October 27, 2005
RFID was developed in World War II, helping radar operators distinguish friendly aircraft from enemy. By the 1980s it had evolved into wireless tracking and access applications and today provides omnidirectional electronic storage technology on chips that can read, write, store, and transmit data in freely available international frequency bands.
Now beginning in October 2006, the U.S. State Department plans to implant RFID chips in all American passports. Besides serving as a beacon advertising the country of origin of its carrier, the RFID chip will include all the personal identifying information contained in current passports. And it will provide extra storage capacity that can later be used for iris scans, fingerprints, and other biometric data. The U.S. State Department claims they won't add this additional biometric data without first giving the public a chance to comment. But how reassuring is that when they ignored the 98% of respondents who balked at the use of RFID in passports to begin with?
In a token gesture to stave off some of that overwhelming criticism, the State Department plans to insert a metal lining in the passport cover, which as RFIDKills.com points out, is the electronic version of the tinfoil hat. The State Department also plans to encrypt the data, claiming it will be broadcast only after it has been swiped through an optical reader.
Even assuming any of these protective measures will work to protect the privacy and identity of U.S. citizens, the swiped data then presumably either ends up in or is compared to computer databases maintained by the State Department - an agency that routinely receives an F on the Federal Computer Security Report Card, giving a whole new meaning to "happy trails to you".
