Businessweek – Big Brother's Passport to Pry

  • Businessweek – Big Brother's Passport to Pry.

    Privacy
    advocates are appalled by the ongoing plan to equip all U.S. passports
    with RFID chips that can be read surreptitiously from a distance

    The
    U.S. is moving closer to requiring citizens to have an identity card
    that could be scanned from a distance. By the end of 2005, U.S.
    passports will come with embedded radio-tag chips — and Congress
    is considering mandating similar technology in driver's licenses. The
    government argues that the changes will make America safer from
    terrorists. But privacy advocates are appalled, fearing that the
    information could be stolen and misused.

    The story begins in
    2002, when Congress passed the Enhanced Border Security Act. One
    provision requires that new passports be equipped with “biometric
    identifiers” capable of being read by machines — in essence, a chip
    with personal identification information. The law also said foreigners
    who want to come to the U.S. without a visa (as is allowed for visitors
    from Europe, Japan, and some other countries) must carry a passport
    with the same technology.

    POLICY LAUNDERING. But the law
    didn't specify what information should be on the chip, or what type of
    chip must be included. In what critics call policy laundering, that
    decision was ostensibly left to an obscure U.N.-affiliated agency, the
    International Civil Aviation Organization. For the Bush Administration,
    “the advantage of using the ICAO is that they have none of the
    transparency of a U.S. government agency,” says Barry Steinhardt,
    director of the “American Civil Liberty Union”'s technology and liberty
    program. Groups like the ACLU were shut out of the process.

    The
    ICAO's decision, which is widely viewed as reflecting the “State
    Dept”.'s own views, turned out to be very troubling to privacy
    advocates. Critics charge that by using the excuse that the standard
    was set by an international body, the State Dept. can push a technology
    that wouldn't have been acceptable if openly debated in the U.S.

    For one thing, the Biometric
    identifier the ICAO picked was facial recognition, which is seen as
    less reliable than alternatives like retina scans. More worrisome, the
    ICAO specified that the information be stored in a “contactless” chip
    — one that can be read from a distance. Many companies, such as
    Wal-Mart (WMT ), are using such radio frequency identification (RFID)
    chips to track inventory. Putting the chips in passports would enable
    the government to read personal information from more than 50 feet away.  [Privacy Digest]

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