Soon Passports maybe a little harder to forge and contain much
better information as the authorities are looking into RFID Radio
Frequency Identification enabled passports to insure we know who is
coming and going. The State Department is going to roll-out this concept
on a prototype basis for government officials and employees first to
see how it goes and if all goes well are wishing to have it set up for
all citizens by Next year this time.
This should help secure our
borders and let us know who is in our country and it will make airline
travel safer and speed up the long lines too. The reader will be able to
read the passport with a quick swipe of about 5 inches away or less and
it will be read only like a CD ROM and only be able to be read by an
official machine. It will have anti-skimming material so no one can
illegally read it by walking by; unless it is open, even if they do
figure out how to make a machine to read them. Every RFID Passport will
have unique chip number. Some privacy right activists are a little
concerned but the chips cannot be used to track individuals. Others ask
why not? Why can't we track those who come to our country, what are they
trying to hide?
What sorts of information might the have? Well
they can store 37 Kb or a small file with things like name, nationality,
sex, etc, but will not have social security numbers or residence
addresses? Some say big deal you could look that up and then someone
could rob their house knowing they are gone? The electronic passports
will also contain a digital signature and have enough data storage for
biometric information too. Since there are 57 million people with
passports now it may be awhile as only about 8-million come up for
renewal annually, but many feel this is a giant step needed for Global
Security. What do you think?
"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.
