U.S. Passports to be equipped w/ technology that allows info on the card to be read from a distance

[elehhhhna]

Passport card technology is approved by US government, criticized by privacy advocates

EILEEN SULLIVAN Associated Press Writer (AP) - WASHINGTON-Passport cards for Americans who travel to Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean will be equipped with technology that allows information on the card to be read from a distance.

http://news.findlaw.com/

[aquart]

1. Any terrorist with a laptop can pick Americans out of a crowd now?

[Edweird]

2. 5 seconds in a microwave takes care of that. N/T.

[Stephanie]

6. ty!

seriously? b/c i will def do it.

[Edweird]

7. That's the word out on the geek circuit.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. I believe that making foil "hats" for them works also. Seriously! nt

[Zensea]

3. Is that the passport or the passport card?

Reading carefully it looks to me like this is not the actual passport.
When you get your actual passport, are they going to ask where you are travelling and put the chip in accordingly?
I don't think that's the way it works.
That is what your thread title implies, but not what the article actually indicates.

[fenriswolf]

4. is it facism yet?

[seriousstan]

5. Various safeguards will be used for these cards. These cards are not passports.

The State Department said privacy protections will be built into the card. The chip on the card will not contain biographical information, Barrett said.

And the card vendor - which has yet to be decided - will also provide sleeves for the cards that will prevent them from being read from afar, she said.

The technology was approved Monday by the State Department and privacy advocates were quick to criticize the department for not doing more to protect information on the card, which can be used by U.S. citizens instead of a passport when traveling to other countries in the western hemisphere.

Does anyone ever read the damn article?

[RC]

8. Read the damn article? You nutz or what?

If we did that then maybe we'd know what we are posting about and stop the ignorant panicky posts that spread the ignorance to more luddites that can't be bothered to educate themselves on the technology at hand. Then where'd DU be? Huh? :P

BTY, the passports for over a year or so have chips in them. The font cover is shielded. When the passport is closed it, can't be read from more than an inch or so.

A few months ago in Kansas City, I got the special attention. The TSA did not know about the chipped passports. I had my passport in my shirt pocket and it set off their wands. The TSA guy in charge ask how a passport could set off the wand. I explained it to them. I had had the passport for almost a year then. I can imagine we will have to educate them about the new lithium battery rules now also.

[cascadiance]

9. Basically they are putting RFID chips in them.. I heard about this earlier...

I'm hoping I beat the clock when I got a new passport at the end of 2006 and had it rushed then. Like you noted, I think it would pay to make sure that you have some sort of case for it that can keep an RFID reader from reading it in the distance. I'd also like to find someone with an RFID chip scanner to see if I can see if my passport has it installed or not and what it shows (if possible) to the "casual scanner".

What's troubling is also about the same time they were announcing these were going to start going in was when there was announced a policy that U.S. security at points of entry could either stop an American passport holder from leaving the country or from re-entering it without notice. Therefore if your RFID chip points to something that's "questionable" in their books, you might get stuck in Mexico or something like that when trying to come back!