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March 10, 2006
Homeland Security puts remote tracking plan on hold
A few weeks ago, we disclosed a Homeland Security plan to use RFID "tokens" tucked in people's wallets to identify them as they walked through doorways and scan them from 25 feet away as they travel in a "car, truck or bus" at speeds of up to 55 mph.
Here's what the government's RFI (request for information) specified:"The Government requires that [an RFID device] be read under circumstances that include the device being carried in a pocket, purse, wallet, in traveler's clothes, or elsewhere on the person of the traveler. The device must be readable when the traveler walks into a (Port of Entry) or crosses the border... Readers are located in doorways and in individual pedestrian and vehicle lanes to allow identification of where the token is read and to allow association of the token with the individual and, if applicable, the vehicle in which the token is carried."
Evan Schuman of eWeek followed up on our press release and contacted DHS to learn the full story. He discovered that the plan has been put on hold while the government "is trying to determine what technology we are going to use," said Bob Richards, the DHS specialist handling the project.
Apparently, it was not privacy concerns, but bureacratic wrangling that put the project on hold in mid-December. Though DHS reports receiving "a lot of responses" from vendors eager to created the system, Schuman reports that "interdepartmental jurisdiction" issues have become a concern. "Now it's also going to involve the State Department," said Richards. (Feeling safer yet?)
-Katherine Albrecht
Posted by Katherine Albrecht at March 10, 2006 6:31 AM