Saturday, November 11, 2006

RFID Passport redux

My picture of the RFID hardware in my new passport has created more comments than anything else I've posted. Now, I carry my passport with me quite a lot when I'm traveling, and I don't like the idea of people being able to read my passport remotely. The claim that "the range is limited" isn't good enough - I've seen enough about bluejacking to be worried. I think I could be the target market for a combination Faraday cage and passport pouch. Maybe as my anonymous commenter says, wrapping it in aluminium foil is good enough technically, but as a style statement it sucks. And although the idea of microwaving my passport appeals (especially as I am now the proud owner of a 1000W microwave oven - warms a chilly bottle of red wine nicely in less than a minute) I have a sneaking suspicion that there might be times where I want the RFID to work as designed. I don't want to spend hours proving my identity so I can get back into the UK.

1 comment:

Justin Mason said...

hi -- thanks for the comment over at taint.org.

whatever you do, _don't_ microwave it! it'll burn holes in the passport, and you'll need to buy a new one -- plus it may be illegal to cause damage to a passport (iirc it is in the US at least).

http://www.difrwear.com/ sell a nice passport wallet that claims to block RFID. I'd go for that ;)

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