New ID Scanners at Borders Raise Privacy Alarm

[Teresa]

New ID Scanners at Borders Raise Privacy Alarm

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.






© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved



Do we all need to carry our ID in a lead box instead of our wallets and billfolds??

Big Brother is watching you. 

T.

[sixdogsmom]

A transponder must be imbedded within your document before the machine can detect it. All little black books are still safe. 

[Teresa]

hahahaha... my little black book is......... no longer active..

[Teresa]

A transponder must be imbedded within your document before the machine can detect it. All little black books are still safe. 

I had sent this to several people.. who are cops in 4 different states. One is a retired captain... and he sent me this.
I am in a hurry so I will just copy his e-mail to me and put it on here.

They have been using some type of scanner for several years that can count the amount of money you are carrying. We had an incident when the DEA knowing someone was going to go through Tulsa carrying a large sum of money to buy drugs.  They set up the scanner and waited until a van going through, stopped them and found $400,000.  They knew how much money the guys even had in their pockets before emptying them and the exact amount of cash in the van. So this is not surprising at all to me, that the technology is being used. Trust me when I tell you this Teresa, that there is more eyes on people and what they do, than you can even imagine. I have been retired for 3 years and I know more that is going on than I even want to know. The amount of 'invasion' that they do without you knowing ;...well. .. Sleep with one eye open.
Hope you have a good trip and don't work too hard.

[pepelect]

Wal-Mart uses RFID to track what you buy and when you enter the store.  All products produced after last January have RFID.


Military uses RFID to track MRE's from manufacturing to consumpion.  They use it to monitor inventories and high and low temperature extremes.