RFID no good for ID, says US gov report

In an ideal world, an authoritative statement that something is a bad idea would actually stop the implementation of the concept in question. But not here, not now.

As The Register reports, an advisory committee to the US government has published a draft report (and draft it may well stay) which says that while RFID tags are pretty good for inventory management, they're no good for for identification purposes:

Where the technology falls down is where it's used to verify
identity, where the experts reckon it offers little advantage over
previous technology while creating the possibility that data held on
RFID chips might be intercepted by undesirables. 

"RFID appears to offer little benefit when compared to the
consequences it brings for privacy and data integrity. Instead, it
increases risks to personal privacy and security, with no commensurate
benefit for performance or national security," the report states.