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US Government To Release Electronic Passport
XueCast writes "The federal government has announced that they will release new electronic Passport cards in either April or May 2008. The cards could be read wirelessly from up to 20 feet away, which could reduce the waiting time at border checkpoints. Deputy Assistant Secretary Of State For Passport Services, Ann Barrett said, "As people are approaching a port of inspection, they can show the card to the reader, and by the time they get to the inspector, all the information will have been verified and they can be waved on through.""
Can't wait for this.. I can finally hack my way past border security, like in 24.
How we know is more important than what we know.
$45 for an insecure card that can be read from 20 feet away and cannot be used for air travel? Thanks but no thanks, maybe when they have one permitted for air travel and with (at least) a method of enabling/disabling reading.
Every security measure I've seen for RFID involves some encryption, and a "Handshake" between the reader and card. In a packed situation like an airport, it would be really easy to have an electronic device sniff this handshake, and by pretending to be a reader, lift multiple passport ID's off of people while passing by. Sounds dangerous to me.
The cards could be read wirelessly from up to 20 feet away
"and there's nothing you can do about it! ha!", added Deputy Assistant Secretary Of State For Passport Services, Ann Barrett.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Tin foil billfolds and passport covers are already being sold: http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&safe=off&q=RFID+blocking+wallet&btnG=Search
Nothing a microwave oven on high for 2-3 seconds (or a hammer and hard surface) won't solve: http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&safe=off&q=RFID+disabling+passport&btnG=Search
You must opt-in to receive one of these terrorist magnets, so leave your tinfoil wallet at home.
How do you check that the boimetrics on the card matches the biometrics of the person carrying it 20 feet away?
From TFA:
"As people are approaching a port of inspection, they can show the card to the reader, and by the time they get to the inspector, all the information will have been verified and they can be waved on through," said Ann Barrett, deputy assistant secretary of state for passport services, commenting on the final rule on passport cards published yesterday in the Federal Register.
Hahahahaha. You have got to be fucking kidding me. I have been the United States on two separate occasions via air in the last few years and in both cases neither myself nor any of my fellow passengers were ever "waved on through" inspection. Everybody got the royal ass raping treatment and this comment by Ann Barrett is just a bureaucratic pie-in-the-sky sales job for the new passports.
How could you leave out this little detail from your story?
I know the universal ID/RFIDs are legitimate stories, but this card story is non-story turned into a potential page churner ONLY because of the single detail left out of the write-up.
Shoddy editing job.
however, average joe blow is going to go to niagara falls in canada, he'll be scanned and scammed as he wanders around, and by the time he drives home to schenectady that evening, someone in russia will be selling his info to someone in china
at times like these, why root against incompetence? it always seems to win
so go with the flow i say
anyone want to rent a 3rd story apt in niagara falls canada with me and point an rfid reader out the window?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Don't mind the extra X. Alex
And this is a joke. I, and my family (Mexican wife and 'mixed' child) get waved through when we say "American" at the border. Now my wife is a naturalized citizen, but they take one look at me (white as can be) and we get one question before we are waived through.
//Trolling, just for the fun of it. I have a lot of unearned karma....
As for an RFID solution, what makes that better than the 'instincts' of the Border Patrol? I think that could be faked so fast that a young male of middle eastern descent could could get through as an asian business person just because the border card said so.
Just a dude. Stuck in IT.
Oh wonderful. Now when I'm overseas, the terrorists can identify me as an American in a crowd from 20 feet away.
They shoot you with a sampling dart like they do with whales.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I did go ahead and line my wallet with aluminium foil. It actually does stop the reception for the wireless chip in my MasterCard.
