more on on RFIDs in passports

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Jonathan S. Shapiro" <shap () eros-os org>
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 10:07:48 -0400
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on on RFIDs in passports

[For IP]

On Tue, 2005-04-19 at 09:04 -0400, David Farber wrote:
> The proposed regulation itself provides as follows:
>
> Sec. 51.6 --Damaged, mutilated or altered passport: Any passport
> which has been materially changed in physical appearance or
> composition, or contains a damaged, defective or otherwise
> nonfunctioning electronic chip, or which includes unauthorized
> changes, obliterations, entries or photographs, ... may be
> invalidated.

Setting aside any of the other concerns with RFID, this presents a
purely pragmatic problem.

When my passport gets sufficiently dog-eared, I can plainly see that it
is time to replace it. There is no obvious way to know that the RFID
chip in my passport is busted without an RFID reader.

So: how does you average bear determine whether their passport is valid
before heading off to the airport?

shap


------ End of Forwarded Message


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