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RFID Tags in Euro Banknotes
psychictv writes "CNET News.com is reporting that Euro notes could be embedded with RFID tags in the future. 'RFID (radio frequency identification) tags also have the ability of recording information such as details of the transactions the paper note has been involved in...'" The EU has been considering this for a while. You'll never even know they're there.
"RFID (radio frequency identification) tags also have the ability of enabling recording information such as details of the transactions the paper note has been involved in."
They just missed a word.
At the bank/machine you are id'd as you get the cash. Your id is tagged to the cash. It becomes possible to trace that cash back to you.
This could destroy thieves and black markets.
Example 1:
Bob has cash. This is known by the system.
Bob has cash stolen. This is reported. Cash is spent in store with electronic cash tracing. This is Bob's stolen cash, a camera catches a picture of the transaction. Theif is id'd.
Example 2:
Cops bust a drug lab and find cash. They know who took the cash out of the bank. They now have a whole list of suspects to check out for posession of drugs.
You can get rfid tags with storage capability. Think you can get tags with about 4kb of storage right now.
Check the faq at rfid.org
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
Not sure about the EU's laws on currency but the US has the following
http://www.moneyfactory.com/document.cfm/18/104
"Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined not more than $100 or imprisoned not more than six months, or both."
Damaged bills are still legal tender in almost all countries. In the US the only criterion is that it be identifiable and more than half the bill (to keep you from ripping them in half and doubling your money). Some percentage of RFID chips will likely die naturally anyway, so there's no way they could invalidate your money if their chip happens to die. The next bank that touches it may wish to take it out of circulation, but that's something else entirely (akin to taking heavily-worn bills out of circulation).
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
You don't 'own' any of the cash in your pocket, the government does. So you have no legal right to deactivate the money.
In the EU you own the money which means it becomes your property.
Burning cash or defacing it it anyway is a violation of federal law in most countries.
Not in the EU. You can do whatever you want with it, if it makes you happy. Of course, if you destroy it you might have other problems than with the law.
Selling softdrugs (eg. cannabis products like marihuana and hash) is not legal in the Netherlands, its 'legally tolerated' if you follow lots of rules. You must apply for a permit to run a 'coffeeshop' and you can only sell softdrugs in such an official coffeshop. In there, you can't sell to minors, you can only sell up to 5 grams to dutch citizens of legal age, you can't sell alcoholic beverages, and you may only hold a surplus of 50 grams of drugs on site.
On the other hand, prostitution is legal in the Netherlands...
The reasoning behind this is that a state should take control over what it can't root out.
As a point of information, the laws of the European Union and its constituent states are in general vastly more protective of individual privacy than those of the United States and its constituent states.
The EU's privacy laws were considered so restrictive to trade by the United States that they actually came up at the World Trade Organisation talks. The outcome was the "Safe Haven" registration system for US companies wishing to store data on EU citizens.
There are some exceptions (notably the United Kingdom), but in general one's privacy is more protected considerably more by EU law than by US law.
Neither protection excuses you from the necessity to provide your own privacy, should you desire it, of course.
Speaking of, do you have any good info on how they work? Some tech docs or something?
Here's a good primer, if you can read a PDF.
In general, go to RFID.org for some good introductory stuff, and they have links to other resources.
RFID tags are cool, and they're definitely the future, though I understand why some people are worried, and we do have to deal with those issues. We got our dog from the humane society, and she was RFID'd with a chip that they can use to identify her if she ever gets lost. It's implanted under her skin, and it's only about the size of a grain of rice. There's no reason why it couldn't be implanted into human flesh.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
Marla Singer- a woman in Fight Club.
She used to go to support groups for testicular cancer... you'd have to see it to understand.
Of course, it depends on the technology used for the RFID.
They really should use passive microwave resonance tags.
They're not affected by magnetic fields, are smaller, cheaper, more durable than silicon based RFID, flexible, can be 'printed' into currency, and are not reproducible, among other advantages.