If the passports are going to have the wireless technology built it, I hope they have taken utmost care to make it safe from hackers . Network/wireless sniffing is extremely easy. The electronic passports must be safe from simple attack like network sniffing/packet replay etc. That said, its a great move and a step in the right direction. listen_to_slashdot
Ummm... Why not simply put the reader 20 feet away as people approach? Or is that too low-tech?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
What could be more American than trading security for easy of use. Ben Franklin would have been proud
What nonsense. If they could be "verified" by machine, they wouldn't need to stand in line in the first place. Travelers stand in line for physical inspection and crowd control, and the card can't help with that process. Unless it can count the books of matches in my backpack and measure my lithium battery, all it will do is save a few seconds of pulling out my wallet. Sounds neat, I guess.
I always mod up spelling trolls.
There is simply not enough power for passive RFID chips to do any kind of processing, including SSL or other forms of encryption. While it is true that there are contactless smart cards which are capable of doing things like that, they have a range of centimeters at best. There is simply no practical way to broadcast enough power 20 feet to handle SSL.
Once security decides you're trying to get waved through, will this passport set you up for extra attention?
Encryption doesn't matter for a passport...if you are hunting Americans and Americans are the only ones who have RFIDs in their passports.
If you have a device that detects RFIDs and you find someone walking down the street in a country outside the USA with an RFID on their person, then that person is most likely to carrying an American passport. If you are looking to kidnap or kill an American because your God has given His OK to do so (the mullah told you so), well then chances are very high that you've found one.
So run up and do Allah's will. If it's a woman or child, so much the better because there is less likelyhood that they will fight back or resist.
This RFID in passports is such a bad idea that it is all but unimagineable that any other country will do it. Americans have become obsessed with techno-fascist stupidities since the Saudi Arabian massacre of their people in September 2001. They need to step back a little and give some serious thought to what is a good idea and what is only a technological fad with unwanted consequences.
Thank the American God that they solved this problem, because those piece of shit regular passports barely fucking worked and were an accident waiting to happen..(and a fire danger)....
Seriously...with all their "paperness" and "non-electronicky" and all that.
Someone call Apple!
After sitting in my car last Sunday for 45 minutes at the Peace Bridge while some vehicle 8 or 9 cars ahead was held up for 20 minutes, I welcome any change in the procedure to help speed up the processing of the casual traveler. I realize the limitations of the technology, but am willing to accept the risks to help speed things up. In the Summer surge on weekends the 3 or 4 hour wait can be the longest leg of a pleasant journey across the border. The carbon footprint of a thousand or so cars and trucks idling in 90 degree + temperatureshas to be tremendous.
(obligatory)
Sorry, but the implications on this for not just electronic hacking, privacy, and stolen IDs, but also for people to loot your home while you're in another country just stagger the imagination.
Want security? This is not the way to go.
Convenience is just another word for Gullible.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I was gone to German Rathaus today and I saw it on a flier: they also have this RFID enabled online Passport.
Ref.: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/45780
For what its worth to mention, they have it since 2005. (http://rfid-informationen.de/info/news/archives/00000125.html)
I would start storing my passport in a heavy metal casing to combat the radio signals and only get it out when I want it read. It's a bit like the talk around RFID in bank notes. The mugger scans your handbag to find out how much money you have before he mugs you!
"As people are approaching a port of inspection, they can show the card to the reader, and by the time they get to the inspector, all the information will have been verified and they can be waved on through."
"As people are cowering in their seats, their card is read by the terrorist's reader. By the time ther terrorist gets to the American Infidel, all the information will have been verified and they can be singled out for execution first."
Gee, thanks. Couldn't have [not lived] without it.
"The Bush Administration, finding innovative ways to make life easier for terrorists since 2001."
OK. So you're walking down a street in a mildly hostile country and someone shines their RFID reader at you, and Presto! they say, "Hey, that's an American!"
Even if they couldn't read the actual info, it seems likely that it'd be a pretty good indication that you're fodder for a ransom...
Well, i guess that will help them track all of us easily once we all have that 'national ID' thing.
Wont have to 'show us your papers' as they will know its you from down the street.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Fantastic! Now all an illegal alien will need to cross the border is an old television antenna coupled with a 9 volt battery!
Also in the FA it is stated that all that is contained is the passport number - presumably the rest of the details get looked up.
