Industry Group Criticizes State Dept's Standards Choice
As RFID Update reports, The Smart Card Alliance has released a statement to the State Department, disagreeing with the State Department's choice of RFID standard for use in new passport cards. The SCA says Gen2 technology, chosen for the passport cards, is more suited for use in a supply chain, whereas the ISO/IEC 14443 standard would be a better choice for the cards.
While there may be merit to their argument, I have some concern that by focusing on the "data privacy" message, it fuels the arguments used by anti-RFID forces against the entire industry. The media, which has already been peppered with anti-RFID rhetoric, could easily spin this statement to say: "Industry group opposes new RFID travel documents. Site privacy concerns". There is value in making sure that the public can trust the privacy and security of any RFID-related products or services, so it is a legitimate topic to discuss in this context.
The bigger issue is why there seems to be such a disconnect within the Federal government on the variety of RFID enabled travel and immigration documents being issued. We have the ePassport, the WHTI card, the USVisit documents, RealID requirements -- and with each one, a new debate and argument over the right RFID technology to use for each application.
The bigger issue is why there seems to be such a disconnect within the Federal government on the variety of RFID enabled travel and immigration documents being issued. We have the ePassport, the WHTI card, the USVisit documents, RealID requirements -- and with each one, a new debate and argument over the right RFID technology to use for each application.