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E-passports based on RFID: What do you think? (for the travelers)


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I got this link and read the article on CNN.  They are stating that they will be a standard in US Passports by this August and will contain much of the information about you in a simple RFID tag.  Now, I personally like the future of RFID technology and think it has numerous offerings that will make business processes easier.

However, having all my personal information available for scanning from some short distance could leave you open for more than just identity theft.  How about identifying people by country as they walked by?  The idea of having the technology is to speed immigration and cut down on human entry errors.  I do not believe that it will prevent any type of false documentation.  Just take it to the next level of sophistication.  Now will this chip only contain a serial number that relates back to some database that stores all the information?  That would be a bit better.  But I canot find what is included on the tag at this point documented anywhere.

Now for the kicker.  Let's say the first run of these have a glaring security hole.  US Passports are good for ten years for adults from date of issue.  How do you recall and remake the ones with open RFID?  Operating System makers have enough issues with it and they have more automated ways of deployment.  Now we have to count on ourselves to send it back in?

So what do you think?