The Newspaper

04/25/07

The California state Senate voted 31-6 Monday to impose a ban on driver’s licenses containing radio frequency identification (RFID) transmitters. State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) introduced the measure to prevent the Department of Motor Vehicles from using the technology to track motorists, exposing information to the potential of identity theft. Although California’s DMV has stated it does not intend to the technology [sic], the US State Department issued its first RFID-enabled passport last year. RFID chips allow a scanner to read a document’s sensitive personal information from a distance, including name, address, identification numbers and a photograph. In March, the London Daily Mail was able to download all of an RFID passport’s information from a sealed envelope before the new passport had been delivered to its owner. This happened even though the document had encryption advertised as secure and unbreakable...

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/17/1720.asp


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://omega.twoday.net/topics/RFID/