NCR is installing small screens in shopping carts in grocery stores that will run ads complementing the product you just tossed in the cart. BellSouth has applied for the patent to rummage through your garbage so they can see which chips you threw out and then sell that list to marketing firms. Finally, Pfizer is keeping track of how many Viagra you take and when through chips in the packaging.
Of course the larger implications for RFID use lie in security issues. IBM currently holds the patent for building RFID peephole in walls and ceilings of public places where they will be able to peek into your purse, pocket, and wallet. The chip is being installed in ID cards, like the new American national ID card currently on order, and passports tagged at the borders.
The fact that data is being collected in ways we can't even imagine is scary enough as it is, but what's even scarier are the implications of what that data could be utilized for. Like the example of the New England grocery chain selling its client information to insurance companies, what's to stop any and all information changing hands from supposedly innocent users like marketing companies to those who will use it to create some sort of profile of you for insurance reasons or establishing credit?
Finally, it comes down to what gives them the right to gather this information in the first place. This is information akin to that gathered by a wiretap as far as I'm concerned and should be subject to the same rules and regulations. What gives any business the right to know about my eating habits, just on the off chance that they might be able to sell me a product?
If a government wants to spy on a person, fine — ask the courts for permission like you would in the case of a wire tap and you can then plant RFID devices all over their body. If you're going to have RFID devices in public places monitoring people's activity, which is understandable in these strange times, make damn sure you draw up really tight regulations governing how the information it produces is used and who has access to it.
There is also the question of disposal of the information gathered. What will happen to the literally miles and miles of data that is accumulated? Is it going to be stored somewhere or will it be deleted as soon as it's found to be of no use to anyone?
Article comments
1 - Byron
Get rid of RFID privacy concerns by letting the card holder decide when it transmits.
Some people are concerned that RFID tags embedded in credit cards make the presence of such cards detectable by anyone with an RFID reader.
There is an easy way to make RFID tagged cards normally invisible, but active when you want them to be.
"RFID Shield" lets you choose when your tags are readable.
Information about the RFID Shield is at:
http://smarttools.home.att.net/rfshield.htm
2 - Jon Sobel
So, I guess my strategy of NOT signing up for my supermarket's "club" won't maintain my nutritional privacy for much longer. This is getting scary. I'm not so sure I agree with Al Gore anymore - maybe we should *hasten* global warming so it can melt down this whole society and we can start fresh.
3 - Victor Plenty
No discussion of modern privacy is complete unless it takes into account the arguments put forward by David Brin in The Transparent Society.
RFID is a relatively crude and easily defeated tracking technology, compared to the things that are likely to become possible in coming decades. Passing laws against these technologies will not prevent any corporation or government agency from invading your privacy. Even a determined individual with only moderate wealth can learn pretty much anything they might want to know about your life.
To secure the blessings of liberty, we need to recognize that the privacy we treasure is largely illusionary, even today with comparatively primitive surveillance technologies. If we take that fact into account whenever we seek to instruct our governments on how to handle new technologies, we might stand a chance to preserve meaningful freedoms. If we let ourselves believe in an illusionary ideal of privacy, we may inadvertently make it impossible to restrain the powerful who want to hide their misdeeds from public scrutiny.
4 - Brady
Does anybody read the Bible anymore. Reading this story, does 666 ring a bell in anyone's mind. We are systematically being programmed for a one world government, one world currency, and having to have one of these chips to purchase anything. Bible prophecy is coming true in an alarming pace. Wake up people and decide which side you are on. God's or the Anit-Christ!!!! Make the right choice, it will be for eternity.