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If you’re the type to be a bit bothered by the privacy-breaching potential of shopper loyalty cards, then RFID tags should make you pretty twitchy. Short for Radio Frequency IDentification, these transponders come in sizes as small as a grain of sand, can be manufactured for dirt cheap, and hold the potential to expose uncomfortable levels of information about you to whomever is interested in finding out.
From the Boston.com article:
Why is this so scary? Because so many of us pay for our purchases with credit or debit cards, which contain our names, addresses, and other sensitive information. Now imagine a store with RFID chips embedded in every product. At checkout time, the digital code in each item is associated with our credit card data. From now on, that particular pair of shoes or carton of cigarettes is associated with you. Even if you throw them away, the RFID chips will survive. Indeed, Albrecht and McIntyre learned that the phone company BellSouth Corp. had applied for a patent on a system for scanning RFID tags in trash, and using the data to study the shopping patterns of individual consumers.
Boston.com article
Wikipedia entry on RFID tags
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5 seconds in your microwave will blow the R.F.I.D. chip away!
Yes, but how do you destroy the RFID tag in your new microwave? Or on a new CD or DVD? Not all objects can be bombarded with microwave radiation in a safe or practical way.
THAT IS JUST SICK!
This is not only sick it is scary as hell.
This info will eventualy become availiable to those with the means to get it. Don’t kid yourself.
The next step will be your ability to get a job or not based on your good or bad habits.
For instance; “We can not hire you Mr/Ms So-n-so, cause we see you might have a gambleing problem from your history of visits to X casino…Or we do not hire smokers. Or our insurance won’t cover you due to the pharmacy records of your medication use as a bad risk for future medical problems. We see that you have had chemo…or your not on any birth control, we do not hire potentialy pregnant people. Etc.
I wonder if you can buy pieces of radioactive Trinitite, or Thorium mantles, and expose them to the radiation? Hmm, probably not. Is there a way for you to know exactly on the card or cd where the chip is?
Enter your reply text here. OK
Lets all be scared and panached. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
Just another new devise. It will all get worked out. Reminds me of credit card trails or computer cookies.
That guy stole my fingerprint!
Perhaps I am alone in my fascination here, but I am actually excited to see the future implications of this technology- the positive capabilities of it anyhow. Yes- RFIDs have a far less scary alternative use!
My boss actually told me about RFID chips about a year ago- I manage a used media store, and he is actively looking into incorporating these into our products. No “data collection” or “purchase tracking” for us. Just inventory management- which the RFIDs seem perfectly suited for. The problem we have is that we are a relatively large retail store with a very small staff, so keeping constant tabs on where merchandise gets “stashed” by customers is not always something we can keep up with. This is especially frustrating when we have a rare or valuable video game/movie/cd that gets lost in the shuffle.
The reason our staff got excited about the RFID chips is the measurable increase in service we could potentially be able to offer our customers using this technology. Each of our items would be tagged with RFID somewhere in the packaging- using a link with our existing software, if a customer is looking for that ultra-hard-to-find out-of-print DVD, one check into our system would be able to locate within 6 inches exactly where in the store the case is located- even if it’s been hidden behind another item or in the wrong department. No more frustrated or disappointed customers who can’t find the one copy in the store because someone put it away incorrectly. The chips would also link to an alarm system located near the exits which would alert us to “active” chips (stolen merch) leaving the premises; and at a rough (current) cost of about 25 cents per chip, the RFIDs would be a far more plausible financial undertaking than retail standard magnet based theft-deterrents for a small family-owned franchise such as ours.
I think the retail benefits of this technology are looking to be pretty fantastic- at least once they’re readily available to small businesses. And when theft is cut down, prices can go down as well. Last I checked, Wal-Mart was actually looking into these as an anti-theft device for their stores, and I’m sure if such a retail heavyweight got the ball rolling, many stores would follow suit.