ACM TechNews

Information Tags Along Everywhere You Go

Baltimore Sun (05/11/08) P.1A; Kay, Liz F.

Consumers concerned about privacy have been turning to the Internet to find ways to remove or disable the radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that are now built into many products and consumer items, including passports and credit cards. As RFID technology becomes more prevalent in society, critics say the tags and signals could be used for nefarious purposes by anyone who would spy on an individual in an effort to steal their identity or target them in a specific attack. Authorities are starting to listen to these warnings. The U.S. State Department recently incorporated metal shielding into the covers of new passports after critics demonstrated how information from the RFID tag in a passport could be read from a distance. Meanwhile, California enacted a law prohibiting employers from forcing employees to implant RFID tags in their bodies. The law, along with similar efforts in Wisconsin and other states, was spurred by an Ohio company that implanted a tag in employees who worked with confidential documents, as long as the employee volunteered. Critics say the real problem is that RFID tracking is virtually invisible and undetectable by the subject being targeted. However, even critics say the problem has not yet reached a crisis level. Some say that RFID tags are not practical targets, as hackers and criminals would rather target richer sources, such as corporate databanks that store consumer information. In the case of RFID passports, all information contained in the chip is already printed on the front page of the passport, so losing a passport with a chip is no more dangerous than losing an ordinary passport.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.rfid11may11,0,1276217.story

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