The Economist notes serious problems with new passport and identification technologies. Among the numerous issues is that new passports can broadcast the citizenship of the passport holder. This has been demonstrated to dramatic effect:
“Each country encrypts data in a characteristic way that terrorists could use to identify the nationality of the person carrying the chipped passport. To demonstrate the point, a firm called Flexilis used a partially opened American e-passport tucked in the pocket of a dummy to trigger an explosion as it passed a dustbin containing a small charge.”
This is likely not the convenience that bureaucrats envisioned. Security somehow got forgotten.
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