Privacy and RFID tags

[TheMercenary]

We talked about this once before and most people came to the conclusion that they were going to be harmless. This article may change your mind. Esp with the new passports. I know our state is about to change all of our drivers licenses, although I am not sure if they include RFID tags. Anyway I thought I would pass it along as the story is not being carried on the major TV networks.

Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears

Jul 12, 6:10 AM (ET)

By TODD LEWAN

Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he'd bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car.

It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker's gold.

Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner downloaded to his laptop the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.

Increasingly, government officials are promoting the chipping of identity documents as a 21st century application of technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country.

But Paget's February experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates had feared for years: That RFID, coupled with other technologies, could make people trackable without their knowledge.

He filmed his heist, and soon his video went viral on the Web, intensifying a debate over a push by government, federal and state, to put tracking technologies in identity documents and over their potential to erode privacy.

Putting a traceable RFID in every pocket has the potential to make everybody a blip on someone's radar screen, critics say, and to redefine Orwellian government snooping for the digital age.

"Little Brother," some are already calling it - even though elements of the global surveillance web they warn against exist only on drawing boards, neither available nor approved for use.

But with advances in tracking technologies coming at an ever-faster rate, critics say, it won't be long before governments could be able to identify and track anyone in real time, 24-7, from a cafe in Paris to the shores of California.

On June 1, it became mandatory for Americans entering the United States by land or sea from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean to present identity documents embedded with RFID tags, though conventional passports remain valid until they expire.

Among new options are the chipped "e-passport," and the new, electronic PASS card - credit-card sized, with the bearer's digital photograph and a chip that can be scanned through a pocket, backpack or purse from 30 feet.

Alternatively, travelers can use "enhanced" driver's licenses embedded with RFID tags now being issued in some border states: Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York. Texas and Arizona have entered into agreements with the federal government to offer chipped licenses, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has recommended expansion to non-border states. Kansas and Florida officials have received DHS briefings on the licenses, agency records show.

continues:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090712/D99CRDAG0.html

[richlevy]

One of my sons got his passport about 8 months after the rest of us, mostly because we couldn't get him to sign the application. As a result, he's the only one with an RFID passport. I'm going to have to buy him a foil lined passport holder or make one out of aluminum tape.

BTW, here are directions on making an RFID blocking duct tape wallet. Having made my first duct tape wallet a few months ago, I may decide to try this next.

Although I don't know why they don't just use aluminum or copper foil shielding tape.

Or I could just buy him and RFID Blocking Passport Billfold.

[Crimson Ghost]

It'd be a real shame if the RFID chip were crushed in an accident, say a strange needle-nose plier incident....

[zippyt]

stick it in a Micro wave for a bit

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by Crimson Ghost

It'd be a real shame if the RFID chip were crushed in an accident, say a strange needle-nose plier incident....

I like your spirit, but we all know what Mr. Bureaucrat is going to say when you try to use the document for something.


Couldn't you just leave the card at home? Or better yet, get someone else to take the card for a walk while you get up to skullduggery elsewhere? Or pinch someone else's card and carry that on your nefarious mischief?


ETA: I wonder if they could track you on the Appalachian trail...

[Crimson Ghost]

Just because the RFID chip is broke, it doesn't invalidate the passport as official ID.

Something to consider...

[ZenGum]

I presume it would, otherwise they are useless as added security.

My (Australian) passport has a computer chip, I don't know it it is RFID or not, but I do know that the passport is invalid without the working chip.

I have no information about the USA, but I can't imagine a bureaucracy tolerating defective documentation. They hate anything that doesn't fit neatly into one of their procedural boxes.

[Crimson Ghost]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

I presume it would, otherwise they are useless as added security.

My (Australian) passport has a computer chip, I don't know it it is RFID or not, but I do know that the passport is invalid without the working chip.

I have no information about the USA, but I can't imagine a bureaucracy tolerating defective documentation. They hate anything that doesn't fit neatly into one of their procedural boxes.

Hi. I'd like to introduce you to the US of A.
We invented defective documentation.

[TheMercenary]

@CG ...good one.