DHS spy chip hunt
p2p news / p2pnet: The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a ‘we want’ bulletin for spy chip technology able to read government-issued documents from up to 25 feet away, and pinpoint pedestrians on street corners and in moving vehicles.
A Request for Information (RFI) issued by the Department of Homeland Security, seeks "superior remote data capture" that, "offers significant improvements in performance" over the RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) technology currently being trialed in its U.S. Visit program border security initiatives, say privacy advocates Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre.
"US-VISIT is currently engaged in a proof of concept activity using radio frequency identificatio (RFID) technology to study the use of remote data capture technology at POEs," says the RFI.
"Readers are located in doorways and in individual pedestrian and vehicle lanes to allow identification of where the token is read and to allow association of the token with the individual and, if applicable, the vehicle in which the token is carried," it goes on.
"The device must be readable under all kinds of indoor and outdoor conditions at both the northern and the southern borders of the U.S. and while carried by pedestrians or vehicle occupant (e.g. cars, trucks or buses)."
US-VISIT is full of problems and its fingerprint identification system has, "resulted in many cases of mistaken identity,” said EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) last summer.
And,“The program will soon test using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to transmit identifiers to agents," it stated in Spotlight on Surveillance, also saying, "the small amount of time saved by using RFID is outweighed by the significant security risk of unauthorized parties accessing the data when it is transmitted wirelessly".
Albrecht runs CASPIAN – Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering.
Also See:
US-VISIT – US-VISIT ‘full of tech problems’, July 10, 2005
February 22nd, 2006 at 7:00 pm
This is very similar to the new RFID in U.S. passports. Imagine terrorists scanning crowds to check the number of U.S. citizens present, to decide where to bomb.
February 22nd, 2006 at 8:07 pm
“Hey, if you’re not doing anything wrong, why would you care?”
“Our government can be trusted. They respect your privacy rights and have only your best interests in mind.”
If you agree with either or both of these statments then please step through the door into the shower area, SCHNELL!
February 23rd, 2006 at 9:12 am
I wonder what they will do if no RFID transponder is present?