So, here we have a card that:
a) costs still more money.
b) can't be used at airports (just land and sea border crossings)
c) can't identify you to random strangers - they'll need access to the US passport database.
So the point of this is that when you're driving across the border from Canada, they've verified your passport details while you wait in the queue, then all they do is take a look at you and send you through to customs.
Of course, this same thing could be done by having a second checkpoint to do the Q&A stuff.
Now, can we please take all the comments about lines at the airport out of the discussion?
"Software is too expensive to build cheaply"
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
- Individual chips can be identified by the characteristics of the radio transmissions.
- Chips can be cloned. In England, Biometric passports were already cloned.
- The shielding is not well enough if the passport is closed. So companies start selling stronghold bags.
- Its possible to track people. Tags can possibly be read in distances of meters.
- Forgery of digital passports could become a lot easier.
- The worst case scenarios of a data breach are a nightmare.
Some links:On numerous occasions, hijackers have gone through the passengers, demanding to see passports.
Those that had U.S. passports (and, less frequently, British too) were singled out to be used as either human shields or the first to be executed to prove the terrorists meant their threats.
Leon Klinghoffer on the Achille Lauro is one classic example. A wheelchair bound, 69 year old, he was executed first because he was identified as a Jewish American.
Going through a plane full of 400 people or a cruise ship with a couple of thousand takes multiple people a significant amount of time as each scared person fumbles with their passport, pretends they can't find it, etc. Walking down the isles with an RFID reader that tells you whenever you pass one of your target group does make the job significantly easier.
An ignorance of history doesn't actually make a post flamebait.
The simple fact remains: Making it stupidly easy for hijackers and terrorists to identify people without even needing to see their passport, just walking within 20 feet, is an exceptionally bad idea.
And didn't you consider that blacks might be poorer than whites due to social inequality and lack of education in family history (all of which can be demonstrated to exist) rather than some nebulous connection between skin color and natural mental acuity? Post hoc ergo propter hoc is a fallacy for a reason, and even if there IS a chain of cause and effect it's not so easy to tell what the steps in the middle were.
Troll.
Maybe the government knows these things will be such a pain that no one will want one. Then they'll declare a draft, and no one can escape the country.
God spoke to me.
Hey... We don't care if you don't like Australians.. Take it elsewhere, bub...
{Ba-dum-DUM-Ding!}
Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
Coming soon to a bomb near you:
while(1){
count = poll_rfid_country_of_origin(USA);
if(count > 5)
detonate();
sleep(5);
}
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
What if Microsoft made passports? I'm sure it would come with a wi-fi, so you can just squirt your information at whomever. But wait! It's not just a passport. No sir! It's also an mp3 player, a radio, all in one shopping card, a resume and a portfolio. Medical id and a credit rating report. Criminal history and a pda/gps. Our records indicate that you actually were at that political rally that turned sour... Almost every US adult carries a driver's license as a primary form of ID. Perhaps this new wireless Zune passport can also be that...
I tend to stay away from nightclubs and bars that scan your driver's license. Too much information for them. They don't need to know my name, let alone my place of residence. CCTV bugs me less (if the point of the whole privacy invasion is JUST for security)... If I ever have to go to such an establishment (friend's birthday, or something else that's not worth being a paranoid dick over) I'll just bring my passport instead. They still have to let me in, but can't as easily place me on a list of patrons for whatever purposes. With passports becoming even more revealing than your DL, I would seriously have to consider never going to such places ever again.
I see this proposal as incredibly expensive, with trivial benefits, and a whole lot of potential for abuse. Perhaps one could establish a VIP system with this where DTRM (digital travel rights management) gives you an easier TC (trusted commuting) pass based on your previous patterns of moving about. Which brings us back to the old discussion on profiling. blah... The only saving grace to the whole proposal is that a lot of americans don't have, never had, and have no plans of ever owning a passport.
