HotBedInfo, 11/08/2011
An episode on Global TV aired Sunday, January 25, 2011 about the dangers of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips found in Enhanced Driver’s Licenses, Passports, and Credit Cards. The episode showed how anyone can put together simple electronics found online for a few dollars to grab your detailed information from as far as 30 feet away!
What is an enhanced driver’s license?
They are dual-purpose documents designed for the user’s convenience. In addition to serving as a typical driver’s license or ID card, they may be used to re-enter the U.S. at its land or sea ports when returning from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda or the Caribbean. This flexibility speeds your passage back across the border. They verify your identity and citizenship – no other proof is needed. Enhanced driver’s licenses and ID cards are among the federally approved border-crossing documents when entering the U.S. required under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.
Enhanced Driver’s License ID Theft
These new Driver’s Licenses contain an RFID chip to allow speedy processing at border crossings. Provinces of BC, Manitoba, and Ontario implemented them although they are not mandatory at this time.
According to the video, a person could be sitting in a food court happily scanning away! Granted that was 30 feet of open space but in a food court even within 10 feet, hundreds of people could be scanned.
Walmart stores could read your personal information
Recently, retailers including Wal-Mart have primarily used RFID tags, which store unique numerical identification codes that can be scanned from a distance, to track pallets of merchandise traveling through their supply chains.
Walmart executives call it the start of a “Next generation Walmart” however it has privacy advocates raising questions.
While the tags can be removed from clothing and packages, they can’t be turned off, and they are trackable. Some privacy advocates hypothesize that unscrupulous marketers or criminals will be able to drive by consumers’ homes and scan their garbage to discover what they have recently bought.
They also worry that retailers will be able to scan customers who carry new types of personal ID cards as they walk through a store, without their knowledge.
Which States offer the Enhanced Drivers License?
- Michigan
- New York
- Washington
- Vermont
States considering implementing an EDL include:
- Arizona
- Idaho
- Maine
- Minnesota
- New Hampshire
- New Mexico
- North Dakota
- Texas
What’s Being Done?
The president of RFID technologies in Canada and US authorities warned of the dangers of the RFID. According to the episode, the only thing being done is distributing RFID shields with the enhanced driver’s licenses and new passports. No comment was given by governments. One has to wonder if the extreme distances that the driver’s licenses can be read from is a way government can track our movements.
Source 1: http://blog.i-raymondlee.com/2011/01/24/enhanced-drivers-licenses-tap-pay-credit-cards-danger/
Source 2: http://www.greatdreams.com/rfid.htm
Source 3: http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,4670,7-127-48296-213104–F,00.html
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re-Digested RFID GPS TRACKING chips have been done they are in immunizations and food products and have been since the 90′s what the Gov does not want you to know is that they have to be replaced every so many months hence the need for booster shots Are your eyes opened yet the rfid enhanced license is a tool keep it shielded and as well when martial law is declared destroy it with acetone this is the sure fired way of disabling it
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Cattle must be branded. That’s what they “herd.”
[...] system could also be used with so-called “enhanced driver’s licenses” which contain an RFID chip for even easier tracking which wouldn’t require the computer [...]
Oh you just wait this is just the beginning.
Certain states allow you to go to Canada, US territories, Mexico, with an enhanced Driver’s license. Mostly border countries. This can also be used as an example of how we are being pushed little by little into the direction of a North American Union, (U.S. Canada, Mexico)
Yes Joe, you’re probably right. The RFID chips probably couldnt be scanned in a car, but in the examples in this article and in the video, it would have to be out in the open with nothing blocking the RFID for it to be scanned.
The enhanced driver license and RFID credit cards are fairly new, so its hard to say what information is allowed on particular RFID’s.
I heard about that! Kind of like A nano microchip in a powder form. You’re right, it would be impossible to find those.
I thought a passport was mandatory leaving and entering the U.S. I think this is just one more technique for the federales to keep the big eye on us.
[...] system could also be used with so-called “enhanced driver’s licenses” which contain an RFID chip for even easier tracking which wouldn’t require the computer [...]
Google: How to make an RFID blocking wallet.
Wrapping all your chipped bank cards, d/l’s, passpports etc in aluminum foil
will block RFID readers. The same applies to bank notes. You can be scanned and the reader will know how much money you are carrying.
To de-activate old RFID tags from purchased items – just put them into a microwave oven for a few seconds on full power.
From an electronics engineering perspective, I don’t think it’s probable that these RFID cards could be scanned while being carried by the occupants of a vehicle below the window line, from outside the vehicle. If there’s a way to do that, I’d like to see it and understand how it could work.
The other question would be how much personal information is encoded in the chip?
The smart way to implement this is to encode a database key on the chip, that retrieves a personal data record from an independent system.
It could be argued that a DOT customer number (in the absence of a name and date of birth) wouldn’t be sensitive personal information.
But if the RFID system stores and allows retrieval of all the cardholder’s personal details, it’s a bad system.
[...] ++++++++++ Enhanced Driver’s Licenses can be Scanned by up to 30 Feet http://hotbedinfo.com/2011/11/enhanced-drivers-licenses-can-be-scanned-by-up-to-30-feet/ [...]
[...] information in the following article and video is not new-anyone who has looked into the matter at all knows that the RFID chips can be read from [...]
They are also developing ones that can be eaten! The solution to the ID is to buy a shielded wallet but if they put them in food, clothes, etc. it would be nearly impossible to prevent being tracked.