30 replies to this topic

[Tolly]

This may be old news to some of you:

USAToday has and article today indicating all US Citizens will be required to present a US Passport to re-enter the US from Mexico, Canada and the Carribean by 2008...

Currently, you only need a driver's license and copy of birth certificate...

US Passports 2008

time to get those forms filled out and itty bitty pictures taken......

[RICHinNC]

The scary part is....in the near future....passports will have a chip in them with a lot of personal information that would be so easy to steal. Gear needed to get this info would fit into a normal size brief case. Someone with the gear could sit in an airport and steal tons of information on people in just minutes.

Makes ya wonder what the heck our gov is thinking. But, Im old...and Ive been wondering that for decades.
rich

[BSG]

I don't like the Big Brother attitude that is increasingly apparent in our country, but the truth is that this is only a possibility at this time. The idea of passports being required is not nearly as frightening as the possibility of the microchips that have all kinds of personal info. The most frightening thing is that I was there when "1984" was written and I was so naive that I said "It couldn't possiby happen in this country."

[drdiver]

well, yeah, lots of things have personal info--your credit card for example. I'm not so worried about my passport, because I figure the government has a vested interested in making sure that nobody knows anything about me but them.. And I'm not going to worry about that, because there's not a lot I can do about it. I could go on, but politics is a no no on this forum.

[BradfordNC]

hmmmm,

ok,

OR

we could not have any passports at all, and just let anyone who wants to come into the US without any restrictions at all


yeah, that sounds like a great idea

[finGrabber]

I think we need more border control and more information about who is in our country...if that means we get passport info from everyone, so be it...we've been way too lax in the past

[Sophia]

As a techie, it seems to me that the minute they come out with the chip passports, someone will come out with a lined passport holder that prevents scans when the holder is closed. It won't even be that hard to do.

For those of us who are sometimes cheap, the lead film bags we no longer need because we've gone digital would work.

[Walter]

it seems to me that the minute they come out with the chip passports, someone will come out with a lined passport holder that prevents scans when the holder is closed.

Actually, plans are to have that built into the passport itself.

[Sophia]

it seems to me that the minute they come out with the chip passports, someone will come out with a lined passport holder that prevents scans when the holder is closed.

Actually, plans are to have that built into the passport itself.

That makes too much sense!

[intotheblue]

OR

we could not have any passports at all, and just let anyone who wants to come into the US without any restrictions at all

Isn't that what we have now???

[BradfordNC]

OR

we could not have any passports at all, and just let anyone who wants to come into the US without any restrictions at all

Isn't that what we have now???

ummmm, yeah, i take it you didn't note the sarcasim on that blinding flash of the obvious.

its amazing that those who have been crying about the open borders and how easy it is to get into the US are now crying about the new restrictions and needing a passport to enter the country.

if you allow highly suspicious people who openly hate America into the country and then allow them to take flying lessons, don't be surprised when they start crashing planes into large groups of Americans.

it might kinda be a sorta good idea to know who is entering the country. and having a document that proves a person's US citizenship might not be a bad idea either.

[drdiver]

What a novel concept!!!

You clearly know all your basic diving skills!!!

LOL

I find it very suspicious knowing how easy to get over the border when you are a dark skinned foreigner that we haven't had more terrorists actions.

Makes me think in my darker moments that it WAS all a plot.

But maybe they are stupider than I think.

I am a simple man.

Back to the vodka.

[blacktar]

When I went to go get my passport photo, I really wasn't thinking. I was wearing a T-shirt that says inmate # 193682. It shows on my passport. I have travelled all over the Carib, and Asia. In the past five years I have only had one comment on it. Immigration in JFK. It bothers me, but only a little bit.

[Scott]

The scary part is....in the near future....passports will have a chip in them with a lot of personal information that would be so easy to steal.  Gear needed to get this info would fit into a normal size brief case.  Someone with the gear could sit in an airport and steal tons of information on people in just minutes.

More likely is the incorporation of RFID (Radio Frequency ID) chips that will allow a person in a crowd to discern the passport's national origin.

So, for instance, if a person or group is hunting citizens of a particular nation it will be a breeze to discover potential targets by walking in a crowd using a device as small as a cell phone which would report any details stored in the ROM of the storage devices. A business I am working with uses devices of this sort that can read individual RFIDs in large internatioanl shipping containers from a distance of 15 yards. They also have these chips in each employee's ID badges and tie it in with their payroll and security system.

I don't typically subscribe to consipracy theories or succumb to fear tactics but there is just too much of a grey area to allow me to feel all warm and fuzzy about the ability to passively capture personal identification information. Especially in international venues. I don't mind an item I am buying at the grocery being tagged like that, but I don't want to become the item being scanned.

As a person who likes to travel I have been to some nations where to be American is tantamout to being hated and/or a fiscal target and I have escaped three, potentially fatal, situations by claiming citizenship in another country. Luckilly I was not asked to produce identification by the antagonists,

This is a dangerous and distinct possibility. Protect yourself, protect your privacy, and don't let fear mongering define or diminish your principals.

Don't sell the beet farm for a bowl of borscht.

Edited by Scott, 22 July 2005 - 12:01 AM.

[Maria]

Actually, my cousin's girlfriend had a hard time last month getting back into the US from Canada because she wasn't carrying her passport. She didn't think she needed it yet...