RFID In Passports

Thanks to Anita Campbell for the heads-up on this report. Effective early 2005, U.S. Passports will be outfitted with RFID chips and some people view this as a decrease in security.

Here is how the claim goes: any terrorist, kidnapper or pickpocket equipped with an RFID reader supposedly will be able to scan a crowd in an airport or large gathering, and immediately see who is an American. They could read all sorts of data about those individuals, including name, address, date of birth. They would have access to a digital photograph.

The report takes a wait and see approach to the reduced security contention because RFID chips customarily are not awash with personal information, rather the chips have an identifying number which points to information in a secure database. I tend to agree for now, however, I'm expecting to hear more on this subject in the next few months.