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New US Passports: Say 'bye-bye' to Privacy

Wed, 02/23/2005 - 6:57pm — puregin

The ACM TechNews feed on Tech-Community.CA presented an article from The Economist yesterday, reporting on the remotely readable, biometric passport planned for issue by the USA -- my fellow Americans, prepare to be finger printed, digitally photographed and Iris-scanned when you next apply for a passport.

Furthermore, it looks like anyone with a reader will be able to read your unencrypted electronic file, remotely, without your knowing about it. I suspect that the ID chips that livestock are tagged with have better security than this. Once again, we see that we have more to worry about from our government than from external 'extremists'. Sigh.

The United States seeks to improve homeland security by mandating the distribution of biometric passports equipped with digital photos, digitized fingerprints, and iris scans, but concerns about privacy infringement, reliability and interoperability issues, and a rushed implementation raise serious doubts about the technology's effectiveness. The computer chips the passports are to be outfitted with are intentionally designed for remote readability, and the data on the passports will be deliberately unencrypted. The first measure leaves the passport bearer unaware that he or she is under surveillance, while the second means that anyone with a suitable reader--including identity thieves and terrorists--can access passport information.

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