Adirondack Train ? Urgent Canadian Immigration Question

[Devil's Advocate]

My NY State Enhanced Driver License, which comes with RFID, also came with a special foil lined envelope to prevent anyone from picking any info. Of course there really isn't all that much info contained in the RFID chip anyhow. What it really contains is a link to my file on their computer; so unless someone scanning that RFID info as I'm walking down the street also has hacked into the Government database, its really not going to tell them much anyhow. And that of course assumes that I forgot to put the license back in its special sleeve.

I'm not familiar with the New York RFID, but on many licenses the magnetic strip can contain virtually everything written on the card itself. I'd be surprised if the RFID does not contain similar information in due time.

The RFID chip in the US Passport is not accessible remotely unless the Passport book is open. The cover pages of the Passport have a wire mesh embedded in them to prevent remote reading from a closed Passport book.

Is that from an NSA pamphlet or are you just humoring us? We're living in a post-Snowden world. Well, some of us anyway.

 

[jis]

The RFID chip in the US Passport is not accessible remotely unless the Passport book is open. The cover pages of the Passport have a wire mesh embedded in them to prevent remote reading from a closed Passport book.

Is that from an NSA pamphlet or are you just humoring us? We're living in a post-Snowden world. Well, some of us anyway.

This is from the specification of the US Passport. Feel free to take it whichever way you'd like.

 

[FriskyFL]

I find that at least 10 sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil underneath my tricorne hat are required to keep the bad people from scanning my brain waves.

 

[jis]

I find that at least 10 sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil underneath my tricorne hat are required to keep the bad people from scanning my brain waves.

That matches my observation too.

 

[Hytec]

10 years ago, my wife and I were with a tour group crossing into Canada from Niagara Falls, NY. The group contained mostly American citizens, but also a Norwegian, a German couple, and mother & daughter from Bermuda. Canadian immigration boarded the bus, quickly glanced at all passports, except for the Bermudan mother & daughter who were taken into the office for about a half-hour. Turned out the daughter was a first-line Olympic Field Hockey Judge, thus had traveled extensively throughout the world over the previous 20-30 years. The Canadians were quite suspicious of her even though both she and her mother were born in Bermuda and had been UK citizens for all of their lives. We Americans were surprised with the Canadian treatment, but the daughter said she received this treatment all the time, especially when entering UK-connected countries, including Australia and New Zealand.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

It's a bad sign when the tinfoil nutcases sound no crazier than the latest internal NSA slide show. The genius of it all is that no matter how shocking these leaks are, it's just too much information for the average American to digest, let alone act upon. Kind of like the metric system or the Celsius scale or global warming. If I worked for the NSA I'd be heartened and motivated by the lack of response and the sheer indifference exhibited by even the most educated and active of citizens.

 

[caravanman]

The problem with being a devils advocate is that you may simply be saying the opposite of what your true belief is...

Ed