US Passports and RFID

The introduction of RFID chips (Radio Frequency ID chips) into American passports will be a quick and efficient way of checking people biometric information and other information.

The dangers of this type of identification are that people will not know who is checking the data on the passports this could include the Government tracking the movements of a chosen person, a criminal trying to steal your identity or a person who is curious about your citizenship, this type of identification can cause people to check private information without anyone know and this is against the human rights of these people (unless their criminals). It has been said that the US Government has set up some protection against information theft but these have done nothing to help the flaws of the chip these “improvements” include a shielding that stops the passport being read when the passport is closed but when it is open the information is venerable and as in many places the passport must be open as part of identification people could take the information when it is open, they have also set up some encryption devices to protect the chip so people have to decrypt the information before taking it which has been proven possible as some one has been able to clone the information.




Information taken from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/15/AR2006091500923.html