Great RFID Article at Christian Science Monitor

Tuesday, January 04 2005 @ 09:43 PM EST

Contributed by: Jonathan

I must admit, I was rather shocked at how well this article was on the Christian Science Monitor site. I follow RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) as a privacy advocate and as an amateur radio operator. Hams have been quite negative regarding RFID.

There are major privacy concernes with this technology that I do not favor. There is an example of Texas wanting to track schoolkids in one community - I'd be damned if they would "chip" my kid.

Some examples sited in the article are:

ID tags for Texas school children that allow local law-enforcement offices to monitor their movements.
A proposal to examine the possible use of EZ-pass type trackers in California autos to enforce a statewide mileage tax.
Medicine containers electronically fitted nationwide to alert to fraud, counterfeiting, and even mistakes by hospital staff.

Not to mention, that these tags all but completely give up privacy. Can you imagine just walking from a pharmacy to your car - and anyone that doesn't particularly like you can tell what meds you are taking?

The dangers of this technology have only started to touch the surface. With WalMart making RFID mandatory on their top 100 suppliers, this is only to be the beginning.

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