Passport RFIDs cloned wholesale by $250 eBay auction spree

As a person who does travel out of country from time to time for work, I've hated the idea of RFID tags in passports from day one. There are many parts of the world where broadcasting a signal that says "Hey, I'm an American!" to anybody with a 50-dollar RFID reader is a horrible and downright dangerous idea.

Security issues aside, gross invasion of privacy issues abound. Yes, I know that companies already know everything I buy with a credit card but I'd hate to get to a point where somebody simply has to drive a truck down my street and scan my house to see what products I've purchased.

Might be good enough reason to have RF-shielded "holders" for your passport or any other RFID nuggets you have in your purse or wallet.

At least they're just storing a primary key on the RFID tag, as opposed to the actual data. The Boston subway actually stored value on the cards, and some MIT kids exploited that this summer -- (http://www-tech.mit.edu/V128/N30/subway/Defcon_Presentation....).

So I'm looking on ebay for a Symbol XR400 RFID and the lowest price is 1000$. That 250$ price tag is little exaggerated.

Microwave it.