[privacy] Electronic Passports Raise Privacy Issues

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/31/AR2007123101
922_pf.html
 
Electronic Passports Raise Privacy Issues


By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 1, 2008; A06


The federal government will soon offer passport cards equipped with
electronic data chips to U.S. citizens who travel frequently between the
United States and Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean. The cards can be read
wirelessly from 20 feet, offering convenience to travelers but raising
security and privacy concerns about the possibility of data being
intercepted.

The goal of the passport card, an alternative to the traditional passport,
is to reduce the wait at land and sea border checkpoints by using an
electronic device that can simultaneously read multiple cards' radio
frequency identification (RFID) signals from a distance, checking travelers
against terrorist and criminal watchlists while they wait.

"As people are approaching a port of inspection, they can show the card to
the reader, and by the time they get to the inspector, all the information
will have been verified and they can be waved on through," said Ann Barrett,
deputy assistant secretary of state for passport services, commenting on the
final rule on passport cards published yesterday in the Federal Register.

The $45 card will be optional and cannot be used for air travel. Travelers
can opt for a more secure, if more costly, e-passport that costs $97 and
contains a radio frequency chip that can only be read at a distance of three
inches. Privacy and security experts said the new passport cards that
transmit information over longer distances are much less secure.

"The government is fundamentally weakening border security and privacy for
passport holders in order to get people through the lines faster," said Ari
Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, which
submitted comments in opposition to the proposed rule, along with 4,000
others, the vast majority in opposition.

The problem with the card, Schwartz said, is that it uses a standard that
wasn't meant to track people. "It's not made as an identity document," he
said. "The technology they're using was designed to track goods -- pallets
of toilet paper at Wal-Mart," he said.

...

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