By Peter Sachs / The Bulletin
WASHINGTON - If the visions of government and industry officials
packed into a small exhibit hall this week were any indication, the
world will soon be filled with "smart cards."
The devices, which often look and feel just like a credit card, can hold much more information than a magnetic strip, and because of that, the possible applications and consequences are more ominous to privacy advocates.
Smart chips, which are the computer chips implanted in smart cards, are already popping up in more places than some may think: embedded in passes to quickly board mass transit in certain cities; small cards attached on key rings that replace credit cards and require only a tap on a special pad; and badges that let employees at many office buildings enter after-hours.
But as the chips become more advanced, they will store even more personal data and likely will be used for a wide range of every day activities.
"We're very concerned about what both the government is planning and what commercial interests are planning," said David Fidanque, the executive director of the Oregon chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Critics like Fidanque fear the cards could be used to track individuals and collect information linked to a central database.
Smart cards use tiny computer chips that are inactive until they are brought close to a specialized device known as a "reader," or scanner. At that point, the smart chips come to life, transmitting from the card everything from names and addresses to fingerprints and head shots.
And some predict all of that could happen as you drive down the road toward a border crossing, and you wouldn't even have to slow down or reach into your pocket. That's the plan of Jim Williams, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security official who spoke at the Smart Cards in Government Conference here earlier this week.
The government is considering introducing "PASS cards" that would allow citizens to cross more easily over U.S., Canadian and Mexican borders. Such cards, cheaper and smaller than conventional passports, could link a serial number with a person's background information, stored in a secure database. Officials also believe such cards would make it easier to keep terrorists out of the nation, or nab them when they try to enter.
For several years, one kind of smart chip, known as radio frequency identification, has been used to let drivers roll across bridges and down turnpikes without stopping at toll booths. But most of those devices are unsophisticated and not particularly secure. Some of the turnpike cards begin transmitting information when a motorist is 30 feet or more from the reading device.
"There are some privacy and security issues that depend on how the technology is built," said David Wagner, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "If we do it right, then those problems don't have to be there."
Williams endured skeptical questions about the border program from some in the audience, made up largely of hardware and software developers, and also from officials at other government agencies. He stood by the system, arguing that it would give guards more information on individuals approaching the nation's land borders in automobiles. The end result, he said, would be faster and easier crossings for most people, while allowing for more effective policing of drug runners, other criminals and would-be terrorists.
But technology similar to the roadside readers to retrieve information at border crossings could also be used in places like furniture stores and car dealerships, Fidanque said.
"With the technology that's now available, when you walk into a store, the sales person will know that information," he said, including data on a customer's buying history and credit rating.
Vendors at the conference here were excited about recent progress in smart card technology. They showed off suitcase-sized, $40,000 devices that in a matter of minutes can print a smart card with a person's face, 10 fingerprints and signature all encoded. And they touted $40 fingerprint scanners that are smaller than a computer mouse and can be used to block access to computers, or verify the fingerprints stored on a smart card.
But the high-end smart cards cost upward of $5 each to make, too expensive for mass production when compared to the cost of churning out conventional drivers' licenses, according to Gerald Hubbard, a sales representative for Datacard Group. Prices are dropping quickly, though, and these cards will invariably trickle down from government users to consumers, representatives from the companies here agreed.
By October 2007, all new U.S. passports will have smart cards in them, a feature already present in many European passports.
"I think e-passports are an application of the technology, where consumers may have to know about some of the risks," Wagner said. "Like any technology, it can be used in a way that has some risks, or it can be used appropriately."