One of the most popular authors wrote what is truly a young person's book: Have Spacesuit, Will Travel". I librarian pointed me in the direction of the SF shelf when I was 8, and I either found this book or had it pointed out to me.

You seem to know what you are writing about, but I would like to see at least one reference. The notion that passport RFIDs contain a copy of the passport info seems beyond the pale, that is, too stupid to be true.

The RFID is just a key into a database that Padget has no access to. And the $250 figure is specious, as the device needed usually costs over $1000 on eBay (he bought one that was broken and fixed it). There are real dangers with the wider adoption of RFID, but this hack was more show than substance.