Electronic Passports Raise Privacy Issues

[katty]

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/31/AR2007123101922_pf.html

Electronic Passports Raise Privacy Issues

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 1, 2008; A06

The federal government will soon offer passport cards equipped with electronic data chips to U.S. citizens who travel frequently between the United States and Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean. The cards can be read wirelessly from 20 feet, offering convenience to travelers but raising security and privacy concerns about the possibility of data being intercepted.

The goal of the passport card, an alternative to the traditional passport, is to reduce the wait at land and sea border checkpoints by using an electronic device that can simultaneously read multiple cards' radio frequency identification (RFID) signals from a distance, checking travelers against terrorist and criminal watchlists while they wait.

"As people are approaching a port of inspection, they can show the card to the reader, and by the time they get to the inspector, all the information will have been verified and they can be waved on through," said Ann Barrett, deputy assistant secretary of state for passport services, commenting on the final rule on passport cards published yesterday in the Federal Register.

The $45 card will be optional and cannot be used for air travel.

[Speck Tater]

1. Attention Inventors.

Here's your chance to make a million bucks by inventing a shielded wallet that RFID signals cannot penetrate.

[katty]

2. indeed!