I am honestly unsure how I feel about the matter of
RFID chips in passports now that it looks like
they concept is moving forward. Even right after 9/11, I
would have said that adding chips to passports was no big deal. I also think that national ID cards are no big deal. I
actually think national ID cards would, in a lot of ways, make life more convenient and would cut down on problems like
ID theft. But there are those who, perhaps justifiably so, are afriad that the government, if given an inch, will
always take a mile. This administration, even without Herr Ashcroft, seems particularly inclined in that way.
So it is little surprise that groups like the
ACLU are bent out of shape about the new
passport plan. The plan would possibly add RFID tags to passports that would include digitally encoded biometric data
(fingerprints, photos, iris scans). There are concerns
that the data would not be encrypted and so ID theives could “skim” your passport as you, say, stand in line at the
airport. This seems very odd to me, and I wonder if this is just an issue that has to get worked out. Again, perhaps I
give the government too much credit, but it seems to me they wouldn’t implement a system quite as stupid as the one the
ACLU and others are afraid of. Anyhow, I’d be curious to hear what othes think about this topic. Should they add RFID
chips to passports? What’s he big whoop?