U.S. moves closer to e-passports

TalkBack 19 of 21:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

I am curious

If you have such a chip and you pass the passport through a strong xray machine or give a jolt or electromagnetic pulse to it or the chip is simply defective then you are back to just a paper passport.

In other words by simply disabling the whole chip or erasing all the information on it, its whole purpose becomes moot.

My bankcard with a magnetic strip barely lasts a year. It is very unlikely that a chip would survive 10 years. The face of a person can change significantly in 10 years so most biometric data could become useless over time.

The whole concept that this somehow improves security is ridiculous. There is really no need as there is no evidence that there is any significant threat posed by terrorism that this would solve. None of the terrorists that have participated in any terrorist act in the us have held a us passport. So what is the real reason for this anyway?

A small band of disaffected muslims, no matter what plot they may cook up will not have any signifcant impact on the US as a whole. A few bombs or airplanes run into buildings might kill a few people and destroy a little real estate but otherwise have no destablizing effect on our country, politically or economically.

The bottom line is that all the beefed up security is purely political any psyhcological and has served no practical purpose what so ever.

Most terrorism laws will never be used against a real foriegn terrorist but will be twisted and used against US citizens that are protesting something. Look at that US boy that was caught in afaganistan, he got a 20 year sentence! For what? Being in the wrong place and associating with the wrong people. Rapists and even murderers get lighter sentences. In the same way such passports as others have suggested could be turned into a national id card and used for all sorts of things. How long would it be before such technology was included in driver licenses? So while it may seem benign on the surface such technology can lead us down a dangerous road.

I have yet to hear how Rfid tags on pallets can lead to a bigger bottom line. I think the Walmart delivery system is already pretty efficient. The only thing it could do is give Walmart an additional weapon to squeeze thier suppliers.

The bottom line is that a chip in everything is nothing more then data overload and provides more control rather then useful data.

Biometric passports will only be as good as the governments ability to manage it's massive data gleemed from such passports. Translation is that it will be easier to catch petty criminals, tax evaders and fathers not paying child support but will probably do nothing to catch potential terrorists.

Posted by: Robertbrice   Posted on: 10/26/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Open Standards Technologies Provide the Ingredients for Delivering Security Across the Papa Gino's Enterprise Dell Papa Gino's Holdings Corporation founded by the entrepreneur operates one ... Download Now
• Virtualization: Architectural Considerations And Other Evaluation Criteria VMware Of the many approaches to x86 systems virtualization available in the ... Download Now
• The True Costs of Virtual Server Solutions VMware In an economic environment that is repeatedly heralding the message "do ... Download Now