The Open Passport
Third, this may be all moot if the government takes the easy step of giving citizens a passport cover made of aluminum foil. According to one article “Even Schneier agrees that a properly shielded passport cover should solve the problem. He wonders why this wasn’t included in the original plans for the new passports.”
writes Dennis Bailey over at “The Open Society Paradox.” However, a properly shielded passport isn’t the right fix; the right fix is to make the chip one that requires contact to read. Otherwise, you’re at risk every time you open your passport, say at a hotel, money-changer, or bank. The added value of a contact-less reader hasn’t been made clear at all, while the risks are very, very clear.
Hi Adam —
yes, that’s the question. Who *wants* this?
What I want is a device which beeps every time somebody scans me for RFID-tags. I assume this would be fairly easy to construct since the scanner must send a signal of some strength to activate the chip.