A couple of notes; First of all the definition of smart cards needs to be clarified. There are Contact and Contactless smart cards. Some definitions of smart cards even leave contactless out of the "Smart Card" definition completely. Any responsible card integrator will apply appropriate encryption and access to card data to prevent any type of violation of private information. As an industry we also need to clarify the use or application of smart cards as well. In the banking industry smart cards will be utilized to secure transactions, in healthcare “Contact” cards may be used very effectively to transfer and provide role based secure access to vital information required to save a life. Many have argued that a mag stripe can be used the same way by simply having identifying numbers encoded to retrieve information from the back end computer systems. This works well until you are away from the back end system in an ER that cannot utilize the mag stripe. With contact smart cards access requires at least two factors of authentication unless there is an emergency then there is a privacy compliant emergency code for first responders. If there is no card reader then the Cell Phone you carry will more than likely contain a smart card in it, (GSM) and that phone may be utilized as the device that authenticates and displays emergency information about you that will save your life.

As smart cards become more and more a part of our lives in the US we as individuals need to become more educated and not base our responses to the technology on a news report that was created to pull viewers in. If you want to become informed may I suggest you pay attention to the Smart Card Alliance, a non profit organization dedicated to supporting this technology and educating the public on there uses.

Frank Avignone
Chairman
International Smart Card Alliance
Healthcare Council

Frank,

Thanks very much for taking the time to post your thoughts on Smart Cards. Obviously, as the chairman of the council, you feel that smart cards are an important addition to our society. I agree that they will provide some great benefits (such as the one above I didn't even think about - "If there is no card reader then the Cell Phone you carry will more than likely contain a smart card in it, (GSM) and that phone may be utilized as the device that authenticates and displays emergency information about you that will save your life." - healthcare applications).

Even though I know that all of our information is available and easily accessible for anyone who wants it, I still wonder about how carrying so much information with us will affect us... We can already see how devastating it is when someone loses a wallet with a driver's license, or worse what happens when someone loses a passport. Making the information available via a radio frequency, Bluetooth signal, or other wireless/touchless means, no matter what the security standards are, still gives me some cause for thought of potential threats most people won't think about, or even know about, until it's too late to do anything to protect themselves.