[privacy] Feds Leapfrog RFID Privacy Study

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,72019-0.html

By Ryan Singel
02:00 AM Oct, 30, 2006

The story seems simple enough. An outside privacy and security advisory
committee to the Department of Homeland Security penned a tough report
concluding the government should not use chips that can be read remotely in
identification documents. But the report remains stuck in draft mode, even
as new identification cards with the chips are being announced.

Jim Harper, a Cato Institute fellow who serves on the committee and who
recently published a book on identification called
<http://www.amazon.com/Identity-Crisis-Identification-Overused-Misunderstood
/dp/1930865856> Identity Crisis, thinks he knows why the Department of
Homeland Security
<http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/committees/editorial_0512.shtm> Data Privacy
and Integrity Advisory Committee report on the use of Radio Frequency
Identification devices for
<http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/privacy/privacy_advcom_rpt_rfid_draft.pd
f> human identification (.pdf) never made it out of the draft stage.

"The powers that be took a good run at deep-sixing this report," Harper
said. "There's such a strongly held consensus among industry and DHS that
RFID is the way to go that getting people off of that and getting them to
examine the technology is very hard to do."

RFID chips, which either have a battery or use the radio waves from a reader
to send information, are widely used in tracking inventory or for highway
toll payment systems.

But critics argue that hackers can skim information off the chips and that
the chips can be used to track individuals. Hackers have also been able to
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.05/rfid.html> clone some chips, such
as those used for payment cards and building security, as well as
<http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71521-1.html> passports.

The draft report concludes that "RFID appears to offer little benefit when
compared to the consequences it brings for privacy and data integrity" -- a
finding that was widely criticized by RFID industry officials when the
committee met in June.

...

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