More On Trackable Chips in Gov IDs

Marc Rotenberg, who helms the Electronic Privacy Information Center, writes in to supplement today's Wired News story about the continued government use of remotely-readable chips in identification, despite a damning report from an outside advisory group.

This summer EPIC evaluated all the federal privacy offices and found:

The one office where it is possible to say that some meaningful oversight has occurred is the Chief Privacy Officer for the Department of Homeland Security. Through public reporting, active outreach, the participation of an external advisory board, the development of a good framework for privacy evaluation, and the issuance of significant reports on the unlawful transfers of personal information of American citizens and the risks of RFID-enabled identity documents, the DHS Privacy Office suggests both the structural attributes and record of achievement that could make a successful agency- specific privacy office. But the office’s future remains unclear with the appointment of a political official lacking in any privacy expertise, a delayed annual report, and real challenges ahead resulting from the expansion of US-VISIT and the implementation of REAL ID.

Full report here.

EPIC staffer Melissa NGO took a look at the new RFID-equipped "PASS cards," which are intended for frequent border crossers who will soon have to have that or a passport to return from Canada, Bermuda or Canada (2007 if by air, 2008 if by land or sea). She then wrote up a primer called "Homeland Security PASS card: Leave Home Without IT."

And Rotenberg says he's heard that the Privacy Office at Homeland Security will finally release its congressionally mandated report to Congress soon. The last one (pdf), covering April 2003 to June 2004, was given to Congress in February 2005, when Nuala O'Connor Kelly ran the office. Two directors later, no subsequent report has been produced.