Does RFID present privacy risks?
Radio frequency identification technology is becoming increasingly common and sophisticated. But some worry that it's also increasingly susceptible to hackers, who could steal personal information during seemingly innocuous transactions such as credit-card payments and the use of RFID-enabled passports, according to a Boston Globe article.
Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, told the Globe that an RFID-enabled passport issued by the Homeland Security and State departments, called a U.S. Passport Card, is vulnerable to wireless attacks.
Americans can use the Passport Card instead of a traditional passport to enter the United States from Mexico and Canada by land or from the Caribbean region and Bermuda by sea, according to the article. The card's RFID chip contains a number that corresponds to the bearer's photo and other personal information in a government database.
