Identity theft made easier by U.S.

As you may know the U.S. is about to begin issuing passports containing computer chips that have all kinds of information about your life history on them. The U.K. is already issuing similar passports to the same standards (which were insisted upon by the U.S.).

It turns out that, while the data on the computer chips is encrypted, the code to de-code those data is the passport number, the date of birth, and the expiry date of the passport, all printed in plain sight on the face of the passport. As a consequence, anyone with only slight knowledge of computer technology can decode all the data from the passport.

So much for privacy.