RFID chips can be read at a distance. That distance depends on the type of RFID and the sensitivity of the reader. As chips that contain personal information become more common, hacking the chips will also become more common. Unfortunately, there are people who have evil motives, and some of these people work for the government.
California was well on its way to requiring RFID in their driver's license. They found that the concerns of some privacy groups were legitimate and, to their credit, have suspended the legislation.
California Abruptly Drops Plan to Implant RFID Chips in Driver’s Licenses
Following complaints from privacy
groups, California lawmakers on Friday suspended legislation to embed
radio-frequency identification chips, or RFIDs, in its driver’s
licenses and state identification cards.
The legislation, S.B. 397, was put on
hold by the state Assembly Appropriations Committee, despite it
having been approved by the California Senate, where it likely will
be re-introduced in the coming months. Had the measure passed, it
would have transformed the Golden State’s standard form of ID into
one of the most sophisticated identification documents in the
country, mirroring the four other states that have embraced the
spy-friendly technology.
Radio-frequency identification devices
already are a daily part of the electronic age — found in
passports, library and payment cards, school identification cards and
eventually are expected to replace bar-code labels on consumer goods.
Michigan, New York, Vermont and
Washington have already begun embedding drivers licenses with the
tiny transceivers, and linking them to a national database —
complete with head shots — controlled by the Department of Homeland
Security. The enhanced cards can be used to re-enter the U.S. at a
land border without a passport.
Privacy advocates worry that, if more
states begin embracing RFID, the licenses could become mandatory
nationwide and evolve into a government-run surveillance tool to
track the public’s movements.
The IDs are the offspring of the 2009
Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative requiring travelers to show
passports when they cross the U.S. border of Canada and Mexico. Those
carrying the EDL “Enhanced Drivers License” or an “enhanced”
state ID, do not have to display a passport when traveling across the
country’s government-run land borders.
The RFID-enabled card would have been
optional under the California measure. It was aimed in particular at
Californians who make frequent visits to Mexico, and want to ease
their return back into the U.S.
“It’s not difficult to imagine a
time when the EDL programs cease to be optional—and when EDLs
contain information well beyond a picture, a signature, and
citizenship status. The government also tends to expand programs far
beyond their original purpose,” writes Jim Harper, the Cato
Institute’s director of information policy studies. “Californians
should not walk — they should run away from ‘enhanced’ drivers
licenses.”
According to DHS, about 95 percent of
land-border crossings are equipped with RFID-reading technology,
making it easy for Customs Border Patrol officials to know who you
are. The RFID chip “will signal a secure system to pull up your
biographic and biometrics data for the CBP officer as you approach
the border inspection booth,” the DHS says.
“An individual that does not
understand the privacy and security risks of an Enhanced Driver’s
License (EDL) might think, ‘Why not get an one so that I can use it
to drive and also cross the border?’ It seems like common sense,”
said Nicole Ozer, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer. “But
the cost to privacy and security far outweighs any benefits. If you
carry one of these licenses in your wallet or purse, you can be
tracked and stalked without your knowledge or consent.”
