From the State Department's YouTube channel: "Under Secretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy and State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack discuss the production process for creating a passport and its security features."
[WATCH]
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so why can't we make this chips in USA? Wouldn't that create more jobs here--duh!
About a year and a half before the new RFID "chip" equipped passports came out, I had occasion to have dinner with the woman who at the time ran the program that was responsible for these. I'm not sure if she was the former person in the role who was interviewed here or if she was above or below that rank. What I do know is that she was the person who had the authority to make _all_ the decisions about our passports. Notably, she's not a technical person but rather a high-level bureaucrat.
I expressed to her my concerns about the readability of the RFID chip as expressed by some here in this comment thread. She was unfamiliar with the problem, so I explained it. And, this was far from my only concern. Given my credential and how we happened to be having dinner, she took my concerns seriously and followed up. One outcome was that she had them introduce into the cover a shield to block readers so that it can only be read when opened.
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I also pointed out to her that I didn't see the need to put the data in the chip. Rather, I proposed that it should merely give a special key that could be used to lookup the record in a database managed elsewhere. This would have the advantages that anyone reading the RFID would be unable to get _any_ actual identifying information, and that this would overcome the objections of the CIA who was saying that they objected because it would prevent them from some of their black-ops tricks.
She responded that she liked the idea but that she wasn't sure if we could do it because, apparently, we have entered into a treaty to make our passports fit a common port-of-entry protocol with the EU (among others). She didn't say it explicitly, but I gathered from reading between the lines that the EU would like to clamp down on some of the foolishness that our CIA is up to and having the data actually in the RFID would help with that.
One thing she also indicated that people may find of interest is that she said that US Passports would remain valid even if the RFID quit working.
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An American company couldn't make the chip?
Just wait they'll be outsourcing these to Red China too soon enough..!
Having a US passport is about as advantageous as having a wallet full of dollars in a foreign country.
For those concerned about security for the chip in their passport, you can do like I do with my road toll EZ pass, an put into a plastic and foil envelope that makes it unreadable unless you take it out.
Why can't some USA based and controlled military contractor produce the chips?
I don't know if this is true or not. Haven't used a passport in years, but if you put a new passport that has the chip in it in a microwave and turn it on for 5 seconds, it melts the chip, maybe not. Might keep the Chinese from tracking you, however.
Please see my reply to frantaylor.
Don't do this, it's stupid.
lol. you're worried about the chinese? u might wanna look closer to home
So, the tracking chips are made overseas? Now that is American style security.
Propaganda film
love traveling with my American passport. My wife has an eastern european passport along with my kid(both dual), and I get singled out everytime traveling through eastern europe. By the next border they know my seat and come directly toward me. Don't blame them but just sayin' it's noticed. and if I didn't know some of the language along with my wife I would be ripped off a lot of money on false tariffs(bribes) at the borders. Once we held a train up for an hour cause I wouldn't pay an extra charge to get into romania.
I am a US Citizen but I get searched and profiled every time I take the flight overseas that enters the united states by US officials, whether in Paris/London/Italy/Amstadam/Britain or where ever simply because i was born overseas and I have lived in the United States since 1975, and I travel overseas every year and I have never even had a traffic ticket, go figure.
If you are a white person, you'll be very unlucky visiting asian countries because they like to rip off white people. Well American and British is the most preferable.
What happens if the information on the chip is accidentally erased while a person is travelling, will that passport be rejected?
What happens if someone has an American passport and is able to read the information on the passport, and then reloads the chip using another language with a different information and the airport scanner then reads the new false information?
I do not believe there is a computer program out there that cannot be hacked.
No it's quite safe and really good. I heard that some developing countries had used it even before US, we shouldn't be left behind.
my passport still have a few years to go.
Yes indeed your passport screams out "I'm an American" to anyone around you with a few dollars worth of electronic equipment. Apparently there is no actual data stored on the chip itself, but the chip does contain an electronic key that can be used to pull up your information quite easily.
What is even more disturbing than the passports themselves is the database behind the passports. If the information on the chip can be used to identify you, then your identity can be stolen from you as you walk down the street with your passport in your pocket.
Anything that makes it easier for the customs people is also making it easier for identity thieves.
DeaninPhlly is smart. Anything with an RFID chip in them can be tracked by someone: I'm in the mobile industry, and I would be concerned. So are a lot of other people:
http://digg.com/security/How_To_Disable_Your_Passport_s_RFID_Chip_3
Who knows what they will/will not require in 10 years.
Heard there's a CHIP on the US Passport ...... you folks are under surveillance 24/7 ...
You can put your passport in a Faraday Shield wallet or smash the RFID chip with a hammer. Tell them you dropped it and stepped on it.
The smashing-the-chip thing is unwise, fran.
Passport agents are not that stupid. They have uncanny ways of knowing when a pp applicant is lying.
You will not be able to travel with that passport, and when you apply for a new one to travel, the pp agent will assess how the old passport got abused, and then it will be stamped MUTILATED or DAMAGED. 'Mutilated' is a bad designation -- it implies intent. If you don't relinquish a former pp, your app is labeled LOST or STOLEN, and you will need to explain this, provide police report for stolen, etc., even overseas.
Every time you try to apply for a new passport, the consular or passport people will call up your record, and if you have a history of the above designations, it is possible to lose your passport privileges. It is important to know that holding a U.S. passport is not a right, it is a privilege, and it can be denied.
Effectively, your paranoia, and your need to damage a document that you applied and paid for, could cause you long-term problems if you ever want to travel outside the borders of the U.S.
If you hate the chip, don't get a passport, or get a shielding sleeve. IMO, there's only so much paranoia I can carry around before I say malesh.
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First Posted: 06-13-09 08:51 PM | Updated: 06-13-09 09:08 PM