What Are Some of the Dangers of RFID Credit Cards?

Activists believe, wrongly, that an RFID-enabled credit card contains your personal information.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID)-enabled credit cards are also known as "smart" or "contactless payment" cards. They contain information on a tiny transponder, instead of the familiar magnetic strip. Activists like Dr. Katherine Albrecht (author of the book "Spychips") believe the cards represent a significant security risk to their users.

Personal Information

The only information on a card is a number of some kind; the card contains no personal information, such as the user's name, home address or social security number.

Database

In order to read the cardholder's personal information, a thief would need the database that the issuer (for example, MasterCard or Visa) maintains.

Scanning

A card may be read only within a few inches of an RFID reader, typically under six inches. (This is called "near-field communication.") Thus, someone would have to approach a user very closely to read the number on her card.

Theft

Someone can use a contactless payment card as easily as he could use a card with a magnetic stripe. A sales clerk must verify the identity of the bearer.

History

To date, no case exists of an individual's personal information or credit card number being identified through an involuntary RFID scan. Still, companies like Faraday Caged Apparel offer RFID-blocking wallets, checkbooks and purses.

Tracking

One argument against contactless payment cards is that they track the user's movements. Because of the near-field proximity, law enforcement agencies can only track the user's movements through use of the card---which they can do already, for magnetic-strip cards.

References

• SpyChips
• "Thin Air;" Louis Sirico and Dann Maurno; 2010
• Industry Wizards: Near Filed Communication in the Real World