Makes me feel less paranoid that this could be just a sneaky way of introducing a national ID card. It's just a 'convenience' passport at this time. Perhaps more than that tomorrow. I understand benefits of technological advances, but this world will still continue using cash and paper ballots, regardless of alternates. Call me old fashioned, but I still prefer my passport covered in stamps from other countries. It's like collecting concert tickets!
Green Giant (bling!)
If the Band-Aid were made for the Jolly Green Giant, then would be sealed, provided there's blood-proof adhesive tape.
But, seems to me, there will be facial recognition and gait matching records mixed in without card-carrier's consent/awareness. After all, at what point before customs officers' desks will electronic data be matched to the face of the card holder?
With a rush of 2,000 to 5,000 cruise liner PAX and more than in an hour (or even 15 minutes) at major airport, that's way too much for humans to facially verify. That means ANYone resembling the holder can commit fraud, unless a hand scan, retina scan, breath scan or a plain-old dog-chip implant in the coccyx or cranium are part of the "trust but verify" processing.
I wonder if the Bahamas or other cruise liners will have to employ these things just to get tourists back ONTO the ship. Wait, I think they do, already. If a passenger "misses movement" I wonder what kind of alerts or missing persons reports go out for them. Never know, they could be off training in a cell somewhere...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
ThinkGeek.com has been selling RFID blocking wallets and passport holders for a while. I already own the wallet. It contains a Faraday cage that blocks signals from reading RFID credit cards or in my case my building security card. I've been putting off getting a passport, but I will most likely need on so I will be making yet another purchase from ThinkGeek.com. They already get most of my extra money every month.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/brain/whereisit.cgi?t=RFID&x=0&y=0
There might be for the Joe-Six-Pack (and undoubtedly for government/state department agents and military personnel) some sort of mask or even a false or variable-false nationality beacon into which to slip the Real ID, umm, passport.
This way, they can arrive and pretend to be from Antigua but be a diplomatic courier or even armed Marshal. But international agreements, they'll be waived in or briefly asked questions so they don't appear to be "special", meaning they likely won't be a target if hijackers are able to get onto the plane or vessel.
However, this means anyone with the ability to obtain a fake, verifiable, unchallenged ID can carry weapons (by pre-arrangement between governments, maybe?) when not actually authorized. So, as easily as Air Marshals, future, armed hijackers/skyjackers may have a new or another way to board unchallenged. Well, assuming the screeners don't know HOW MANY armed sets the threshold for a spot security check before takeoff/departure/sailaway.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Now if they can have you pass through WITHOUT getting checked mannually, then that would be a cool solution. Like the process on the Illinois tollway using I-Pass. The passport "light" would stay on green and the line would keep moving. The line would only stop for manual inspection when the light turns red. Combine this with a sign saying "American Passport customers only" and a bunch of manual stations. Of course, the single file line could also have dual cameras watching the faces of poeple going through.
Finally they will release something to make it easier for Mexicans to enter illegally into the United States!
Just get the Gringo in Tijuana, fill his skull with Tequila, get his border auto pass, and cruise into the US!
I don't know about others, but the first thing I do when I get to my hotel/apartment/wherever I'm staying overseas is stick my passport in a safe and leave it there until I head home or absolutely have to use it for something. Most everybody accepts a photocopy anyways.
I understand your concern, but seriously - get that thing off your person ASAP unless you absolutely must have it on you.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I wonder where the people doing the verification will be located? In prison or India?
You lower a giant glass cone down from the ceiling and stand under it. You also hope that nobody brought a recording device to the conversation, or that they might be able to get under the cone somehow, like by listening to small vibrations in the floor. Or worse, you pretend to be someone you are not by wearing a fake mustache.
And that's American security in a nutshell.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
+1: scary as hell
If I think something is funny, I will probably mod it +1 Insightful. "It's funny because it's true."
More likely to occur is that there will be a read error on your passport and suddenly you get flagged into the problem line, which takes 30 minutes longer than it did before there were electronic passports.
