Big Brother and now private companies

RFID is nothing new. Animals, shipping containers, valuable artwork etc have all been chipped for years. However, the type of chips used in product packaging have a range of under one foot. There are chips that will go twenty feet, but they are physically much larger and require larger power supplies.
Some even older technologies offer much greater means of invading personal privacy. Anyone who uses a credit or debit card is fairly easily tracked, both in general location and spending habits.
The latest generation cars, laptops, cellphones and other consumer goodies have features which allow you to be pinpointed to within a few feet, almost anywhere on the planet, from anywhere. When it is convenient for consumers, they really dont mind being tracked.
I suspect our childrens children will find it inconcievable that we put up with toothpaste that wasnt smart enough to restock itself, just as my own son finds the concept of a childhood without television inconcievable. Or looking at the night sky and not seeing a continuous stream of satellites flying by.

> I don't know about spinning, but I will
> grant that when I posted my previous post I
> was thinking more of the type of electronic
> tags you have in clothing stores rather than
> smart tags that can be tracked after you
> have left a store.

> Wal*Mart in the US has reduced prices for
> quite a while to the benefit of consumers
> and the detriment of its competitors.

> I think it's been able to do that from its
> lower cost base relative to other
> competitors, primarily due to scale
> (physical size of stores) and purchasing /
> negotiation power. Some of these savings
> have been passed on.

> Where there's competition for a customer,
> things that save cost tend to be passed on
> to the customer where the cost saving is
> easy for competitors to replicate.

> Using bar codes to scan in items instead of
> manually writing them down improves
> efficiency, reduces costs, and has the end
> effect of reducing prices.

> While I don't disagree with this, I was just
> pointing out that reducing your privacy is
> usually not the end goal of a company by
> itself, and that usually new devices are
> designed to lower costs which eventually get
> passed on to consumers.

> I would imagine smart tags would improve
> supply chain efficiencies and reduce
> bottlenecks, lowering overall consumer cost.
> You could also use them to create automatic
> check-outs at supermarkets where you can
> wander out without delay and without
> implicitly paying the salary of the person
> serving you. All I'm saying is that I don't
> think it's all bad.

> Now, is this worth privacy concerns? Perhaps
> not, but it's not a one-sided issue. Plus, I
> don't see why you couldn't have smart tags
> and just retain your anonymity by paying
> with cash, but perhaps I don't see the full
> picture. :)

> - Thomas.




RFID FAQ