October 28, 2005

US Passports to have RFID So says the state department. Newsfilter links. Good? Bad? Tinfoil Hat? Screwedville? We report. YOU post snarky derails. via
posted by petebest 19 years ago
  • At least we won't have to worry about people flying planes into buildings anymore. Snarky enough? Gimmie a minute, I can do better.
  • Just put your passport in the microwave for a few seconds. Zap!
  • "I'm sorry your passport has been rejected. Good day!"
  • Good day, sir. I say good day!
  • Tinfoil hat... maybe. Check this: put the RFID on the inner lining of the passport and use something like a light grid of conductive metal sandwiched into the front and back pages. Now the RFID isn't readable unless the book is open. The question is, will the government do this? If not you might want to make a Faraday cage envelope to keep your passport in. Just call your local tinfoil hatter. You know, I really should try this theory out... I could get FP on Slashdot!
  • Move to Australia and fuck a duck. No RFID chips need know.
  • I believen that passports are considered, legally speaking, government property of the issuing country. Means, they can put snail guts and wood screws in them if they want to. On the other hand, I don't know that a little RFID is all that big brothery. Ok, so maybe, if they wanted to, they could mobilize a bunch of satellites and whatnot and GPS your approximate location - so what? They can do as much now with your cell phone. On the other hand, you lose a passport, or someone steals it, you hav some measure of recourse. If you shop at the Reynolds Wrap Milliner, leave your passport at the hotel when you go meet your crypto-anarchist brethren. I can't help but be of the opinion that, for every ham-handed technological foofaraw that some government org proffers in service to lawful good, some chaotic neutral kid from Denmark or San Diego susses out a workaround at roughly lightspeed.
  • Shouldn't need a workaround though. The "ID card as security" is a low-level measure that allows for lots of abuses while the dangerous people (and l33+ h4X0rz) find the workarounds. Still, you win a Threadsnark of Flamethan, worth a four-sided die's worth of hit point damage, for the analogy. Roll again.
  • It's easy. Government deals in easy. Hard flummoxes it (see, "Katrina, Hurricane" for details). We should expect miracles of sensibleness and productivity? It's the government. THe last true bastion of mediocrity. It was ever thus.
  • Also, a Threadsnark is worth 2d4. DMG, pg 172.
  • Tinfoilery aside, it's all a matter of practicality for the user. When the chip malfunctions, and you're prevented from boarding a plane, even maybe detained, that's gonna be a big laugh. When hackers assemble remote readers ('remote' here being a couple meters away), what happens to all that info embedded? *What* info will be in there? Forget terror agents, worry about the mob and common thieves gathering yet another sample of your elctronic footprint. Sure, it's all for fighting terrhar. But we know the bad guys have the resources to copy, hack, steal or forge official documents anyway.
  • We should expect miracles of sensibleness and productivity? We should expect the better decision rather than the worse. Tall order, I know.
  • Note to self: it's time to get a new passport before the first-gen RFID passports with all the bugs are out there. (The real question is how much experience the Threadsnark is worth, and whether you can sell any of the parts for components. Time to check the Monster Manual!)
  • Two words: Faraday cage. It's the new tinfoil hat!
  • How sensitive are RFID chips to moisture? Would a trip through the laundry or a Dr. Pepper-related mishap mess them up?
  • RFID chips are sometimes embedded within a substrate, like a plastic card or something. In that case, only a microwave will do to mess it up.
  • Has Threadsnark been taken as a band name yet? If not, it should be.
  • I'm too freakin lazy to look up the link, but they already field tested this and some genius already told them that the rfid chips could be read & personal data collected by anyone from a range of about 3-4 feet. So, maybe stage 2, they'll get it right. Me? My old-school passport won't expire until 2009. I'll be damn near sixty--maybe an rfid passport will spare me the expense of a FirstAlert monitor.
  • on the MeFi thread, there's a link claiming the passive RFID can be read from 69 feet, which is actually further than the active RFID (something like 50 feet). Obeying protocol, however, none of us read the link. Heh. 69.
  • "Imagine being overseas and your identity being available for the taking - your nationality, your name, your passport number. Everything." dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee . .
  • August 2006!! *looks at passport expiration of 06/2007* *cries*
  • I have read of experiments being conducted, too lazy to look up the stories, wherein people are having chips inplanted. As the risks inherent in our world increase, and they will, there will be a major push on to make implantation mandatory, probably at birth.
  • Denver passport office to issue RFID passports starting next week The program is to be rolled out across the US over the next 10 years. Phew, I think I still have time to renew before I get stuck with one of those shams...
  • Just applied for mine Friday.
  • Heads up, Europe!
  • I renewed my UK passport early, to avoid being entered on the UK National Identity Register. When I received the new one a couple of days ago, I found it had an RFID chip and coil antenna laminated in the back. The leaflet said not to put it in the microwave, or near credit cards, or near my groin (OK maybe not). It did say it would need more looking after than a simple paper one. It claims it's a biometric one, but says the only info is the photo image, and the other passport info like DOB etc. Does that count as biometric?
  • Ha!
  • My new passport has an RFID chip. /adjusts tinfoil hat.
  • US Passports being assembled in Thailand One of the companies involved in passport production in Thailand, Smartrac, charged in a court filing in the Netherlands last year that its technology was stolen by China. Can't wait to get mine!
  • Spoke too soon! I just got mine in the mail yesterday, RFID chip 'n all... *sigh*