really labor-intensive job like slave ship rower, you need your labor.
Management, they never change......
...I'm willing to use more inconvenient and lengthy modes of travel to avoid such a ridiculously dehumanizing practice such as this. If I am in need of travel to the USA from another country and the given airport employs this method, I will travel by boat and adjust my schedule as needed. If I am in need of travel within the USA and the given airport/s employ this method, I will travel by bus. I will not accept this kind of treatment from any organization for simply for the sake of safer / lower risk travel. I would much rather just die in a hijacked plane crash, or a boat sinking, or a train derailing, than be treated like a tagged animal. I was quite happy with the level of risk involved with flying prior to this kind of nonsense.
S....
1. Don't kill off the SALES man! This is the fine work of government to RFP for bids. Lockheed can win global contracts and then farm them out to their privileged few subcontractors.
2. I suspect the anti-tamper feature will incorporate some sort of stun mechanism.
3. Imagine being pulled into an on-site interrogation room and being asked:
- WHY did you visit the bathrooms 13 times. WHY THOSE 13?
- WHY did you hug THOSE two people? Do you know they hugged 3 others elsewhere in the airport?
4. Maybe they should design the collars to be more like harnesses. Then, tie together everyone on the same flights, like kids on a field trip.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
blowing a couple hundred people even is not a big deal.
everyone rationalizes it as 'shit'
blow a $300 to $600 million plane, 300 people, and everyone goes HOLY SHIT that could have been me- and it is beyond my control- and flying drops off A WHOLE LOT over the next few months--....
it's a BIG difference
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The general low quality of that post makes me think evil wins because good has shitty marketing.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
The authorities should drop the veil altogether and quit using the word "security", because security is not what such measures are about. _We_ (whoever would object to wearing a dog collar at the airport or having their personal information freely shared with foreign intelligence agencies just because you're getting on a plane) should quit using that word too, because we're giving them a free ride.
The word is enforcement. Better still, control. These measures are all designed to control the population, not to ensure its security.
"Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity." - Marshall McLuhan
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
This is all part of a disturbing trend.
Commercial air travel will become the stinky greyhound transport of economically disadvantaged masses. People with money and corporations will increasingly opt out and buy private jets causing a permanent shift in the conmercial air travel market. We'll end up with only a few carriers, and depending on how fuel prices change, vis worldwide oil supply, those carriers may end up being heavily subsidized by governments (someone correct me if this is already happening to some degree).
I fly out of Washington National and Dulles pretty regularly. I have yet to feel even 1/10th as inconvenienced by the security protocols as at London Heathrow or Rome Fiumicino 25 years ago.
reminds me of a novel from Jack Vance (can't remember the title), where people wore 'torques' that let a despotic leader track their whereabouts. :)
The only difference was that the necklace would explode when tampered with...
I guess it's just a small technological hurdle to overcome
There's been alot of discussion on the negative impact that these chips have but what about the usefulness of the technology? 1. Being able to locate passengers in areas that are off-limits 2. In the event of a catastrophy being able to find passengers that are missing or potentially injured and being able to get there quicker to potentially save a life. 3. Locating lost children 4. Making sure the amount of passengers that are checked in / checked out / boarded at any time eliminating any discrepancies should a problem arise 5. From a marketer's perspective - selling the data to the shops / food stands inside. Selling the data to advertisers and designating high value areas where there is the most traffic. 6. If there is a problem, checking that passenger's last known whereabouts to see what they were doing from the moment they checked in. If they met with airport staff posing as an insider prior to boarding etc. With that information, it could lead to the quicker arrest and breakup of other terrorist cells.
Saying "A new technology will be tried" is more cromulent than the original example.
...and brings up such hurdles to the project as 'finding a way of ensuring the tags cannot be switched between passengers or removed without notification.
It seems like you could easily enough implant these just beneath the skin of say the forehead, or the wrist.
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
Remember, you heard it hear on /. first:
:wq
Within 30 years or so it will be possible to do this without any chip. With sufficient software, hardware (cameras? EEG?) and processing power, there is no reason a system couldn't be designed that would do this just by individual appearance and other unique characteristics.
Evil will always triumph over good because good is dumb.
-Dark Helmet
Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...
I think it's more of an experiment on how far you can push people into indignity and how they put up with it and still live on. I expect everyone will be bitching, but in a special way. Hotheaded people don't get far. Maybe people will just avoid flying and drive or ride a train, simply because they dislike being collared like that, at least that's what I'd do, quiet resistance.
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleprint/26 58/-1/1
Seriously, if this helps them locate the asshole that lumbers to the gate 10 minutes late because of that drink that took long to finish, holding up the whole flight, I'm all for it. If it helps them realize where bottlenecks are, all the better. If it can spot that someone wandered into a high security area intentionally or unintentionally, how is that anything but good? If it alerts them that I'm sitting in the wrong gate area (or wrong terminal!) for my flight, I think that's a good thing.
Airports are all about moving passengers throughout their system and onto the plans in an efficient manner. If they can track the passengers better, it can only help in that goal.
What are you worried about? That they will notice you went to the can ten times? That you are hanging around a female that isn't your wife? (Do you think they'd care, or bother?) There isn't exactly a lot of innocently incriminating things you can do in an airport that would be revealed by them knowing your location.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
The right to move around on someone elses property, undetected?
This is just a boarding pass whose location can be tracked.
That should be easy. Make the tags explode and blow the head off upon unauthorized removal attempt. Should be discouraging enough.