New US passport cards for North American travel can be read at a distance

Over the holidays, the US government published information about a new passport card to facilitate travel by Americans in North America. One "feature" is causing a lot of concern: the technology (presumably RFID) built into the card means they can be read over a distance of up to eight metres. The cards will be issued with protective sleeves for those who want to use them, but this doesn't assuage privacy advocates who think the technology is inherently flawed. See: globeandmail.com: U.S. 'vicinity-read' cards assailed by privacy experts.