Well, guess just what I heard on FOX (GOVERNMENT NEWS) Network. Knew it was coming, starting Jan 23, 2007, all new passports will have a computer chip implanted in them with your personal information stored on the chip.

When the DOT representative was asked what kind of info was stored on the chip, he responded by saying well, things like your name, address, age, birthplace. I thought, you lying sack of . All that info is already written on the inside of the cover of the passport. He mentioned that the chip couldn’t be altered without the government knowing about it. He turns right around and says that he doesn't believe that this is in anyway an invasion of someone's privacy. He also committed on this is mainly designed for travelers coming and going to Canada or Mexico. He said it could be only tracked at border crossings. BS!. If my passport is sitting on my desk at home those SOB's can track that and that's a fact.

Water meters were all changed and outfitted with transponders about five years ago. This allows the city to discontinue in house meter readings and resident meter reporting. The City department vehicle drives down the street and an onboard laptop reads the transponders from every house. I have seen the car in action and have observed it process a street of 32 houses in about one minute. Unfortunately I did not know about the dangers of RFID or know about any of the police state stuff so we allowed the tech into the house to replace the meter.

The transponder is about the size of the EZ-Pass transponder and the FAST Lane for New York and Massachusetts, respectively. The car is about 60-70 feet away from the transponder and it picks up the signal. This is obviously a great concern for passport as well. The RFID has a great range.

Pretty soon all "citizens" will be required to have an internal Passport and carry their papers with them at all times. Fixed antenna arrays will capture the signal as you or I walk by them, tracking us much like our post-2001 cell phones already do.

First, odd that they'd go to some Dept of Transport mouthpiece for an explanation. Passports are still done under the Bureau of Consular Affairs in the Dept of STATE.

Second, considering that it's pretty much the same info as is printed on the passport, this chip can be used as an anticounterfeiting measure, since passports have been stolen (and their proper bearer's murdered) not only to patch another photo in for some criminal or terrorist, but also sometimes with changes in the printed information to comport with the age, height, etc. of the criminal user.

Eventually, however, these chips might be used like those toll bridge EZ passes, where the passport is just waved over a sensor and is cleared instantly without any time spent opening and reading the pages.

Please address the ability to clone RFID and you will see it is meant to increase "identity theft" not provide so-called "security". Hacking groups have already come out and said they have cloned passports and have lifted information off unsuspecting holders.

Now they don’t even have to ask for your papers, you are automatically
scan.

ScottGem

So when given the passport have it read or taken to a passport office to have it read.

Fr_Chuck

I am just going by what some of the border patrol friends of mine have told me, that if it is not confirming the info, they will make you a person of interest and they will have to pull you out of line and check your information more closely.

The chip is merley a security tool, not a government plot, it is something to try and make our borders more secure.

NeedKarma

Like any other electronic device RFID can fail. It would be sad that you would be put in a database as a 'risk' simply because your chip failed in an otherwise very valid passport. I never mentioned anything about a "government plot", my issue is of personal privacy.

Fr_Chuck

Not in the data base, after you were checked out and cleared, you would be allowed to enter but you would be told to get a replacement.

What the procedure is, they scan the card, then look at the card physcially, if the info on the screen from the scan does not match the written matterial, the validity of the card will be in doubt.

Same thing if they read the card and it does not read, they will have doubt of its validity and you will have to be checked to see if you perhaps stole someones passport and alterred it and disabled the chip trying to get pass.

The problem is currently those from the US have been able to use drivers license, state isssued ID, and even birth certificates, there are I beleive 8000 to 9000 enities from the news report that issues birth certificates and acceptable ID, no way at all to tell good and fake ones.

So while in the change, we all have ID infomation on our ATM cards, our credit cards, those little strips that are swiped, they store all types of info on you This is just an improvement with tech advance.

People thought Drivers license and social security cards were the end of the world

Then credit cards then computers, people are basicly scared of new advances they often don't fully understand

NeedKarma

The strips on our cards are passive devices, they require a card reader to pull the info off the cards. The RFIDS are always emitting their information to whatever receiver is set to decrypt the information. As we have seen from a multitude of DRM schemes, the encryption has always been defeated by the hackers.

excon

Hello:

Nahhh, the government wouldn't set up receivers anywhere to track you. They COULD, really easily and cheaply and you'd never know it. But they won't, because they're good people. I trust 'em. Don't you?

And, if I didn't trust 'em, I'll take my passport to a customs office and ask that government guy to tell me what my RFID say's. THEN, I'll trust 'em, because he wouldn't lie, would he?

I love my country too. But, I DON'T trust the government. The two are NOT the same.

excon

PS> As a matter of fact, NOT trusting the government, is a VERY patriotic undertaking - VERY!

mr.yet

I agree, don't trust the government!

tamed

In the UK, they call this idea the ID card and it does exactly the same thing too. In fact, I think the proposal is to make sure that all the citizens of the EU has one. I do agree with those who say identity theft will be on the rise because lets face it, if the government can hack into the system so can the people. What I don't understand is why they feel the need to monitor our lives, aren't they playing God enough already?

ScottGem

9/11/2001

Fr_Chuck

Do people want to go to a system where any fake ID can get you across a nations border,

You can take a name at random, or if you merely introduce yourself to someone and tell them your name ..... from city and state in the US

If you have any public records out there and almost everyone does for bout 50 bucks there are web sites that will give you alot more data than this new passport ever can.

There are web sites that show when I bought my house and for how much, how much more mortage is and shows a plot of my house and all my tax info

My car loan has to be public somewhere since I get adds from other lenders that know exactly my payoff on my car and what kind it is

The fact my house mortage was adjustable intereste ( untill I changed it this year) was public since I recieved over a dozen adds in the mail that knew when it was going to change, how much it was going to change and al that data