Tickets for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games will be most secure. The Associated Press reports in a move unprecedented for the Olympics the tickets are embedded with a microchip containing the bearer’s photograph, passport details, addresses, e-mail and telephone numbers.
Microchips are embedded in all Beijing Olympic tickets, but only tickets for the ceremonies contain the photos and passport data, which makes them, in theory, non-transferable. The other tickets are transferable, and the RFID (radio frequency identification) is being touted as a deterrent and an anti-counterfeit device.
Tickets for the Opening Ceremony, at a top price of $720, are the most expensive of the Games and according to the Associated Press many are in the hands of dignitaries and friends. There could be long delays because of the hi-tech tickets. Chinese officials are worried that protesters might wreck the ceremonies by unfurling Tibet flags, anti-China banners or even wearing T-shirts adorned with student messages.
Roger Clarke, an Australian security expert said, “they should be concentrating on sniffing out the kinds of dangerous stuff rather than worrying about the identity of the people with the tickets. The way in which you recognize an evildoer, somebody who wants to throw a bomb, somebody who wants to unfurl a Tibet flag, is not on the basis of their identify. It’s the act that they perform and it’s the materials they carry with them”.
