Thinking About Renewing Your Passport?

Picking up from a previous post, this just in from the editors of RFID Journal. This October the U.S. government will begin issuing passports with RFID chips. One of the many things that disturb privacy advocates about the passports is that rogue readers could read RFID tags from distances of up to 50 feet away.

But according to the editors, to prevent what's called "skimming"—using a reader to surreptitiously read someone's tag—the front cover and spine of the new passports will have a special shielding material. The material is supposed to make the e-passport's RFID tag unreadable as long as its cover is closed or nearly closed. Each passport will also have a Personal Identification Number (PIN) which will take the form of characters printed on the passport data page. Before a passport's tag can be read, this PIN must be input into an RFID reader. All communication between the chip and reader will be encrypted in this way as well.