New Passports to Contain ID Chip

Starting exactly one year from now, the U.S. government will require nearly all of the passports it issues to have a computer chip containing the passport holder's personal information. The U.S. Department of State will actually begin issuing passports early in 2006 with 64K byte RFID (radio frequency identification) chips containing the name, nationality, gender, date of birth, place of birth, and digitized photograph of the passport holder.

The chip would match the data on the paper portion of the passport and improve passport security by making it more difficult for criminals to tamper with passports, according to the Bush Administration. The government began looking at ways to make passports harder to forge in response to the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.

Shortly after the State Department proposed RFID chips for passports in February of this year, privacy groups such as American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) began expressing some concerns. According to the EFF, some RFID chips can be remotely scanned, allowing for criminals to covertly scan groups of passport holders at airports. They claim that the RFID passport could act as "terrorist beacons" because they could indiscriminately expose U.S. residents' personal information to strangers. They also argued that the agency lacked congressional authority to require RFID chips in passports.

In the passport rules released this week, the State Department said it was taking several security precautions. The RFID chips will use encrypted digital signatures to prevent tampering, and they will employ so-called passive RFID chips that does not broadcast personal information unless within inches of an RFID reader machine. The e-passports will protect against data leaks by putting an "anti-skimming" material to block radio waves on the passport's back and spine.

Although putting personal information on a chip does raise some concerns, at least with me, it is probably better than having a bar code tattooed on my head. Whatever the case, it looks like the new passports will become a reality and will probably be the first of many such changes in our lives.