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🆕 blog! “Why my NFC passport didn't work at Heathrow's eGates”
I travel a fair bit. My passport is usually quickly scanned and I can enter or leave a country without delay. But every time I use the eGates at Heathrow Airport to get back in to the UK, my passport is rejected and I'm told to seek assistance from Border Force. Today, I think I discovered why!
The border…
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/why-my-nfc-passport-didnt-work-at-heathrows-egates/
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#nfc #travel
@Edent This is good advice in general. Lots of people have multiple NFC cards, and they're subject to the same interference problems. Any time you have multiple NFC items, present the one you want to use separately for better reliability.
@Edent Ah! I helped a friend with a different problem with a similar cause.
Her mobile would randomly open a browser with a now non-existent site.
She tried multiple browsers and defaults, and they all behaved the same.
Oddly, the URL was that of a public library. Then I noticed she had one of those wallet-like phone cases, with the flap folded behing it.
Sure enough, she had an old library card in there, which turned out to have an NFC chip with that old URL in it.
The fix was to put that card in a different slot of the case, so the NFC reader would not see it.
@Edent Ah! I helped a friend with a different problem with a similar cause.
Her mobile would randomly open a browser with a now non-existent site.
She tried multiple browsers and defaults, and they all behaved the same.
Oddly, the URL was that of a public library. Then I noticed she had one of those wallet-like phone cases, with the flap folded behing it.
Sure enough, she had an old library card in there, which turned out to have an NFC chip with that old URL in it.
The fix was to put that card in a different slot of the case, so the NFC reader would not see it.
@Edent
Makes sense. At one point I tried to put my office badge and my Oyster card in the same holder, and neither worked. It’s a bit like web developers who assume you have only one window open on their site and use global cookies for navigation.
@Edent When I was younger (under 18), I remember that generally you can't use egates as a minor. Normally in UK airports I was directed to speak to one of the border control agents instead. But I remember in Canada they never checked. So every single time I entered the country, I would be forced to use the egate even though I knew it would fail (not telling me why but I eventually guessed it was because of my age).
@Edent
I had this same problem with my keycards in our datacenter! I originally had two cards on the same lanyard, one for each datacenter, but I was unable to get the readers to accept me. Once I separated them, they each worked properly.
@Edent Mine never works in the UK, I asked why once:
The passport cut the very top of my head off (hair) and apparently that's no good for the facial detection on the machines...
@Edent I am feeling a palpable sense of closure even though this has never happened to me
@Edent For many years I was unable to use the e-gates at any UK airport. One time a Border Force person told me, “The e-gates will never work for you, there is nothing you can do to fix this, and I can't tell you why”.
@Edent I’d always assumed they just randomly reject my passport to fuck with me when I’m already tired and cranky 😬
@Edent mystery solved. 👏 I'm always surprised how many NFC readers fail with multiple cards. (Eg train/tube etc)
@Edent I’m glad you managed to get the NFC ring working reliably for your needs. Are you going to update that blog post as as longer term review, and what you use it for these days?
I still want some sort of identity token in a ring, it would somehow be a throwback to signet rings. But nobody seems to be making secure tokens on rings any more. Even your ring is no longer available…
@moof it seems to be available at https://getcybernetic.com/product/ring/
There are a few similar products.
As for long term? It is really boring - I just use it as a FIDO token on my laptop and phone.
@Edent That’s the equivalent of what apple calls passkeys, right?
Do you know of any European manufacturers or any that distribute in Europe?
@Edent QQ: is this not a privacy issue?
@Edent I am actually trying to understand if this can be?
I am not from Europe or UK, and I may actually be reading or all wrong altogether, but if the reader is trying to read anything that is NFC, it might also be taking some sort of identity or tracking something? Or is this the normal infrared kind of reader?
@fbinin It is a passport gate.
Yes, it reads information from your passport when you place it in the reader.
So, yes, you need to show your passport to the guards at the border and they will track your entry and exit from the country.
@Edent apologies for my confusion earlier. I guess I read it incorrectly.
@Edent
Oh that is interesting! i bet others have this issue and have never considered their ring could be the issue!
@Edent Doesn't this also cause problems with contactless payments?
