Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Tickets to the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies will contain an embedded chip with the owners personal data.

Each ticket to the opening and closing ceremonies will contain a RFID chip that has the owners, passport info, their photo, address, telephone numbers, and email address as a security measure to prevent disruptions during the ceremonies.

These $720 tickets are the most expensive Olympic ticket and the Canadian Press list some good arguments as to why this is not only a lame idea but rather sets up the ticket owner for potential identity theft. Here is what Security Australian security expert, Roger Clarke, had to say :

"... The way in which you recognize an evildoer, somebody who wants to throw a bomb, somebody who wants to unfurl a Tibet flag is not on the basis of their identity," Clarke added. "It's the act that they perform and it's the materials they carry with them. ..." [Link]

Transfers of these tickets to a family member or friend would be next to impossible and potentially create long waits as officials at the gate try to figure out why a 30-year-old white male has the passport data of a 65-year-old Japanese woman. (Simply answer, she was a ticket scalper.)

The photo above came from Xinhuanet as part of a ticket unveiling ceremony. The artwork is very attractive is and the RFID technology therein advanced to a point of Orwellian dimensions: [Link]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Do they have built-in pollution sensors?