Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is used as identification of people, animals and products or objects. RFID tag is a very small chip that contains information which can be read with a reader. The tag itself contains the actual chip where the information is stored and an antenna that transmits the signal with information. Some RFID tags are active meaning that they have a battery and can transmit information. Some are passive and need external source to awake them and send information.
RFID helps us in many ways: the technology is used in farming to identify cattle, in bonus, member and bank account cards of many kind, in toll payments, library, stores etc. In passports, the RFID chip makes the identifying fast and naturally more safe, because RFID passport is harder to forge than a passport without it.
On the other hand, if identification of persons is automatised, mistakes are easy to make. With forged RFID chip you can pass any machine with any identity. RFID chips makes unwanted remote reading and this way, identity theft easy. There are means to prevent this in passport, but they have been already hacked. Even though, stealing your identity via your passport is probably not everyday, it is good to keep the passport save in the cover that stops the signal when it's not needed. And maybe it is also good to give a little thought every now and then to the technologies that surround us...
Below a video presenting the reading (signal) from the chip and how the cover blocks it.
Passport reading from mkk on Vimeo.