New passports set to make travel safer

It seems that in this modern era, a good travel insurance policy alone is not quite enough to protect the modern travell

Travel Insurance News - 27/10/2005

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It seems that in this modern era, a good travel insurance policy alone is not quite enough to protect the modern traveller, and so the US government has taken steps to find something that will.

It has introduced a new feature to its prototype electronic passports: an anti-skimming material that prevents the electronic information stored on the passport from being picked up by just anybody, including terrorists.

Experts believe that this news may well be of great relevance to the UK, where electronic passports are also in the pipeline.

'It will not permit tracking of individuals,' the US state department said of the latest model of electronic passport.

'It will only permit governmental authorities to know that an individual has arrived at a port of entry, which governmental authorities already know from presentation of non-electronic passports.'

Nonetheless, given the great deal of scepticism over just how secure the electronic passport is, even with this new feature, all tourists using them in the future would be well advised to always take out a good travel insurance policy nonetheless.

The electronic passport is expected to start replacing the existing form of passport being used in the US from early 2006.

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