there going to have to prove the person did it intentionally, and i know not many people are going to admit that. plus in any batch of chips your going to have a certain percentage that will fail over time.

How can they prove it was destroyed by the person whos holding the passport.

I've bought plenty of electronics over the years from retail stores that when I got home with the product it didnt work and thats brand new and out of the box.

Just because it doesnt work doesnt mean it was destroyed.

I will bet you when it leaves the "passport factory" it works ,

after that who knows the failure rate.....

Rally

It's fascinating that the author of that article warns that tampering with a passport is punishable by 25 yrs in prison, and then proceeds to immediately encourage her readers to commit a crime punishable by 25 years in prison.

25yrs only if they prove in a court of law I did it on purpose. Thats alot more time and money then its worth to the government, because right now there looking for "the big catch" and other BS at this point.

Then compare that anger, pain, fiancial consequences and other factors to having your identity stolen, you may deal with 25 years of hell and who knows how much money correcting the damage.

I have been seeing a lot of RF shielding passport holders in SkyMall magazines so there are commercially sold products available which is supposed to do the job.

Probably any reasonably thick (not all that thick) metal sheeting would work.

People still get tickets for speeding 5 mph over the limit, even though it costs a lot more time and money than it's worth to the government.

And I've also been hassled by Customs officers for 2 hours searching my bags, only to be assessed a $12 duty based on a leather item I had already declared on my customs form. The $12 duty almost certainly was not enough to pay the Customs Officer's hourly wage, and considering I had already declared the item on which the $12 was charged, the marginal $0 revenue certainly did not pay the Customs Officer's wage.

And all those countless hours confiscating Evian and Colgate bombs from air passengers? The US govt does plenty of things that cost-benefit analysis suggests should not be done.

Poor comparison especially coming from a law school student. this is a apples & oranges comparision. Speeding fines are a different subject and most of the time are a postive cash flow item(time to money ratio) for the department that issued them, unless a judge is throwing out tickets in bulk for some reason, but then again common sense and logic seem to be lacking from government and especially this administration.

I spend a fair amount of time at the airport due to my job and have gotten to talk to a number of CBP supes over time when we have to babysit intl connection passengers who need assistance, or oxygen while they wait for there next flight. The consenus has been there are a high number of dead chips in passports, and that it doesnt make them suspicious. they grumble because it takes longer for them to do it the chip reader or scanner doesnt pick up all of the data.

IMHO.... RFID-shielding passport covers are just like the Y2K survival kit that were sold in large numbers in 1999.... :D any excuse to make a buck! (not that I have anything against making a buck :D )

it would be so much easier for a thief to steal your e-passport from your pocket or bag. :)

Microwaving the passport does not leave any scorch marks if you do it for only 3 seconds. Lots of pretty sparks start at 2 second mark.