Cnet news is reporting that the department of Homeland Security is using RFID at U.S. borders. The RFID chips are implanted in the “Customs and Border Protection Form I-94A” document which is used to keep track of comings and goings of foreign visitors.
The “comings and goings” information is logged to a government database and there is no personally identifiable information, logging only a serial number. Only U.S. Government officials have the ability to go in and pin that serial number to a name. (So there IS personally identifiable information, it just takes an extra step and is not easily accessible by anyone.)
It’s an interesting application, the big advantage I see is being able to know if person X has left the country when they were supposed to. Of course the problem with it is making sure that every “foreign visitor” gets said form.