Thread: New ID Scanners at Borders Raise Privacy Alarm

New ID Scanners at Borders Raise Privacy Alarm

Monday, December 1, 2008 6:19 PM

By: Dave Eberhart Article Font Size




The federal government has already deployed new detection machines that can scan citizens without their knowledge from as far as 50 feet away and "read" their personal documents such as passports or driver's licenses.


The Homeland Security Department touts the high-tech devices as increasing security at border crossings, but privacy advocates are raising all sorts of red flags.


Critics say the new machines, which read one's personal information right through a wallet or purse, do so without consent or a warrant and may set a worrisome precedent.


The devices, called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) machines, allow officials to read remotely any passports, pass cards, and driver's licenses that contain special chips with personal information.


The RFIDs are so sensitive that, even before a vehicle pulls up at a border checkpoint, agents already will have on their computer screen the personal data of the passengers, including each person's name, date of birth, nationality, passport or ID number, and even a digitized photo.


The new gadgets are in place, or soon will be, at five border crossings: Blaine, Wash.; Buffalo; Detroit; Nogales, Ariz.; and San Ysidro, Calif. They are slated to have a dramatically expanded presence in June.


Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that the technology could make Americans less secure because terrorists or other criminals may be able to steal the personal information off the ID cards remotely.


Tien and other critics warn that people up to no good can use their own RFID machines in a process called "skimming" to read the information from as far as 50 feet.


Indeed, consumer privacy expert Katherine Albrecht maintains that the chips create the "potential for a whole surveillance network to be set up." Among other abuses, she says police could use them to track criminals; abusive husbands could use the technology to find their wives; and stores could trail the shopping patterns of patrons.


Homeland Security, however, rebuts the criticism, arguing that the embedded chips surrender only a code to machine readers. That code is then broken in order to display the personal information on the border agents' screen.


Meanwhile, the same agencies that are issuing the newfangled IDs supply a sleeve that keep out all prying electronic eyes when not in use.


Source Article
http://tinyurl.com/5bkthl

Here is your Real ID folks and this is why we were concerned about the metallic hologram that was on the NC licenses.

W

Personally I am thrilled by this device. I hope that they check the list against the terrorist watch list and the illegal alien watch list.

We need a national ID card to prevent illegals from taking US jobs. NATIONAL ID is one way to block illegal immigration. NO ID card no job, no hoursing, no pubic benefits, etc.

Originally Posted by judyweller

Personally I am thrilled by this device. I hope that they check the list against the terrorist watch list and the illegal alien watch list.

We need a national ID card to prevent illegals from taking US jobs. NATIONAL ID is one way to block illegal immigration. NO ID card no job, no hoursing, no pubic benefits, etc.

So you support the Open Borders model these devices are being deployed to implement? These technologies are being created to remove the need for borders and to facilitate a free flow of people across the old borders on this continent.

The goal of these ID's is not to stop illegals from taking your jobs. They plan to give these ID's to the illegals, did you miss the Eliot Spitzer deal?

W

Originally Posted by judyweller

We need a national ID card to prevent illegals from taking US jobs. NATIONAL ID is one way to block illegal immigration. NO ID card no job, no hoursing, no pubic benefits, etc.

Yes, this is definitely going to be a priority for an Obama administration. Come on.

It's interesting...throughout its brief lifetime, RFID technology has been used by various corporations and DoD programs with the intention of tracking things: supplies, parcels, assets, luggage. This technology has never been used with the intention to deny entry to anything. It is used to tag and track (and to retrieve, in the case of a lost or stolen asset). And last time I looked, the federal government was more interested in things like political correctness than border security. In 2008 America, this is like giving a gun to your unarmed attacker.

Although nations have somehow been guarding their borders for thousands of years, we ourselves can't possibly do it without this technology? There is simply no logic to the argument that we need REAL ID or RFID to fight illegal immigration or preserve our sovereignty. Nor is there any evidence (as the Spitzer example above shows) that government *wants* to use this to close open borders. Why does the myth persist that this technology will somehow, someway never be abused and will be used only in the way we want it to be used?

ALIPAC wrote:

They plan to give these ID's to the illegals

Sorry but I disagree. I don't see anything in the article that would indicate that there is a future goal of giving Real ID to illegal aliens. Illegal aliens are currently not eligible to receive a Real ID card, and that's a fact that is easily verified.

Originally Posted by MW

ALIPAC wrote:

They plan to give these ID's to the illegals

Sorry but I disagree. I don't see anything in the article that would indicate that there is a future goal of giving Real ID to illegal aliens. Illegal aliens are currently not eligible to receive a Real ID card, and that's a fact that is easily verified.

MW,

Please go back and review all of the articles about how states like TN were giving illegal aliens Real ID compliant licenses as well as my home state of NC.

Please review the national scandal with now defamed Governor Elliot Spitzer. We did many press releases on this and I appeared on Fox News and CBS on that topic. Spitzer and homeland security made it abundantly clear they intended to give Real ID compliant licenses to illegal aliens.

You might also want to review all the CFR "Building a North American Community" documents discussed here about the mutual electronic security paremeters.

I don't how you missed the fact that the Globalist plan is to further harmonize the economies of America, Canada, and Mexico including the work force which is taking place in front of your eyes each day through illegal immigration, and to keep control with new technologies.

You are looking at those new technologies right here in this article.

Those licenses are your new "mutual security" measures designed to erase the need for borders and allow the "free flow of people, goods, and services" as announced by Bush and crew via the SPP.

If you are going to bow down and allow the government unprecedented surveillance and tracking powers over you and the ability to sample your identity at a distance without your permission, then how many of you are also ready to bend over and accept the chip implants next?



W