I thought the new US passports issued since sometime in the middle of last year already embed readable electronics, whether RFID or some other kind of chip.
Or is the State Department so screwed up that it doesn't even know it's already released them into the wild, where the bad guys are already raping and pillaging them?
Isn't there some way to fry these RFID documents without rendering them useless to optical or human readers of their visible surfaces?
--
make install -not war
Most cruise lines use a magnetic card issued to you at boarding that you use to get off and on the boat at different islands. When you swipe the card to get back on the boat at one of the various islands you're visinting, your picture is pulled from their database to compare to you (picture was taken when you got on the boat at the beginning of your trip).
First off, all ePassport and RFID chips need to go through rigorous secure design practices such as those offered by Common Criteria aka ISO 15408. This means every aspect of the design is documented to a particular level (in this case, Common Criteria EAL5 at a minimum) and ensures that the design has no back doors or other unintended "features" put in by the designers, as well as being designed in a secure environment (special rooms with multiple levels of physical protection, security monitoring, no outside communications). It is also designed to a particular security specification depending on the application. So, for example, one would choose something like BSI-PP-02 which is what most smart cards for this type of application are designed to these days anyway. This ensures that not only can direct attacks on cryptography and protocol be mounted, but also that side channel attacks such as differential power analysis are prevented.
In addition, the setup enrolls each card with a unique ID or digital certificate unique and known only to the upstream readers. Non-destructive extraction of these keys from the chips on the ID or from the hardware security modules that take care of the crypto on the reader side is practially not possible. There is dedicated on-board cryptographic acceleration for both symmetric (typically 3DES or AES) and asymmmetric (typically 1024-bit or 2048-bit RSA, or 160-bit to 256-bit ECC) cryptography. So, just like digital certificates on the Internet ensure that you are really talking to Google when you use a browser and not to a man in the middle, nobody can really intercept communications between reader and card.
The real concern isn't what criminals or hackers will do with this, but what governments will. Vicinity card, aka ISO 15693, may allow for surreptitious monitoring by readers because of the physical layer implementations that allow long-distance reading without the knowledge of the card's owner. That, of course, can be subverted by building a Faraday cage around the card (yes, I mean tin foil), but there was no reason in my opinion to go any further than contact smart card aka ISO 7816. For one thing, the power constraints make turn-around times on cryptography notoriously difficult on non-contact cards to stay within a decent cost and design budget - and that would've been greatly alleviated on the contact style cards. For another thing, there is really no reason for the physical person to not be present with the card, which means they could've easily made rows of ISO 7816 readers that you simply insert your card into at the same time it takes your picture and/or collects biometric information before presenting yourself to a BCIS agent. In any case, this is pretty much the top and bottom of what's going on with electronic ID of the future, so be aware of what you're carrying and how.
DATA LOSS!
Optional?
Voluntary?
Gagg.
RH
Well, crossing a border involves leaving one country and entering another.
Even if you fasttrack your entry in/out of the US at the US side of the border, you're still going to have to queue at the other end, because I doubt the other countries will have the same system and seriously doubt the US will share any 'encryption keys' that it might use.
Pretty useless really, so what's the point?
"the dully obedient lines were bred out repeatedly."
Gotta love the dull way in which you repeat that bullshit. Don't know what race you are, but according your own standards you appear to be "inferior stock".
Since apparently this passport RFID will sped up passing through airport gate, you will have a better probability of only killing speedy american, whereas the rest of us will still be stuck for hours (for days) in security queues. Finally I knew having a paper passport and be forced to take the longest queue would someday be an advantage.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Its hacking time!
I worked for a summer as an intern at a U.S. Embassy, so when it comes to your plan to run to the embassy if you're in trouble, consider the following:
1. If the trouble is criminal in nature, and you're accused of the crime, the embassy will probably just hand you over to local police. True, you can receive visits from your consular officer after you've been put in jail, but that's after the fact. Everything you've seen in Hollywood on this subject is 100% incorrect. An American Citizen Services officer I spoke with jokingly told me that his job consisted of calling parents and telling them, "yes, I know Johnny's a good boy, but he did something really stupid here, and now he's in jail. No, we can't actually do anything for him other than visit him. Sorry."
