| New US Passports
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.
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