chelidon: (Pan Mardi Gras)
[personal profile] chelidon
There's no overt reason that we shouldn't use technology to make border crossings more efficient, but this new use of RFID technology in cars is a bit chilling. The ability to just walk down the street, and with a properly configured RFID reader, identify which of all cars you walk by are being driven by foreign visitors is troubling enough, if it's misused by the wrong people (or even the "right" people). But who doesn't see this incredibly cheap device becoming required technology on all cars, citizens and visitors alike, once it proves useful for border crossings and tracking foreigners? At that point, once RFID tag sensing devices are installed at various checkpoints and well-traveled locations (highway onramps, etc), every trip you take could be logged, every police car could get an instant readout of registration data on each car they pass, and where they've been...Yes, there's potential positive applications of this, such as more easily tracking stolen cars, but oh, the potential for abuse...

(full article)

Excerpt:

Homeland Security To Launch RFID Systems At Border Crossings
By The Associated Press

TORONTO (AP) --The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will install radio frequency technology at five border posts with Canada and Mexico to track foreigners driving in and out of North America.

In its ongoing efforts to tighten border security and monitor possible terrorist and criminal activity, Bob Mocny of the Department of Homeland Security said the wireless chips for vehicles would become mandatory at designated border crossings in Canada and Mexico as of next Thursday.

“This is a major transformation of how we are going to be gathering information about entries and exits along the border,” Mocny said at a Wednesday news conference in Toronto. “The fundamental obligation of our government is to protect our citizens.”

After a foreigner entering the U.S. has passed a thorough security check once, they will be given a document containing the chip. This document will need to be renewed every six months.
[snip]
(full article)
This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

Profile

chelidon: (Default)
chelidon

July 2011

S M T W T F S
     12
3456789
1011121314 1516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jan. 28th, 2026 01:58 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios