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

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Tue May 03 2005 - 22:43:19 PDT


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Your RFID passport tracker is ready...
Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 15:24:03 -0500
From: Parks <parks@private>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private>, politech@private

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.




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