As a person who does travel out of country from time to time for work, I've hated the idea of RFID tags in passports from day one. There are many parts of the world where broadcasting a signal that says "Hey, I'm an American!" to anybody with a 50-dollar RFID reader is a horrible and downright dangerous idea.
Security issues aside, gross invasion of privacy issues abound. Yes, I know that companies already know everything I buy with a credit card but I'd hate to get to a point where somebody simply has to drive a truck down my street and scan my house to see what products I've purchased.
that will make a very thick wallet. why not just refuse to carry such things? if enough of us say no, they can't force us to use them. I will not carry anything with an RFID chip in it if it can be read from 30 feet away.
At least they're just storing a primary key on the RFID tag, as opposed to the actual data. The Boston subway actually stored value on the cards, and some MIT kids exploited that this summer -- (http://www-tech.mit.edu/V128/N30/subway/Defcon_Presentation....).
So only the rich identity thieves will be able to duplicate your identity. The poor thieves with less than $1000 will have to wait for the price to drop.
Passports are usually considered property of the country that issues them and some countries have pretty strict laws on modifying passports in any way, including partial destruction.
Security issues aside, gross invasion of privacy issues abound. Yes, I know that companies already know everything I buy with a credit card but I'd hate to get to a point where somebody simply has to drive a truck down my street and scan my house to see what products I've purchased.