http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/start.html?pg=9
How To: Disable Your Passport's RFID Chip
All passports issued by the US State Department after January 1 will
have always-on radio frequency identification chips, making it easy
for officials – and hackers – to grab your personal stats. Getting
paranoid about strangers slurping up your identity? Here’s what you
can do about it. But be careful – tampering with a passport is
punishable by 25 years in prison. Not to mention the “special” customs
search, with rubber gloves. Bon voyage!
1) RFID-tagged passports have a distinctive logo on the front cover;
the chip is embedded in the back.
2) Sorry, “accidentally” leaving your passport in the jeans you just
put in the washer won’t work. You’re more likely to ruin the passport
itself than the chip.
3) Forget about nuking it in the microwave – the chip could burst into
flames, leaving telltale scorch marks. Besides, have you ever smelled
burnt passport?
4) The best approach? Hammer time. Hitting the chip with a blunt, hard
object should disable it. A nonworking RFID doesn’t invalidate the
passport, so you can still use it.
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