Travel Week: Passports

As I am preparing for my business trip to Asia next week, I have decided to spend this week sharing some business travel tips and mobile office ideas with you, my fine readers. Like this little doozy:

Did you know that new US passports contain RFID chips in them that can be easily read, snooped, or scanned by anyone with a device purchased at Radio Shack? Not just passports but several credit cards now have RFID chips embedded in them as well.

To protect your information, you can purchase an RFID blocking wallet or passport case or rig your own with tin foil and duct tape (though the jury is still out on just how effective this technique is). A more vigorous, though not wholly legal option is available for completely disabling the chip as well.

(via Engadget)

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  1. Ugh, this is disappointing. My US passport is good until 2014, fortunately. Tinfoil thingies are not my style. I wonder what information the Radio Shack people can find out? Blargh.

    I have such a great passport case, a Tricia Guild one that I’ve had for eons. It’s lime green, which I love because it’s easy to find. Hopefully by 2014 there’ll be a sleek, skinny wrap that I can slip my passport into… something that will slide right into the pocket of my lime green case.

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