Hello Mr. Chips
For those who don't know, all US passports must contain RFID chips by October 2006. These chips will automate the identification process at border crossings for citizens and visitors as more and more countries succumb to the Bush administration's coercion and convert over to an RFID-enabled passport system.
Bruce Schneier makes an excellent argument in Wired on why adoption of these chipped passports is premature.
They are also dangerous.
Even though the current design calls for metal foil in the holder, there are too many cases, as Schneier points out, where passports have to be presented while traveling.
It's bad enough that terrorists are trying to pick out Americans from groups and our kids are sewing maple leaves on their backpacks, do we have to be electronically culled from a crowded airport or train terminal?
No experienced technical person believes the government's claims that these passports will only be readable from a few inches. The history of technology is one of size, speed and distance. Every signal will be picked up farther, given enough time and suitable motivation.
I have no doubt that there are other reasons for using these chips. Like many historical rules on encryption, the government typically relents when it believes it has a technological edge. It's highly unlikely that someone in the US hasn't worked out a long distance method of interrogating passports. If we can, so can someone else.
There will be more and more pressure over the coming years to create remote interrogatable national ID cards of some kind. I believe that it's inevitable and probably useful for protecting Americans. If you know who the Americans are, by definition, you know who the aliens are too.
What worrys me, however, is the lack of any constraints on what can be done with the information. "Government" is a large word; there are ethical people and not-so-ethical ones that come and go with each administration. I fail to believe that anyone can vouch for millions of current and future employees, some still in school, claiming that they will protect our private information without being legally forced to do so.
If we have to have these passports and other ID cards, let's put in place legal protections severely punishing government workers that abuse our trust.
I can't believe that I'm doing this, but to quote Spiderman, "with great power comes great responsibility."
Posted on November 11, 2005
