RFID : Promoting efficiency or Stealing our Privacy?

Wired has a rather long story about RFID or radio frequency I.D. tags and technology. Passive tags might become the new barcode and be an efficient way to control inventory and production. The RFID tags with power transmit all kinds of information to anyone with a "sniffer" who is nearby. Here is the good and bad from the Wired story. Below are links to posts from my blog about RFID, which struck me as problematic from the first time I heard of it. From the woman evangelist who says we will have to get RFID implants which will cause sores on our foreheads (ah, now you see, "the mark of the beast", to the chip in that new passport you just got -- this is a story that has been there for awhile.

With tags in so many objects, relaying information to databases that can be linked to credit and bank cards, almost no aspect of life may soon be safe from the prying eyes of corporations and governments, says Mark Rasch, former head of the computer-crime unit of the U.S. Justice Department.

Source: news.wired.com

At home, convenience is a selling point: RFID-enabled refrigerators could warn about expired milk, generate weekly shopping lists, even send signals to your interactive TV, so that you see "personalized" commercials for foods you have a history of buying. Sniffers in your microwave might read a chip-equipped TV dinner and cook it without instruction.

Source: news.wired.com

From my blog archives (pardon the spam comments, most of the links still work)

• http://nexus.colum.edu/users/iverson/2004/06/remember-rfid-little-wireless-chips.html


• http://nexus.colum.edu/users/iverson/2004/07/rfid-first-tech-note-about-cutting.html


• http://nexus.colum.edu/users/iverson/2004/08/rfid-and-your-privacy.html


• http://nexus.colum.edu/users/iverson/2004/09/rfid-begins-its-move-from-exotic-to.html


• http://nexus.colum.edu/users/iverson/2005/02/rfid-in-clothing-is-one-of-my-threads.html


• http://nexus.colum.edu/users/iverson/2005/04/state-legislators-slowly-come-to-see.html


• http://nexus.colum.edu/users/iverson/2005/04/rfid-in-your-passport-could-set-you-up.html


• http://nexus.colum.edu/users/iverson/2005/08/wired-news-rfid-future-is-in-chips.html


• http://nexus.colum.edu/users/iverson/2006/03/rfid-mark-of-beast-and-wackos.html

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Tags: consumer | privacy | retail | RFID | Security | tags | Technology