2. The consulate is used to dealing with American citizens without passports - it replaces lost/stolen ones all the time. A photocopy won't hurt you at all in that respect - just tell them your passport is lost, but present a photocopy. They may want to know more personal information, and you'll have to pay a fee, but you'll be fine.
3. If you believe the embassy will provide you great protection, think again. It's not like the movies - there is no company of Marines there to defend all the Americans in the gates. An embassy generally depends on local police for security and its small (quite small) contingent of Marine Security Guards (MSGs) for the last line of defense. Even then, their primary concern is the classified material. That said, there is nothing in this world like walking into your office and seeing a big MSG at the door. You know that, as an employee of the US Government, it'll take something approaching an army to get past that man so long as he's got breath in him and Rules of Engagement that allow him to fight. I've never been in the military, but God bless the USMC. That said, as a mere citizen, I wouldn't depend on the embassy to provide you any great protection and, if it comes down to that, do keep in mind that the embassy will likely be a big target for angry mobs.
Personally, I would recommend waiting out any big disturbance and, if things appear to only be getting worse, getting to the airport ASAP with your passport - and you'll have a much better chance of not getting your passport stolen if it was in a safe in a location you can access when everything hit the fan. And trust me, huge riots can pop up at any time, without much warning. I was in Argentina in December in 2001... what a month. I felt good knowing that my passport was in a safe, across town in a quiet part of the city, in a locked building, behind a gate, with a security guard, rather than on my person in the middle of a riot.
4. As far as hotels, at least in some European countries, it's my understanding that registering your location is a basic part of life. I believe that in Italy (could be totally off) that people are required to register (in theory) with the local police. Hotels register their clients with the police as well (I think... once again, don't take this as hard and fast truth). Your documents are generally held for this purpose. But, as this isn't too big a deal, most hotels don't push you on it.
Long story short, I'd think twice about keeping a passport on me 24/7 if I don't absolutely need to do so (as in the Russia example cited above).
Now the terrorists can RFID Americans and have their bombs explode only when Americans pass nearby.
Thanks Uncle Sam, for putting Americans abroad at even more risk than they already are from your failed foreign policies.
I have a passport with a chip in it and I have seen no speed in the process at the airport. I still need to take of my shoes to get them tested. I still have to go through more checks then I used to.
I have however a envelope made for my passport, Made it with tinfoil and duct tape. When they asked I told them I did not want to damage my passport, that way I would be able to present them a better readable paper, wich would make control easier for them and make my passage faster.
They thought that was a good idea. I did not stop to tell them that I thought they were idiots for believing that lame excuse.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Subsequent visits to the US suggest he may be the one good apple in the barrel, however.
Why does being a border guard mean you can't have a laugh with the travellers? Surely, being pleasent doesn't preclude doing the job, indeed it may just put people sufficiently at ease to make them slip up and reveal their bad intentions?
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
Why don't they just make them really big?
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Wow...it has been a LONG time since I was on a cruise (late 80's I guess), but, back then...I don't remember having to show ANY form of id to leave or return to the ship.
Man..I really am starting to miss some of the "good old days", where you didn't have to identify and show your papers to move about and do common things....
Sad thing is, many of the recent generation, take all this as the norm...and don't know this is really a recent occurance.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
now our hackers can sell stolen identities to everyone who want to sneak into the country
A small metal box. The sort you put gift cards in at Christmas.
Best Slashdot Co
Now the immigration guys have more time to ask you dumb questions.
Why is it that they always suspect people with two cameras, a video, a
return ticket, bookings at a resort hotel and a pile of guide books have
come here to get a job illegally?
Old COBOL programmers never die. They just code in C.
Aw, poor baby get him feewings hurt?
