Word: cards
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...This new PASS card will have a radio antenna embedded into the plastic that transmits a code unique to the cardholder. The signal is picked up by the immigration agent's computer, and the traveler's photograph and biographical information in the DHS database pops up on the screen. The new IDs - available to U.S. citizens only - will speed up cross-border traffic while making it more secure, says Bob Mocny, the acting director of DHS's U.S. VISIT program, which designs ways to move frequent travelers through immigration lines more quickly. Mocny confirmed that DHS had chosen the radio...
...officials have been quick to point out that the card isn't actually sending any personal information through the air. But the fact that the antenna could be activated remotely from 30 feet away, while it's still in your wallet and without your knowledge, has privacy experts and civil liberties watchdogs concerned. Before the decision was made, the ACLU issued a statement last month warning against the use of RFID for this purpose, saying that the radio transmitters would be a target for identity thieves. Also, the fact that RFID chips, if hit with the right frequency, reveal...
...Still, the only information that will be stored on the card's radio transmitter chip, according to DHS, will be a serial number. And that number would then unlock a personal file inside a secure government database to be displayed to an immigration agent...
...officials say they are atuned to privacy concerns and can put into place procedures that will protect the information of the card carrier. "A lot of creative things can be done with that number in a spy novel," says Kathy Kraninger, director of DHS's newly created Screening Coordination Office, which will manage the program. But in reality, she says, it will be exceedingly difficult for a potential identity thief to crack the government computer and match up the number to extract your information...
Thomas-Nininger—whose business card names her profession as “Perception Management” and warns “Your Image Is Showing!”—said the bread basket is to be passed to the right, but not without first offering a roll to the diner to the left...