RFID implants for US passports

ALL USA passports will be implanted with remotely-readable computer chips starting in October 2006, the Bush administration has announced. One year from now, US passports will have tiny radio frequency ID (RFID) chips that can transmit personal information including the name,
nationality, sex, date of birth, place of birth and digitized photograph of the passport holder. Eventually, the government contemplates adding additional digitised data such as "fingerprints or iris scans."

According to Declan McCullagh, "opposition to the idea of implanting RFID chips in
passports has grown amidst worries that identity thieves could snatch personal information out of the air simply by aiming a high-powered antenna at a person or a vehicle carrying a passport. Out of the 2,335 comments on the plan that were received by the State Department this year, 98.5 percent were negative."

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Declan McCullagh -- "Passports to get RFID chip implants"
GPO -- text of directive

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