A lot of so called privacy advocates are griping about the new e-passports from the United States. The first problem of course is that everyone calls something an e-something when it is something internet or electronic based.These new e-passports are just a regular passport but they have a chip in them. The paranoid crowd worries that the US Government will be tracking their movements with these chips.
Not likely as the range to read them is very limited. However, there is a grave danger to these passports and to those Americans that carry them in their pocket.
The benefit the USA will get from the passports is that an immigration officer might not have to swipe your passport when you arrive but will be able to remotely read it when you step up to their station. However, that may lead to the officer not actually looking at your passport. Uh OH!
The real danger however doesn't rest with the US Government at all. The real danger lies in the possiblity that by carrying a US Passport you could automatically tell others near you that you are an American Citizen.
Now the State Department will probably tell you that the information on the chip is encypted and no one can possible read that information. My concern is not weather you can read the information or not.
My concern is whether someone can remotely from even a few feet detect a U.S. Passport. Even a Yes or Maybe answer could give some bad or very bad people a lot more information than you'd like to give out.
In some parts of the world taxi drivers like to have a special higher fare for Americans. Wouldn't it be spiffy if a little red light blinked when a U.S. Passport was probably in the taxi? Well, probably not very spiffy unless you were the cabbie!
Some other people might have much more evil ideas.
Is the risk of running around the world with a red light flashing over your head that is also screaming American Citizen worth the immigration service not having to swipe your passport through an optical reader?
If you think I may be too paranoid check out: RFID passports and VeriChip security podcast
