passport RIFD chips

[undergroundpanther]

All passports issued by the US State Department after January 1 will have always-on radio frequency identification chips, making it easy for officials – and hackers – to grab your personal stats. Getting paranoid about strangers slurping up your identity? Here’s what you can do about it. But be careful – tampering with a passport is punishable by 25 years in prison. Not to mention the “special” customs search, with rubber gloves. Bon voyage!


http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/start.html?pg=9

[silverweb]

1. What about just shielding it?

Shield it in a special envelope to prevent hacking, spying, etc, and produce it only to legitimate officers. It shouldn't be very hard, should it?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. this seems dangerous to me,

it seems that with this technology I could potentially be picked out of a crowd as an American - as someone who has to travel alot for work that sort of scares me.

[Eurobabe]

3. Thank GOD I renewed and received my new passport in April!

This big brother shit just keeps on coming....

[Selatius]

4. In the communist bloc, they said the nail that stood up gets hammered down.

Take out your hammer...

[havocmom]

5. How about putting one on my luggage so the airline can find it!

:grr:

[Hekate]

6. What kind of envelope or pouch would shield the chip from random access?

I would like to know before -- oops -- I drop my luggage right on it.

Big Brother is Watching You.

Hekate

[jmowreader]

14. Anything with a metallic lining would work

There are "passport wallets" with metal shields in them already, someone mentioned wrapping it in aluminum foil...apparently even a snack-size corn chip bag would work.

I'd go with the passport wallet myself; a $97 passport deserves better than to be shoved in a Cheetos bag.

[intaglio]

7. Wrap in tinfoil - like a sandwich n/t

[xultar]

8. Hammer the chip. That disables it. They'll never know it was deliberate.

[fed-up]

11. place a towel between hammer and passport to avoid leaving marks n/t

[xultar]

13. Absolutely. All the gadget blogs were discussing it earlier this week.

[crispini]

9. If I get a new passport, I am SO doing this.

OOPS. Put something large and heavy down on it accidentally. So Sowwy!

[Skidmore]

10. Aren't we supposed to get passports as IDs for voting in the next

few years? Did I hear that correctly somewhere? Why should I have to pay to vote? What is being done about this?


I can't afford to renew my passport and don't understand why anyone should have to have one if they are not travelling abroad, which I have no plans to do into the distant future...hopefully, when the world returns to sanity.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. Right now passports are $97, and that won't be considered a poll tax? nt

[Skidmore]

15. That would be my take on it.

I do know that the Rs put it in legislation last session. I haven't heard anything about taking it out.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

19. I don't know about passports but I believe there has been legislation of National ID cards, which

although much cheaper than passports (driver's license fees), it too would be IMHO a poll tax.

[Skidmore]

20. I think if the government is going to require ID, there should be no

fee for it at all. Particularly, if that ID is mandatory for participation as a citizen. It has been paid for already through assessment of taxes. No user fees though.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. I agree whole-heartedly but how can they then pay for the RFID technology so they can be our Big

Brother? ;-)

[Skidmore]

22. I think they need to take it off the top of tax monies before

they vote on military spending.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

17. Yes, IF passports are needed to vote. Big IF.

I'd be very surprised if that restriction was enacted.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

16. I'd guess that copper-mesh passport wallets

will be a big item next Christmas. To keep the hackers from reading the info.

I have a year-old passport, so I don't have to think about this for a while. Hopefully the "personal RFID" nonsense will have ended by then.

BTW (picking nits), you mis-typed the subject: it's RFID, not RIFD. You got the words in the right order, just not the letters.

[bikebloke]

18. By passed that.

I renewed my passport a year early to avoid that. In 10 years when I need another, there probably won't be a country left.