Great new high-tech equipment will keep us all safe and secure. Only used at the border?




New ID Scanners at Borders Raise Privacy Alarm

Monday, December 1, 2008 6:19 PM

By: Dave Eberhart Article Font Size

The federal government has already deployed new detection machines that can scan citizens without their knowledge from as far as 50 feet away and "read" their personal documents such as passports or driver's licenses.

The Homeland Security Department touts the high-tech devices as increasing security at border crossings, but privacy advocates are raising all sorts of red flags.

Critics say the new machines, which read one's personal information right through a wallet or purse, do so without consent or a warrant and may set a worrisome precedent.

The devices, called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) machines, allow officials to read remotely any passports, pass cards, and driver's licenses that contain special chips with personal information.

The RFIDs are so sensitive that, even before a vehicle pulls up at a border checkpoint, agents already will have on their computer screen the personal data of the passengers, including each person's name, date of birth, nationality, passport or ID number, and even a digitized photo.

The new gadgets are in place, or soon will be, at five border crossings: Blaine, Wash.; Buffalo; Detroit; Nogales, Ariz.; and San Ysidro, Calif. They are slated to have a dramatically expanded presence in June.

Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that the technology could make Americans less secure because terrorists or other criminals may be able to steal the personal information off the ID cards remotely.

Tien and other critics warn that people up to no good can use their own RFID machines in a process called "skimming" to read the information from as far as 50 feet.

Indeed, consumer privacy expert Katherine Albrecht maintains that the chips create the "potential for a whole surveillance network to be set up." Among other abuses, she says police could use them to track criminals; abusive husbands could use the technology to find their wives; and stores could trail the shopping patterns of patrons.

Homeland Security, however, rebuts the criticism, arguing that the embedded chips surrender only a code to machine readers. That code is then broken in order to display the personal information on the border agents' screen.

Meanwhile, the same agencies that are issuing the newfangled IDs supply a sleeve that keep out all prying electronic eyes when not in use.

Time for lead wallets and ski masks,lol

Seriously anything our fucktard control freak goevernment can come up with can be bested by 20 something hacker/cracker nerds in a matter of minutes and this crackhead ID crazy society is a paranoid Orwellian nightmare being foisted upon you before your very eyes.

From your credits score,to your social security card to your secret information being bought and sold and lost and secretly compiled by government agencies and private corporations you should eschew all of this because it is all bullshit.

The 911 Hijackers all had valid ID,the Usury States of Ameriscam and their Credit Bureau system initiated by Retail Credit Corporation on the behalf of JP Morgan is the reason our nation is falling the fuck apart today.

This is a recipe for oppression and failure and we should refuse to participate if we ever want to be free.

I guess you can buy some sort of "cover" for your passport, which prohibits it from being read by these types of devices (assuming you have one with a chip in it).

Also, Mythbusters were going to do a show on RFID's and show how they can be hacked. But they were told by some "powers that be", NOT to do this show, so they canned the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X034R3yzDhw

can't you just smash your passport with a BFH a few times? im sure anything electronic inside wouldn't survive a few whacks from a sledge

Unfortunately your passport isn't really yours at all.It belongs to the Usury States of Ameriscam and they will send you to sodomy summer camp for defacing it in any way.

Orwellian Nightmare anyone?

I guess they would have to PROVE you defaced it... and it wasnt broken in an accident, now, eh?? and how would YOU know if it were broken inside... ?!??

I guess a trip thru the washing machine would help a lot. Those RFID chips can be defeated via high intensity magnetism.

If you have one of those tollway easy tags, they have RFID chips in them. Do you ever wonder how on the morning news they know how fast traffic is moving on the roads? Worried about your passport leaking information?
Something like this will probably help:
http://www.passport-stronghold.com/products.html

Yakdung

The signal is supposed to be sheilded, as long as the passport is closed, and it can not be read from over a meter away.

But...

10 seconds in the microwave...chip no worky any more.

RFID... one step closer to having "the mark"... FUCK THAT... I would rather live off the land in a cave than have RFID...

Gentlemen, the answere is called a Farraday cage. Simply put, RF (radio waves) cannot penetrate a "cage" of conductive mesh. Put all your RFID cards and devices in a metal can and they cannot be read. There are allready wallets available with this simple technoligy.

NOTE: If you have a company cell phone with GPS, Turn it off and put it in a metal can after work. It is no buisness of your employers where you are on your own time, and you may loose your job if the boss doesn't like you going to a bar or a political meeting, or even a religeous gathering he does not like. (If you are secretly screwing his wife, it could cause you to get shot!)