posted
A couple of weeks ago I was taking a nice little de-stressing drive around my little town. I love fall!! I often roll down the windows and take a drive to just appreciate alone time.
On one such drive I turned on the radio station, did a search, and munched on my Wendy's Burger. Yummie! Michael Savage was on. Ick ick ick.
Before I turned the frequency, his guest started talking about new chips the size of a grain of sand that stores personal information that all passports, starting in 2006, will be implemented with. He also talked about how manufacturers will start putting these in all their products so they can do invasive market research. It was interesting, but I never figured out the book name he was endorsing. Plus, being Michael Savage, I did not take the program seriously.
Jump to today. I was reading a really cool science site called damninteresting.com , and I came across this page and this page about the RFID chips.
quote:Now imagine a store with RFID chips embedded in every product. At checkout time, the digital code in each item is associated with our credit card data. From now on, that particular pair of shoes or carton of cigarettes is associated with you. Even if you throw them away, the RFID chips will survive. Indeed, Albrecht and McIntyre learned that the phone company BellSouth Corp. had applied for a patent on a system for scanning RFID tags in trash, and using the data to study the shopping patterns of individual consumers.
quote:Passports starting in October 2006. The RFID chips with their 64KB of storage have the capability of storing your name, address, SSN, birth date, etc. all of which can be retrieved wirelessly with the right equipment. It has been well demonstrated that the ability to receive this information is possible with a “high powered” antenna and receiver.
I am glad I just got my new passport in 2005, but I am really concerned about privacy. Since your passport/products can broadcast your personal information, I am concerned about “whos” and “whys” of anyone who would try to hack the signal.
I am ready to give up the notion of privacy and accept the inevitable police state.
Please, someone tell me why this is good or how we can stop it if it is as bad as I feel it is. I feel really down.
posted
I'm going to make beaucoup bucks selling lead-lined wallets to keep your passport and other ID cards in.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
This has worried me too since I recently applied for a passport. This is what it says on the passport aplication about the "electronic passport":
quote: Early in 2005, the U.S. Department of State will begin issuing a new type of passport containing an embedded electronic chip and called an "Electronic Passport". The new passport will continue to be proof of the bearer's United States citizenship and identity, and will look and function the same way as a passport without a chip. The addition of an electronic chip in the back cover will enable the new passport to carry a dupicate electronic copy of all infromation from the data page. The new passport will be usable at all ports-of-entry, including those that do not yet have electronic chip readers.
Use of the electronic format will provide the traveler the additional security protections inherent in chip technology. Moreover, when used at ports-of-entry equipped with electronic chip readers, the new passport will provide for faster clearance through some of the port-of-entry processes.
Issuance of this new passport will be phased in during an 18-month period. It is expected that by mid-2006 nearly all US passports will be issued in this new format. The new passport will not require special handling or treatment, but like previous versions should be protected from extreme bending and from immersion in water. The electronic chip must be read using specially formatted readers, and is not susceptible to unauthorized reading.
The cover of the new passport will be printed with a special symbol representing the embedded chip. The symbol "LOGO IMAGE" will appear in port-of-entry areas where the electronic passport can be read.
The thing that worries me about this statement is the sentence "Use of the electronic format will provide the traveler the additional security protections inherent in chip technology." They give no examples of how a chip that contains a duplicate electronic copy of my personal information could possibly be more secure. To me, it only sounds less secure. It makes me think that either this is just a stupid idea or something else is really going on.
Posts: 46 | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
I saw an ad on TV for ID chips you can get put in your dog or cat. They inject it under the skin.
Posts: 4569 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
It's the same technology as the pet chips. Some people are even having their medical history encoded into a chip implant, so that ERs would know about other conditions if they could not speak for themselves.
This past July I finally helped finish a huge project researching the possible uses of RFID tech in healthcare and other industries. It was fascinating and scary.
It depends on the chip, of course, but I don't really see how that could be at all secure. I wouldn't trust the BLINK credit cards, either.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Side note: The chips for your pets are great. That way if your pet is stolen, or lost you have a chance of it being returned to you.
I am getting a new passport. I don't know what to do about the security issues, since something able to steal my passport number will be manufactured by people trying to steal id's.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
The government implanted one of these chips in my brain. But it's okay. I made myself a tinfoil hat and a hole in the ground covered with an intricate lattice of coathangers made of 100% tungsten. I occasionally have to crawl out to buy another copy of The Day the Earth Stood Still, but I always smear my face with dung so that they don't notice me.
I'd worry that the government is tracking my movements online, but I'm pretty sure this "internet" is all a figment of my imagination anyway, so I'm okay.
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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