Originally Posted by
AllieKat
The signal strength of the millimetre wave scanner is not even remotely strong enough to affect the chips. Not even on the same planet as strong enough, being many times weaker than a mobile phone.
The magnetic stripe is an interesting question. As the scanner rotates, it has motors. There is some magnetic field. It'd never kill a high coercivity card, but I could see it killing a low coercivity card (think a paper Tube ticket) with repeated exposures. This would also apply to X-ray machines and metal detectors - magnetic fields abound at airport security.
Thats a good point, I never thought about the motor magnetic field. So in summary, the millimetre waves wouldn't affect the Magnetic Stripe or Chip as they are basically the same as radio waves but the magnetic field could possible erasure low strength stripes like some Loyalty cards or parking tickets but never things like credit cards or IDs?