Never confuse identifying a person with looking at an ID.
For a couple of years, the United States has been working on a plan for more secure passports, and using their position as a great nation to force other nations to do likewise. In an effort to contain a lot of information, make it difficult to forge, and have it be processed at a customs office in minimum time, the new passports will include an RFID chip — a very small, low power radio transmitter. This will allow customs officials to gather all kinds of information almost instantly with a mechanical reader. The reader doesn’t even have to physically contact the passport; depending on who you believe the passport can be read anywhere from one to ten meters away.
Business Week calls it “Big Brother’s Passport to Pry.” CNet cites “high tech snooping concerns.” Security expert Bruce Schneier lays it out:
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.
The Bush Administration thinks that’s just fine. Really! Maybe out of ignorance, maybe out of pure hubris, they seem to think that surely such readers will never ever be possessed by Bad Guys. Anyone who carries such a passport will be subject to identity theft and potential nationalistically motivated violent acts.
As if that isn’t bad enough, these passports will contain biometric information so primitive that a mere smile can cause identification failure. Talk about “not ready for prime-time” technology.
And have I mentioned the use of covert x-rays as a security device? Or a provision in the new 3000 page federal budget (passed only 2 months late) that allows certain Congressmen or their “agents” to look at anybody’s tax return they case to see? Or a proposal that would force every college in the nation to send the name and Social Security Number of every student to the Federal Government, regardless of their status or financial aid eligibility?
This goes far beyond the over-reaching anything-to-keep-us-safe only-a-criminal-would-object privacy invasions of the PATRIOT Act.
In closing, I bring you abusive employers who demand unpaid overtime rather than create a new job, a possible Senate rule to silence dissent, and a must-bookmark site for anyone who travels frequently, the official FAA airport delay site.