remember get your passports before feb.

[IChing]

Unless you want to be chipped.

RFID Passports

Since the terrorist attacks of 2001, the Bush administration--specifically, the Department of Homeland Security--has wanted the world to agree on a standard for machine-readable passports. Countries whose citizens currently do not have visa requirements to enter the United States will have to issue passports that conform to the standard or risk losing their nonvisa status.

These future passports, currently being tested, will include an embedded computer chip. This chip will allow the passport to contain much more information than a simple machine-readable character font, and will allow passport officials to quickly and easily read that information. That is a reasonable requirement and a good idea for bringing passport technology into the 21st century.

But the Bush administration is advocating radio frequency identification (RFID) chips for both U.S. and foreign passports, and that's a very bad thing.

These chips are like smart cards, but they can be read from a distance. A receiving device can "talk" to the chip remotely, without any need for physical contact, and get whatever information is on it. Passport officials envision being able to download the information on the chip simply by bringing it within a few centimeters of an electronic reader.
Unfortunately, RFID chips can be read by any reader, not just the ones at passport control. The upshot of this is that travelers carrying around RFID passports are broadcasting their identity.
Think about what that means for a minute. It means that passport holders are continuously broadcasting their name, nationality, age, address and whatever else is on the RFID chip. It means that anyone with a reader can learn that information, without the passport holder's knowledge or consent. It means that pickpockets, kidnappers and terrorists can easily--and surreptitiously--pick Americans or nationals of other participating countries out of a crowd.
http://www.iht.com/articles/541711.html
Also wal-mart; uses it on all items you buy.

[WLKjr]

1. yeah they are switching to those

it's supposed to help tracking shipments and speed product delivery supposidly (for wal-mart)

[sweetheart]

2. What stops the signals?

I've got to renew my passport soon, as i accidentally washed it in
the washing machine, and it looks more than a bit ratty. If i got
one of these RFID passports, could i not just wrap it in tin foil
in its pouch to keep it from being read anywhere but when it was
presented?

[pelagius]

6. The signal is stopped when you locate...

...the little device and crunch it with a pair of pliers. No prob.

[camero]

12. I think this works the same as GPS technology

If that's the case, tin foil will block the signal because the signal can't penetrate the foil.

[AndyTiedye]

3. I See a Big Market Opportunity in Faraday Passport Shields

"The stylish brushed-aluminum case is not only waterproof, it prevents any RF from
getting in or out."

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

4. RFID signals are pretty weak

It wouldn't take much to block them. The RFID toll box I have in my car is blocked by a thin-film antenna in the windshield - if it's not up high enough on the windshield it won't pick up at all.

[IChing]

5. not true

read the whole article...

[IChing]

7. wired news has a link

and many reports on this system.
and don't forget to shop at Wal-Mart.

[htuttle]

8. Low power radio jammers are relatively easy to build

Same type of device they use to block cell phones in some places like churches and theaters -- also used to block GPS transmissions in rental cars.

Just need the frequency of the RFID chips....

:shrug:

[Xithras]

9. This article is 100% unadulterated bunk

RFID chips don't broadcast your name, your nationality, or any other identifiable information. It's a simple blind response system that broadcasts a KEY.

In other words, the RFID chip in your passport, if queried, might broadcast a response signal with something like this as a response:
AQFPPL349993484AA90384A889854FPERdfs554713221fdsfdRFGG

That is known in the database world as a unique key. How useful is it? Imagine for a moment that you're walking along and find a key on the sidewalk one day. That key could open someones bank vault, their car door, their home, or maybe it just opens the lock on their box of marital aids. That key is potentially dangerous, but on its own it's useless because you don't know WHERE to use it. Sure, you could try it against every lock you can find, but with untold billions of electronic locks in the world, the odds of you finding a match are beyond infinitesimal.

In the RFID world, that key corresponds to a record in a database somewhere. Would it be possible for someone to take the key above and match it to an American somewhere? Yes, but ONLY if you KNEW that it was an American passport key, had some other method of accessing the State Department database that the keys and your personal identification reside on, and had the ability to pull that information from the database at will. Without that access to query that key against, the RFID signal is as useless as that anonymous key on the sidewalk.

As someone who works with RFID quite frequently, it drives me nuts that the tinfoilhatters have so much control over the RFID discussion.

[bermudat]

10. Thanks for giving some perspective.

[coalition_unwilling]

11. Bravo! There's enough legitimate reasons to be paranoid w/o

wasting energy on the urban legend bullshit.

[WoodrowFan]

15. thanks

that was a valuable tutorial. :yourock:

[SoCalDem]

16. Also, can you IMAGINE the cacophony of signals bouncing around

in the International terminal at LAX???

[Hello_Kitty]

17. We use RFID chips where I work

To track boxes of semi-conductor wafers. It is just as you say.

[Zorra]

18. So RFID is not like, or cannot be used like, "OnStar" for people?

So a satellite could not track you like it tracks an "OnStar" system if you had an RFID chip in your passport?

Do they not have that type of technology?

[karlrschneider]

13. I bet 30 seconds in a microwave oven will take care of it.

:D

[RichardRay]

14. Almost ANYTHING will block it.

Putting it in the inside pocket of a heavy jacket would make it very hard to read. The readers have to pretty much 'look' directly at you, so having another person standing between you and the reader will block it completely. They readers aren't very smart, so just having a crowd of people standing around together will confuse the poor dears to distraction.

I'm amazed at how quickly people confuse RFID with GPS. I've seen lots of strident complaints about how some inimical force is going to be able to track people around like so many delivery trucks if passports have chips in them. It doesn't work like that.

I work with various kinds of access control technologies and most of what gets said about the evils of RFID is based on serious misunderstandings of what's possible.

Richard Ray - Jackson Hole, WY