By Jo Best, 26 January 2005 16:20
NEWS The US Department of Homeland Security has decided to trial RFID tags in an effort to make sure only the right sort of people get across US borders.
The controversial US-VISIT scheme for those visiting the US from abroad already fingerprints holidaymakers on their way into the country and is now adding RFID to the mix in order to improve border management, the department said.
The trials will start at a "simulated port" in the spring and will then be extended to Nogales East and Nogales West in Arizona; Alexandria Bay in New York; and Pacific Highway and Peace Arch in Washington by the end of July.
The testing phase will continue until the spring of next year. The exact way RFID will be used with the travellers is not yet known.
RFID chips will be used to track both pedestrians and vehicles entering the US to automatically record when the visitors arrive and leave in the country.
So far, over 400 people have been turned away from the country or arrested as a result of US-VISIT checks.
US Under Secretary for Border & Transportation Security, Asa Hutchinson, said in a statement: "Through the use of radio frequency technology, we see the potential to not only improve the security of our country, but also to make the most important infrastructure enhancements to the US land borders in more than 50 years."
The US government has already shown a marked fondness for the tagging technology. The US Department of Defense mandated its suppliers to use the technology, while the Food and Drug Administration is encouraging the pharmaceutical industry to use the chips in an attempt to beat counterfeiters.
Comments
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1. anonymous
One more reason to go on vacation to Europe instead of the US.
2. Csaba Gabor
I am really curious about the breakdown of those 400 people turned away. How many were turned away in error (like Cat Stevens was last year)? How many who were turned away were suspected security risks? Furthermore, I have to wonder how people are issued visas in the first place, and then subsequently determined to be unsuitable for admission? What is going on and what additional information comes in during those final minutes?
The other thing that is really unclear to me is what is being tagged and how it will be used. The passport or visa? The car? Or maybe everyone has to swallow a capsule... (it's a joke). That might be relevant before one can really take a stance on this.
3. Yes Thanks
So when is Europe and/or the UK going to start tagging visitors from the USA - especially the bush clan. They've got a full compliment of the types of weapons and loonies they are allegedly trying to find in Irag, Iran and so forth.
4. anonymous
Home of the Brave and Land of the FREE???? Oh really!.
Why weren't they tagging when the IRA had free rein to collect for the cause?
5. Richard Davies
People should stay away from travelling to america. Have a holiday etc. somewhere else, where they treat you as you should be treated i.e. not tagged and fingerprinted like a criminal. What next!?!
6. anonymous
America's blind faith in technology to offer greater security is worrisome. Having recently visited the USA, I was finger printed and photographed, but not asked why I was visiting, where I had come from, and where I intended on staying during my visit. Such questions used to be a standard part of going through immigration.
7. Ruth McCullough
As USA is very fond of the tourist dollar maybe the best step is to boycott visiting there until these totalatarian tactics are stopped? Most things you can get in the USA can be found elsewhere - for scenery try Canada, skiing - anywhere in Europe, surfing - Australia, even Disneyland in France. Alternatively (or in addition), let's subject our American tourists to the same treatment. Somehow I don't think they'll take the view that what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander!
8. anonymous
I am sure the UK would do it to all citizens tomorrow if they thought they could get away with it ie they could get a computer system to work
9. Marc
Yet another reason not to go to the US. I used to like visiting the place, but if the paranoia prevalent since 9/11 means measures as ridiculous as this are going to happen, then it's just not worth it. I can't believe that it will make one iota of difference to the determined terrorist.
10. anonymous
Welcome the the PSUSA, that is the Police Sate of the USA. Our civil liberties have been eroding for a long, long time.
The country is doomed - a compromised dollar, the huge debt, a highly uneducated populace, the willingness to shrug off torture, indoctrination by the news media, a burgeoning theocracy .... I could go on and on.
To brand travellers as criminals before even getting out of the airport is ludacris and horrible. All my Euroean friends will not come here anymore and I, for one, do not blame them.
11. DW
Looking at this objectively, the USA (and any other country) should be allowed to take whatever measures they think appropriate within their borders to ensure their people are safe. Visitors don't have to like it, and if they don't want to comply to these measures they can always choose not to go there. If you are going there on business, this is just the cost of doing business with or for a US company.
The same principle applies here in the UK. If visitors don't like measures we have put in place to secure our borders, don't come.
Sometimes we forget that the rights and safety of our own tax-paying citizens takes priority over visitors.
12. biotim
what is an rfid? (Ed note. Radio Frequency Identification)
13. Gordon Campbell
Welcome to Super, Natural British Columbia! Fishing, Hunting, Camping, Boating, Mountaineering, Gambling, Skiing and all manner of other winter sports; Endless historical and one-of-a-kind attractions; shopping and night life in cosmopolitan Vancouver, and the 2010 Winter Olympics. Or you can go to Las Vegas and get chipped and fingerprinted, and still lose your shirt. (Your choice)
14. anonymous
What will the next 'security' action be ? Big yellow signs on your jacket ... I'm a Tourist ?! Where have we seen this security actions before ....
15. Anonymous2
I agree with anonymous of London. I don't think you can beat a good grilling by a well trained human when going through immigration. They will often sense that a person is not who they seem to be.
"Stamping" people with an RFID will make for great film scripts especially when Mr. Terrorist swaps his chip with the chief of security!
