Radio frequencies can be monitored by anybody. This technology is highly susceptible to being hacked, according to engineers at John Hopkins University, with it becoming even more vulnerable when they enable the tags to be read from a distance. What kind of guarantees are there that personal information like medical records aren't being lifted and then sold to the highest bidder? Maybe it's naïve to believe that sort of activity doesn't occur already, but this will make it even easier for people to access that information in the future.
A few years back when Benetton found out that consumers don't like being spied on, they were forced to recall millions of garments that had RFID chips installed in them. Other companies in Europe have been forced to back down in the face of consumer outrage, so you can make a difference. In the above cases, people simply refused to buy products from Gillette and other companies involved with making use of the chip until they said they had removed them.
But it seems like North Americans, in spite of all our claims to be freedom loving, have no problems giving up their freedom of privacy at the drop of the hat. The governments have plenty of means of collecting information about all of us already, all of which are regulated by laws to protect you from them. RFID is no different from things like wiretaps, telephoto lenses, and long-range microphones employed to infringe on your privacy now.
I see little or no justification for corporations like Proctor and Gamble to be accumulating personal information on individuals in the name of making sure we see the right commercial at the right time. As these new information technologies get more and more sophisticated, it's up to the public to decide whether or not they are willing to allow their personal habits to be public knowledge.
The industry claims that regulations will develop as the technology use expands. To me, that is akin to closing the barn door after the animals have escaped. Now's the time to tell them what we will and will not allow them to collect and what we will allow them to do with that information. You have the right to privacy. Demand that it is respected.
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.