Tech News Source

A final rule was released by the Department of State for the new “passport card,” which will go into effect on February 1, 2008. According to the report this passport card is taking into account an amendment to the “2007 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act calling for the availability of a passport card for land and sea travel between the United States and Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda.”
This “passport card” will use “vicinity read” radio frequency identification (RFID) without the use of encryption. A unique ID number is stored on the card, which links to the personal information of the card holder in government databases. An optional sleeve can be obtained to protect these cards from RF signals.

There were tons of comments supplied to the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from four members of Congress, including Hillary Clinton, Charles Shcumer, Patrick Leahy and Louis Slaughter, as well as other security and technology groups. A lot of the comments were negative, and said that the use of “vicinity read” RFID will cause security and privacy problems.

The report recognizes these concerns, stating:

“All four Members of Congress, as well as technology, security, and privacy groups, are concerned with the choice of ‘‘vicinity read’’ radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for the passport card. While the majority of commenters opposed vicinity read technology, there were some commenters who supported the technology. The opinion expressed by many commenters is that vicinity read technology is not as secure as the proximity read technology currently used in the United States e-Passport. In their opinion the use of vicinity read technology could result in the unauthorized reading of information that would lead to identity theft and tracking of United States citizens by terrorists (security groups) and the government (privacy groups). In addition, commenters asserted that employing two different technologies at the same border crossing is redundant, inefficient, and unnecessarily costly.”

However, in response, the report says:

“While State and DHS appreciate the comments received, the vast majority reflected an improper understanding of the business model that WHTI is designed to meet and how the technology selected would actually be implemented. DHS remains committed to vicinity-read radio frequency identification (RFID) as the most appropriate technological solution to facilitate document processing at land and sea ports-of-entry.”

This technology was originally intended for use with tracking inventory, not people, and could result in personal privacy threats including identity theft and location tracking. While the Department of State and DHS say that only a unique ID number is stored on the card, instead of personal information (i.e. SSN, date of birth, etc.), that ID number is linked to the database in which the personal information is stored. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and other groups have strongly objected to the use of this technology.

For more information on this rule click here.

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI