Job Discussion Forums

[johnslat]

Dear naturegirl321,
Well, they were supposed to start in 2006:

"All U.S. passports will be implanted with remotely readable computer chips starting in October 2006, the Bush administration has announced.
Sweeping new State Department regulations issued Tuesday say that passports issued after that time will have tiny radio frequency ID (RFID) chips that can transmit personal information including the name, nationality, sex, date of birth, place of birth and digitized photograph of the passport holder. Eventually, the government contemplates adding additional digitized data such as "fingerprints or iris scans."
Over the last year, opposition to the idea of implanting RFID chips in passports has grown amidst worries that identity thieves could snatch personal information out of the air simply by aiming a high-powered antenna at a person or a vehicle carrying a passport. Out of the 2,335 comments on the plan that were received by the State Department this year, 98.5 percent were negative. The objections mostly focused on security and privacy concerns."

but I can;t seem to find anything on when they actually DID start. I'm pretty sure I've seen a biometric US passport, though.

"The Colorado passport office is already issuing RFID passports, and the State Department expects all U.S. passport offices to be doing so by the end of the year. Many other countries are in the process of changing over. So get a passport before it's too late. With your new passport you can wait another 10 years for an RFID passport, when the technology will be more mature, when we will have a better understanding of the security risks and when there will be other technologies we can use to cut the risks. You don't want to be a guinea pig on this one."

But maybe you don't want one:

"By Bruce Schneier
Saturday, September 16, 2006; Page A21
If you have a passport, now is the time to renew it -- even if it's not set to expire anytime soon. If you don't have a passport and think you might need one, now is the time to get it. In many countries, including the United States, passports will soon be equipped with RFID chips. And you don't want one of these chips in your passport.

RFID stands for "radio-frequency identification." Passports with RFID chips store an electronic copy of the passport information: your name, a digitized picture, etc. And in the future, the chip might store fingerprints or digital visas from various countries.
By itself, this is no problem. But RFID chips don't have to be plugged in to a reader to operate. Like the chips used for automatic toll collection on roads or automatic fare collection on subways, these chips operate via proximity. The risk to you is the possibility of surreptitious access: Your passport information might be read without your knowledge or consent by a government trying to track your movements, a criminal trying to steal your identity or someone just curious about your citizenship.

At first the State Department belittled those risks, but in response to criticism from experts it has implemented some security features. Passports will come with a shielded cover, making it much harder to read the chip when the passport is closed. And there are now access-control and encryption mechanisms, making it much harder for an unauthorized reader to collect, understand and alter the data.

for more go to

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

Regards,
John

[ESL Hobo]

I have read that if you don't like the idea of having your passport chipped all you have to do is put it in the microwave for a few seconds and it fries the chip. There is no law against having a malfunctioning chip and your passport will still be usable. Personally, I am not too worried about having nefarious third parties reading my chipped passport and in one way I feel safer knowing that in the event of an emergency in a foreign land my government will have a better chance of finding me and pulling my chestnuts out of the fire.

[johnslat]

Dear ESL Hobo,
From the link mentioned above:

"Whatever happens, if you have a passport with an RFID chip, you're stuck. Although popping your passport in the microwave will disable the chip, the shielding will cause all kinds of sparking. And although the United States has said that a nonworking chip will not invalidate a passport, it is unclear if one with a deliberately damaged chip will be honored."

Regards,
John

[naturegirl321]

I had a hard enough time getting the one in 2007 without the chip. I got 20 questioned by a tall blue eyed, blond hair guy who refused to speak to me in English, talk about sterotyyping, even though I was speaking to HIM in English. THEN, to boot, leans over and asks me susupciously, why did you get a new one when you-re old one is still good for 6 years?!

Um, (are you serious) I got married, I changed my name. What a jerk!

At leats I-m good until 2017, but my photo-s so bad, I wish I could change it

[mister tom]

if the passport is chipped in the way mentioned above and you don't want the information accessed just make a lead case for it - no radio signals will penetrate

tom

[ESL Hobo]

Thanks tom,
Hmmm, how about tin foil?
I could probably look around for some thin lead to line the plastic cover I have but it would be a challenge to find it here.

