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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.
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
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.
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
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.