The Sisyphus Comments

American Beacon – Passport RFID Chips

What do you suppose a terrorist would be willing to pay to pick out all of the Americans walking down the street in a foreign city? Of course the U.S. Department of State would do everything possible to prevent the use of such a weapon – wouldn’t they?

What I am referring to is a technology known as RFID (radio-frequency identification) that may end up on a chip inside all U.S. passports. The State Department claims the technology will help move U.S. citizens through border crossings. Apparently the RFID chip will include all the printed information from the passport along with an enhanced photograph of the passport holder, useful for photo recognition.

The State Department claims the RFID data will be readable only out to a distance of about four inches. It plans to begin issuing new passports using the technology to diplomats starting in August. However, even if we assume they are correct with their “readable data” distance, a terrorist would not need to read the data, only identify the source of the signal, which may be done from a much greater distance. Another issue that they don’t seem to be considering is the pace of technology development when there is a need. The question should be, how far away will someone be able to read the radio frequency in 5 or 10 years?

The comments period is over and there were over 1500 comments submitted. Many, particularly from the travel industry, were opposed to project. They are concerned that the RFID will serve as beacons to identify Americans in a crowd.

“This is an inappropriate use of technology and it’s dangerous,” said Bill Scannell, a California publicist and former intelligence officer who created the Web site RFIDkills.com to fight the new passports, which he calls “terrorist beacons.”

As for me, I’m just going to stay home where I don’t need a passport since I already live in Salem.