Hi johnslat,
It would be rather difficult to prove a person disabled their chip on purpose. Although in future they may come up with regulations concerning it.


"Hey, my cousin Vinny was microwaving some popcorn and tossed my passport in by mistake, FAAAA-getttt- about-it."

[mister tom]

tin foil might work

i wanted to send a twenty quid note in the post but i knew from experience that cash gets robbed through the post so i ripped out the foil from a cigarette packet and put it in with the note making sure to cover all of the metal line in the note

it worked and my mate got his twenty

not sure how you could test this though

as for lead, you can buy it in any builders merchants, im sure they must have those in china - i would suggest beating it out thin and lining your case with it

[ESL Hobo]

Thanks Tom,
I'll give it shot!

[johnslat]

I'm a little confused here. Is tin foil going to be used to prevent some "unauthorized person" from reading the chip? If so, why would that be a problem? When would an "unauthorized person do so? And, if the passport were misplaced/lost, why couldn't an "unauthorized person" simply remove the tin foil?
If it's going to be used to prevent, say, a customs agent from reading the chip, does anyone seriously think that said agent is not going to ask that the tin foil be removed (or do it him/herself?)
Regards,
John

[mister tom]

i'm guessing here, but i imagine that the airport would have some way to monitor any passports chipped in this way - public places could be monitored similarly - if the chip were screened properly you would be invisible

forget the lead idea, gold or silver leaf would do the same job and is surprisingly cheap as it is so thin - aluminium foil should work as well

someone else might have an idea how to test it

tom

[johnslat]

Hmm, the "tin foil" may already be in place:

"To its credit, the State Department listened to the criticism. As a result, RFID passports will now include a thin radio shield in their covers, protecting the chips when the passports are closed. Although some have derided this as a tinfoil hat for passports, the fact is the measure will prevent the documents from being snooped when closed."

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2005/11/69453

[mister tom]

sounds like a good idea then, just some extra security on your passport - no need for any paranoid tactics lol

tom

[johnslat]

Dear mister tom,
A "moderate amount" of paranoia is likely a beneficial survival factor. But I think micro-waving or lead-lining one's passport may edge over the borderline between "moderate" and "uh-oh."
However, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
Regards,
John
P.S. Lest that seem sexist, it goes for ladies, too.

[Chancellor]

I don't trust anyone with my passport information; so, I'm not particularly inclined to make a copy of my passport ID page to send to some prospective employer. Once the employer hires me, the employer can see my passport as I stand there and show it.

As for the chip in the new passports, I'd be more concerned about someone hacking into the government database containing the information.

[johnslat]

Ooops - guess I'm getting more paranoid - except it's not paranoia when the cause is real:

"Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he'd bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car.
It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker's gold.
Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner detected, then downloaded to his laptop, the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" the identifiers of four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.
Embedding identity documents � passports, drivers licenses, and the like � with RFID chips is a no-brainer to government officials. Increasingly, they are promoting it as a 21st century application of technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country.
But Paget's February experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates had feared for years: That RFID, coupled with other technologies, could make people trackable without their knowledge or consent.
He filmed his drive-by heist, and soon his video went viral on the Web, intensifying a debate over a push by government, federal and state, to put tracking technologies in identity documents and over their potential to erode privacy.
Putting a traceable RFID in every pocket has the potential to make everybody a blip on someone's radar screen, critics say, and to redefine Orwellian government snooping for the digital age.
"Little Brother," some are already calling it � even though elements of the global surveillance web they warn against exist only on drawing boards, neither available nor approved for use.
But with advances in tracking technologies coming at an ever-faster rate, critics say, it won't be long before governments could be able to identify and track anyone in real time, 24-7, from a cafe in Paris to the shores of California."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090711/ap_on_bi_ge/us_chipping_america_iv