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Release Date: 08/08/05 00:00:00
Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology refers to wireless systems that allow a device to read information contained in a wireless “tag” – from a distance, without making any physical contact or requiring a line of sight between the two. It provides a method to transmit and receive data from one point to another.
RFID technology has been commercially available in one form or another since the 1970s. It is now part of our daily lives and can be found in car keys, highway toll tags and security access cards, as well as in environments where bar code labeling, which requires physical contact or a line of sight, is impractical or less effective.
There is no one definitive “RFID technology,” but, rather, an enormous range of technical solutions that vary in their complexity and cost, depending upon the functionality, packaging, and applications for which they are used.
In the simplest form commonly used today, a “passive” RFID system works as follows: an RFID reader transmits via its antenna an electromagnetic radio frequency signal to a passive RFID tag. The reader receives information back from the tag and sends it to a computer that controls the reader and processes the information retrieved from the tag. Passive tags do not have batteries; they operate using the energy they receive from signals sent by a reader.
US-VISIT is exploring the use of RFID technology as a tool that will better enable the program to fulfill its goals, which are to enhance the security of our citizens and visitors, facilitate legitimate travel and trade to and from the United States, ensure the integrity of our immigration system, and protect the privacy of our visitors. RFID technology has the potential to improve the ability to match entries to exits without impacting processing time at the land border ports, and to record arrivals and departures of visitors in pedestrian and vehicle lanes rapidly, accurately and reliably. It will also allow US-VISIT to detect a visitor’s tag and provide the primary inspection process with information and a mechanism for establishing an accurate and timely record of exits without slowing a traveler through the process. Finally, RFID can provide solutions that are not invasive and that protect the privacy of visitors.
US-VISIT will ensure that our visitors’ information is always protected. The tags will not include visitors’ biographic or biometric information. Rather, they will only contain unique serial code numbers that link back to visitors’ biographic and biometric records. RFID technology reads the tag and records a visitor’s entry and exit by securely transmitting the tag’s serial number to the US-VISIT reader and database. The tag will be tamper-proof and difficult to counterfeit.
There are many other layers of defense to prevent information being used incorrectly:
These factors will render ineffective so-called “skimming,” the use of unauthorized reading devices to capture information from such tags. A serial number would be meaningless to any third party trying to collect that information.
Also, it will be impossible to “track” the whereabouts of someone holding such a passive tag without a corresponding reading device, and prohibitively expensive and impractical to do so on any scale. Concerns about such tracking using passive RFID are perhaps confused with Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) devices, which rely on a completely different technology than that used by RFID and which will not be employed by US-VISIT.
Radio frequencies emanating from RFID tags are far below the levels that could cause any harm to human health, and are below the typical ambient radio frequencies most people are exposed to in the United States on a daily basis from devices such as TVs and radios. Like these other devices, RFID tags and readers are regulated and their safety is certified by the Federal Communications Commission.
US-VISIT continues to test technologies that will help it better achieve its mission to enhance security of our citizens and visitors while facilitating legitimate travel and trade.
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August 8, 2005
This page was last reviewed/modified on 08/08/05 00:00:00.
