January 5, 2005

New U.S. Passport Plan Includes RFID

If its technology then it cannot be wrong seems to be the mantra of the U.S. government. The latest techno wonder is the effort by boarder security officials to recreate passports for U.S. citizens. The plan is to include RFID technology, which according to experts may compromise privacy in ways that travelers would hardly expect. One method would involve a RFID reader hidden on another person that would be able to remotely identify U.S. citizens based on the RFID tag used in domestic IDs. This alone is chilling given the heightened sense of security for U.S. citizens traveling domestically and internationally.

U.S. passport privacy: Over and out?, Boston Herald Tribune, December 23, 2004