I don't think it takes much in the way of electronics to scan for the presence of say 5 or more passports of nation XX in the vicinity and only then trigger a bomb. With enough power supply such a device could lay dormant for quite a few years.
:-).
My passport got the microwave treatment. Given that the cover did not contain shielding and I work with microwave equipment, "mistakes" are easily made..
I guess this project got the OK by the same process as the UK ID card scheme: let the contractor who stands to gain the work also perform the feasibility study. Prevents any nasty surprises on the conclusion front
Insert
I cruise every year, and I'm happy they have these cards. The best thing about them, from a passenger's point of view, is that the cruise ship knows exactly who has left the ship, whether or not everyone has gotten back on-board at the end of the day, and whether or not anyone who doesn't belong has tried to get on-board. They always say that you need to get back on-board on time because the ship will leave without you if you don't, but I suspect that they wait. More than once my ship has stayed in port beyond the scheduled time, and I've seen stragglers come running up the pier. In the Carribean where I cruise, most of the ports are only a few hours apart and the ship sails all night, so it's easy to make up lost time spent waiting for late passengers.
The cards really don't slow anything down either; there's a queue to get everyone over the narrow gangplank anyway, and a quick optical scan of the barcode on the card while you pass the counter is all that is needed. Coming back on-board, the bigger hassle is the metal detector and x-ray you and your stuff (respectively) have to go through, but even that is much quicker than at an airport. (The TSA could really learn a thing or two from cruise lines... on the ship, you're not even standing and waiting in line, you're just reduced to a slow walk as you go through the inspection.)
Side Note: if you go on an official excursion and you're running late, the excursion operators let the ship know where you are, and the ship knows who you are. If you go off by yourself and you're running late returning, the ship knows you're not back yet but they don't know where you are. Always carry the port information packet with you; it contains the contact number for the ship in that port, so you can call them and let them know you're on your way back. If they know you're coming, they may wait for you.
Unfortunately, the US government does not recognize dual citizenship with regard to its citizens. IIRC, as soon as evidence of citizenship in another country after the age of 18 exists, you are no longer a US citizen.
Resistance is futile. Your technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. You will become one with the morgue
Breaking the RFID's illegal, as reported here months ago, iirc, &
foil-shielding is going to be illegal
"only a TERRORIST would *hide* their identity from Lawful Authority!!"-arg
within a few years, at most.
---
"Authority", or assuming one to be "god"
( the assumption's *apparent*-validity being dependent on obliterating-others )
is predictable.
Try also my gallery: http://photo.net/photos/AntrygRevo
Wow... so this means some enterprising person could quite easily make an "American Detector" which will let them spot all Americans in a 20 foot radius.
Yeah... really clever idea brought to you by the Loyal Bushie Police State. Protectificatin' Ammerika by destroying one country at a time.
"The $45 card will be optional and cannot be used for air travel." Ok... the only times I've ever used a passport via land was going to Niagara Falls, and it was not a long wait at all. Maybe 6 cars ahead of me at the crossing, and it took maybe two minutes maximum. Even a tourbus took maybe twenty minutes to process. We were told to place our birth certificates on our laps (this was before the passport requirement). The border officer walked up to each of us, asked our place of birth, looking to see if we hesitated or otherwise seemed nervous, then picking them up and taking a look to make sure it's not a forgery. In short, a massive privacy risk increase, for what? The only time I can see this helping is seaports, and that's such a small percentage of border crossings it seems to me to be an unwise idea.
The Japanese economy has been experiencing deflation for the past few years.
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/624
Bring back the old version of slashdot.
Why don't we have all of our armed forces carry something like this? 20' to read it? How far to _detect_ it?
People who want to enter the country for nefarious purposes will always have a variety of methods of entry that completely bypass these systems.
I recommend a fake ID with a birthdate of February 29. Customs systems reject this date so they can't look up any records.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
"Releasing" or "Inflicting"?
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
"Since August 2007, the U.S. has been issuing only e-passports."
I expected better from the Washington Post.
Sigs are for suckers.