E-Passports Being Introduced in 2006

[Joseph]

As many of us are getting British passports for the first time, it is interesting to know that UKPA are considering launching a new electronic biometric British Passport early next year using a contact-less electronic chip using RFID (radio frequency identification) technology. The US State Department, which issue American passports, are in the process of doing the same but, unlike the British Government, they are soliciting comments from the public which they are publishing on their website:

http://travel.state.gov/passport/eppt/p ... mments.php

Take a look at the responses. They are overwhelmingly negative on RFID, with consistent concern about criminals and terrorists being able to lift confidential information from travellers by pointing a scanner at them. A lot of it is uniquely American paranoia about being identified as an American (i.e. made a terrorist target) before they even take their passport out of the pocket. Of course, this will just encourage Americans to travel even less internationally than the minimal levels they do currently!

It's also very amusing that the USA is the country pushing the hardest for biometric passports, but obviously they can't get agreement from their citizens!

In spite of the American bias, it makes interesting reading, and shows that public acceptance of RFID may not be so easy.
Joseph

[ppron747]

As many of us are getting British passports for the first time, it is interesting to know that UKPA are considering launching a new electronic biometric British Passport early next year using a contact-less electronic chip using RFID (radio frequency identification) technology. The US State Department, which issue American passports, are in the process of doing the same but, unlike the British Government, they are soliciting comments from the public which they are publishing on their website:

http://travel.state.gov/passport/eppt/p ... mments.php

Take a look at the responses. They are overwhelmingly negative on RFID, with consistent concern about criminals and terrorists being able to lift confidential information from travellers by pointing a scanner at them...

Actually, the UK biometric passport has gone a long way past the "considering" stage, Joseph... There was a news report on BBC TV a couple of weeks ago showing the British Ambassador in Washington holding his new passport, complete with chip and a lot of new anti-forgery security features - although according to the report, the chip didn't hold any biometric information, for some reason.

My understanding is that the information held in the chip in the UK biometric passport will be limited to an electronic version of exactly the same information that is printed on the photo page of the passport and - most importantly - that it will be encrypted to a high standard.

I don't know the range of the transmitter but I have the impresson that it is only a very short distance indeed - really only enough that the electronic reader can capture the data without the passport needing to make physical contact. (I stayed in a hotel a few weeks ago where you only need to wave the "chipped" room key in the general vicinity of the door - I imagine the passport chip is along similar lines).

I don't know whether anyone will succeed in whipping up anti-chip fervour, but I think they'll be backing a loser. The American position on biometric passports is clear - once their deadline is in place anyone from a "visa-waiver" country attempting to arrive in the US on a non-boimetric passport issued after the deadline will be refused entry unless they have got a visa in advance. And if they do have a visa, the chances are that it will be a biometric one, with a chip. So I think the moral of the story is that if governments don't put chips in their own passports, other governments will do it for them. I feel sure that we're on a slippery slope here - the US might be the first to insist on biometrics, but I can't believe they'll be the last.