Other than that, this RFID business seems like a waste of money which would, to my mind, be better spent on a foreign policy that is fair to all.
16. anonymous
For all those opposed to America’s way of dealing with tourists, remember... your country is next!
17. Colleen Hurd
This should strike fear in the hearts of all of us. The parallels of the path the US is taking with that of the German Third Reich are astounding.
Hitler exerted his military influence in countries outside his borders to suit his own needs, as does the US. Hitler suppressed dissention by his citizens as unpatriotic, as is the current climate in the US. Hitler "branded" people and tracked their movements and associations...
What Hitler wouldn't have given to have RFID technology!
"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me."
This is a quote by Martin Niem?r, a German Lutheran pastor who was an opponent of Adolf Hitler. After serving a prison term for charges relating to speaking out against the Nazi regime, Niem?r was placed in "protective custody" by the Gestapo and interned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945.
After his release in 1945 he was instrumental in the issuance of the Declaration of Guilt by German churches in which they declared their culpability in not opposing Hitler more strenuously.
America, let us not wish we had spoken up sooner about government excesses... phone your congressional representative and let's get this subject on the table for national debate. You can find your representative's info at http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml
18. Christie Stoermer
This bit of insanity shouldn't last long. These bouts of publicized paranoia generally last only as long as the current Administration feels the need to trumpet some new "security inhancement" to cover up the results of their latest insane maneuver in the Middle East.
19. anonymous
What do you do if you find yourself at the border and they want to "tag" you? At this point they are undergoing "trials" but will they continue expanding this humiliating and de-humanising practise? I for one would avoid going there!
20. anonymous
Amazing. Frightening. Sickening.
Technologically, this is amazing.
Socially, it's frightening.
Politically, it's just sickening.
This initiative takes advantage of xenophobia to move forward a powerful and valuable technology in a manner totally inconsistent with privacy and freedom of association/travel.
But it doesn't suprise me at all.
Charlie Levenson
Portland, Oregon
21. Collin Baber
Ha!
As Neo said in the back of the car, "Jesus Christ, that thing's real??!!"
22. Adrian Carey
Isn't it about time we started to treat US visitors the way they treat everyone else? Tag them, fingerprint them, be unbelievably rude and aggressive towards them. Hold them for 24 hours plus without food and water if they so much as look as if they might possibly have transgressed any minor obscure rule.
23. Prakash Vadali
Where is the freedom? What is the meaning of Liberty? What is the use of life if we live under fear every second? Cannot we make a society without fear? Is anybody working from this angle? I wish to life as "unknown" so that I can live peacefully without fear!!!!!
24. anonymous
1984??? Big Brother always watching...
25. anonymous
Credit Card - and privacy revisited..
Bear in mind that companies and certainly bank- already can buy/obtain credit card trails... and now RFID trails..
In itself the US has the right to do this. But is it fair for foreign business people? Do the costs and enormous consequences outweigh the benefits if one can change an RFID device?
26. Drew Edgar
GOOD ON THE US of A
Makes eminent sense.
Applying appropriate profiling produces an efficient, timely & cost effective response.
For evidence of the effectivenesss of this approach, look no further that El Al.
The sooner we in the UK follow suit, the better for each and every one of Her Majesty's subjects, rather than wasting the taxpayers' money on fancyful identity card schemes
27. anonymous
Rather than treating all US visitors in such a shabby fashion, single out our politicians and government bureaucrats, who are the ones promoting this lunacy. Most normal Americans (even Republicans) don't condone these policies.
28. A European Citizen
The USA is the land of the freedom, and democracy. At least they claim that. How could these measurements against citizens of other democratic countries fit into these ideas???
So far I know, anyone has to be considered innocent until proven guilty. So why treat tourist like prisoners??
Anyway, isn't this leading to harming the freedom of the own citizen???
29. anonymous
What nice commercial opportunities I see coming up!
If I register a customers implanted RFID, I'll be able to show him personal adverts whenever he enters my shop. By the way, I can sell information about my customers tag number, real identity and buying patterns to some of my friends. They'll love it, and perhaps I'll be able to send automatic mails to my clients: "Thanks for having a quick look in my shop today, but why didn't you buy anything?"...
I'll also be able to track exactly how my employees moves around in the office and much easier and more silently than with video cameras.
But most interesting of all is that this doesn't stop terrorists at all.
30. José Mendes
America is terrified by terrorism. Should ask: why other countries arn't?
Another question: If the world is against you: you are right; the world isn't?
31. Andy Stillon
The US Government creates the fear in it's own people so that they then look to the government for protection. How else would they have gotten back into power.
It's no different from the gangster who walks into a corner shop and tells the owner the shop is in danger if they don't get the right 'protection'...
Well done Bush... you've pulled it off on the entire United States of America.
32. Chris Tolmie
Can I wrap a piece of metal around the RFID device to stop people from monitoring me? I would happily purchase a jamming device if such a thing existed.
Also, if they are put under your skin at birth, can they be removed?
Chris (say no to Police State)
33. terrorist ?
Glad they have the 1st amendment.
34. Ian Porter
I went to the USA when they liked you to come,15 years ago.But after the way they treated my brother,who was only going to see our sister,I would have to think hard about going again,even through I really injoyed my last visit.