RFID Biometrics - Personal Bar Codes for the Future

In part one of this RFID series you will discover that these chips have been around a lot longer than you may have known about and are utilized in ways which are not widely reported on. Although there is a loud outcry about biometric passports and their shortcomings, the progression toward the use of these chips in all sorts of identification seems inevitable.

Dawn of the worldwide RFID
The introduction of the biometric passport (ePassports), which contains a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip, was hailed as the future of secure documentation. It took the traditional 'paper' passport and combined it with the chip so that more data could be, in theory, stored securely and contain a wide variety of information such as fingerprints or iris-scan information. The technology of ePassports is akin to smart cards and even, to a lesser degree, RFID chips which have replaced bar codes for Wal-Mart, the United States Department of Defense, and others.

The data on the chip is read using an RFID tag or transponder. The majority of RFID tags consist of two parts: an integrated circuit for storing and processing data, handling of the RF signal, and other specialized functions, while the second part is simply the antenna for sending and receiving the signal. Chipless RFID is a more discrete and effective method of identification as it is without an integrated circuit.

Currently RFID chips are used and welcomed for pets such as dogs and cats in order to offer a quick identification of whom the pet belongs to and contact information in case the animal is lost or injured. Other uses for over a decade include encoded keys for high-end cars, public transportation passes, and some libraries. These chips are also used as keys to businesses and housing across the world.

International standards
Despite issues with the ePassport as well as problems using RFID chips used in inventory, shipment tracking and smart cards, there are already international regulations in place to standardize the RFID systems which are currently being implemented in order to avoid the problems found with pet ID chips which were not standardized and caused RFID readers to be constantly upgraded to scan increasingly wider ranges and chip types.

The ISO 14443 international standard interface runs 32 kilobytes of storage memory which holds the biometric data on a contactless chip. Identity information includes each biometric feature which is usually in JPEG format with the algorithm computed outside of the chip at checkpoints such as electronic border control systems, or eBorders.

Possible applications and problems
The American FDA approved 134 kHz RFID chips for humans in October of 2004, which were produced by the VeriChip Corporation, a subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions Inc. The selling point of these chips for human implants involved each chip carrying personal medical information which they said would save lives and avoid injury from errors in medical treatment such as possible drug interactions and unmarked medical conditions which complicate emergency care. Despite this approval, the FDA also released a letter of warning, discovered by anti-RFID activists Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, which detailed serious health risks with VeriChip's products. According to the FDA, these include "adverse tissue reaction," "migration of the implanted transponder," "failure of implanted transponder," "electrical hazards," and "magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) incompatibility."

The use of RFID for any identification purposes created alarm in security experts who warned against the chips due to identity theft. There is also the issue of tracking on RFID chips, illicit or otherwise, as the tags are able to be read anywhere in the world which expose personal location and risk corporate and military security. The protests against the use of RFID include arguments that such chips infringe on civil liberties and as the U.S. Department of Defense uses them for supply chain management, the possibilities of giving away covert positions is possible. Needless to say, the use of RFID in an endless variety of consumer products causes speculation and alarm as well.

Personal identification was brought into focus as part of the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief which was voted in by the U.S. Congress in May of 2005, includes establishing a federal standard for state-issued licenses and identification cards which could include RFID chips. In the United Kingdom, an ID card scheme has been proposed which utilizes the same technology as the biometric passports which includes a National Identity Registry which will have extremely detailed information about the UK's citizens.

VWP and biometric compliance
Due to an act passed by the U.S. Congress in October 26, 2004, America mandated that all countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) must have microchipped biometric passports that meet International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards, or all visitors would need to apply for a U.S. visa. Countries who are a part of the VWP include EU members, Andorra, Brunei, Iceland, Japan and Singapore.

Malaysia was the first country in the world to issue biometric passports in 1998 which was developed by a Malaysian-based company, IRIS Corporation. A list of currently-participating countries and their years of adoption include 2004 with the introduction of the RFID in passports for Belgium and Pakistan, 2005 bringing Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore and Sweden, 2006 included Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, UK and the U.S., with 2007 introducing Macedonia and Hong Kong into the pool. There are many others with plans for ePassports and RFID-based identification in the future.