[Politech] Passport RFID tracking: a between-the-lines read [priv]

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Your RFID passport tracker is ready... Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 15:24:03 -0500 From: Parks To: Declan McCullagh , politech@politechbot.com Declan, I think you might find this interesting. I confirms my vision of a future where entry points are wired and read your ID and identify your possessions through wireless RFID transmitters built into everything from passports, ID cards, credit cards, and products we buy off the shelves. - Drew

From the EE-Times, a between the lines look at the future of RFID tracking:

re: E-passport makers hail U.S. retreat Junko Yoshida [FAIR USE] EE Times (04/29/2005 1:38 PM EDT) PARIS - Global electronic passports suppliers hailed a decision by the U.S. State Department to drop a requirement for additional security measures in next-generation U.S. passports. The specifications have yet to be finalized. Neville Pattinson, director of technology development and government affairs for smart card provider Axalto Americas, said Friday (April 29) that adding security measures such as "Basic Access Control" and a metallic shield cover to U.S. passports could "completely make the information [stored in the e-passport] undetectable." ME> They can be read from an RFID reader while your passport is in your pocket by stealthy information miners. These RFID chips are the same kind that the stores are putting on products and they all may be read as you pass through an entry or exit point. The point is that THEY want to use these as tracking devices. Note the comment about metallic shields. You can put your future drivers license (when they put RFID in them too) or passport in tin foil or a metallic case. Pattison originally disclosed the results of a National Institute of Standards and Technology e-passport trial held last summer in which he said NIST testers were able to lift "an exact copy of digitally signed private data" from a contactless e-passport chip 30 feet away. A State Department official earlier this week acknowledged for the first time that information stored inside an e-passport chip could be read at a distance beyond 10 centimeters. ME> Bull - they know its range is METERS not centimeters!!! ME> GO TO EE-TIMES for the entire article but this should be proof enough.... ....Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology & Liberty Program at the American Civil Liberties Union, asked, "Why do we need to have a contactless circuit at all in an identity document?" ...e-passport chips provide a digital data payload,...basic information such as a digital photo is stored electronically, technologies like ***facial recognition*** can be used... ME> Oh yah, get EVERYONES e-mug and store it in Big Brother's database so cameras can track you anywhere you go. _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/) ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]