If you're getting a new passport in the near future, be prepared for some changes. The State Department will soon be embedding computer chips inside the cover and on the pages of all new passports. Airport and immigration officials, using specialized electronic equipment as well as ordinary digital cameras, will be able to read all of the information inside the passport, compare your face to a digitized record contained in the chip, and even pull out specific data from the passport record.

Invasion of privacy issues immediately spring to mind, but even more alarming is the strong probability that unauthorized individuals would also be able to read the passports.

"This is like putting an invisible bull's-eye on Americans that can be seen only by the terrorists," said Barry Steinhardt, the director of the A.C.L.U. Technology and Liberty Program. "If there's any nation in the world at the moment that could do without such a device, it is the United States."

The official U.S. position on this is apparently a nod of approval.

According to one document obtained by the A.C.L.U., a State Department memo from September detailing negotiations on the subject, the American position is that the data "should be able to be read by anyone who chooses to invest in the
infrastructure to do so."

I am very glad that my recently renewed passport is already safely in my possession.