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Delta Air Invests $25 Million in RFID for Luggage
securitas writes "The New York Times' Barnaby Feder reports on Delta Air Lines' plans to invest $25 million in RFID luggage tracking hardware and software over the next two years. This sounds very similar to the Jacksonville Airport RFID plan. McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and Hong Kong International Airport have also announced plans to use RFID technology in their operations. More at the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Boston Globe."
well that and the cool little keyfobs we use at work. A while ago, I took the chip out of mine, and replanted it into my pen, confuses people when your opening the door with an inkpen. Seems like a good case for "the pen is mightier" quote
Within the arms of tragedy, there is little comfort in being right.
What hilarity could ensue if I packed my own RFID tags? Of course, this would assume that I had the capability to encode them, knew Delta's encoding scheme, and wasn't scared by the thought of losing either my luggage or my personal freedom, but hey, what a hack, right?
DELTITE #1: "Uhh, Dave, the system shows 1,337 bags just came off that DC-9. I'm taking my lunch break now, let me know how that turns out."
DELTITE #2: "!"
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Spyware gets under your skin. RFID *IS* under your skin.
Ask me about my vow of silence!
think of the implications for the privacy of luggage? Suitcases have rights...feelings..emotions too, you know!
I imagine Tin Foil hats are not allowed on aircraft. Something to do with interfering with radar / comms / etc
...oh wait, you mean they can use it to find my luggage when it gets lost or shipped on the wrong flight?
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
I don't care if they know where my suitcase is, just as long as they don't know there is a dead hooker in it.
remember, what happens in vegas, stays in vegas.
This is an important point! My tinfoil hats in my luggage may interfere with the RFID tracking! This means I'll lose my hats, the government wil be able to spy on me, and I'll lose my luggage!
Do these people not think the issues through?
"But, I'm in New York and I leave for California tomorrow."
"No, problem. We can give you realtime tracking information as your baggage follows you around the country."
Seems like a good case for "the pen is mightier"
I'd say. They actually let you bring your penis mightier to work?
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
("Wilson, go scan that pile of luggage over there, keep an eye out for ID# 123413241").
Real Airport Security Personell [tm] would use grep for that.
In other news, slashdotters spend 25 million on tinfoil.
Nah, that's just a cover story to prevent people from guarding themselves against the intense psychotronic programming they do to air travellers in planes.
(Yes, I'm being silly. They can't do it in planes. That's what check-in lounges are for.)
"- Cookies"
;)
With all those other physical objects, you need to specify what kind of cookies you're talking about. After all the extremely paranoid comments I've seen today, a comment like that just might put Oreo out of business.
Considering what Delta charges Cincinnatians (the most expensive airport (or #2) in the nation) they should be able to afford a BUTLER to carry each piece of luggage.
Of course, the rest of the time, the airlines all whine about being broke and ask congress for a big bailout.
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
Before RFID:
Baggage Claim Desk: Your luggage was diverted.
Me: oh no to where?
Baggage Claim Desk: Bulgaria.
After RFID:
Baggage Claim Desk: Your luggage was diverted.
Me: oh no to where?
Baggage Claim Desk: Bulgaria.
We all get along together like tornadoes and trailer parks.
A few years ago (pre "homeland security"), I was coming back from Lincoln, NE. Plane delayed, plane delayed more, plane cancelled. Rerouted who knows where (sent to airport sort of near home, then to airport very far from home, then back to airport nearest home).
Get home, no luggage. Surprise, surprise!
24 hours later, still no word from airline, so I call them (US domestic carrier). They have a record of having received my bag, but have no idea where it is (and actually admitted this to me). Give up on idea of ever seeing luggage again.
Next morning, delivery guy drops my bag off at my house. Lock has been cut off, of course, and bag searched. But... bag has a British Airways tag (!!!) and a full six-pack of microbrew beer inside. US beer, but still. And made in a state on the other side of the country from anywhere my bag was supposed to be.
What we never figured out, though:
Was it an apology for so completely screwing up?
Or were the baggage handlers drinking on the job & needed to hide the evidence?
I prefer to be called Evil Scientist.
If you tell them about it, they know you weren't trying to blow up the plane and just want your bag, which means it's no longer important enough to them that they'd actually make the effort to find it. If you didn't ask them to pull the bag and didn't get on the plane, they'd probably shut down the entire airport, find your bag, and have the bomb squad blow it up just to be safe.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
In other words, they still lose your luggage, but somtimes find it. Sorry sir your luggage was rerouted to Antarctica, we know where it is, but a polar bear is hoarding all of the luggage from light 456 at this moment. ***I know, there are no polar bears in antarctica, but you get the picture.
Sadly, many future Slashdotters won't get the analogy, since these types of questions are being eliminated from the SATs. Pussies.
Amazing! That's the same RFID as I have on MY luggage.
Goblin
It's all fun and games until a 200' robot dinosaur shows up and trashes Neo-Tokyo... Again
But don't you know? RFID tags are evil. See, somehow the electromagnetic energy used to read them somehow scans your brain and destroys your privacy. Sure, on the surface you might think that they're not too different from barcodes, but that's just what they want you to think. Barcode lasers don't have the privacy-removal side effect!
Sure, Narc's like you will argue that the only real difference between a bar code and an RFID tag is that an RFID tag isn't "immediate line-of-sight", but that's just because the Men In Black don't want us to know about the privacy-removal field!
Like in this story, you'll see all kinds of Agents writing things that seem sensible. They'll be saying stuff like: "Well, they already track the luggage, so what difference will replacing a bar code with an RFID tag make? Won't it just make things more efficient? Afterall, you just take the tag off at the other end." Sounds sensible, doesn't it? But try to ask one of them about the anti-privacy field and they'll act like you're crazy!
These Agents are good at their job, so people really have to be careful. When a story comes up about Wal*Mart using RFID tags in their warehouses, the Government Agents will try to claim that it won't even affect you. They'll pretend that whatever goes on in Wal*Mart warehouses and shipping areas doesn't even affect the consumer. Riiiight... Big deal if they take the tags off before the consumer buys them. The problem isn't the tag on the product you walk out of the store with -- it's with the tags themselves!!!! What they don't want you to know is that when they put hundreds of tags all over the warehouse in the back, the anti-privacy field is amplified by 2000 orders of magnitude. Instead of just knowing your Wal*Mart shopping habits, now they'll know those dirty, dirty thoughts you had about your sister a while back. (Btw, you're a sick, sick puppy!).
You Agent types have all kinds of reasonable-sounding arguments. You claim that a bar code is almost the same thing as an RFID tag. You pretend that it is far easier to track people with credit cards, customer loyalty cards, photographs, footprints and DNA. You pretend that the problem goes away when you get rid of the RFID tag after buying it. But let me tell you, smart people like me aren't buying it!!! We know the truth about RFID. We know that it *really* stands for Really Fun Identity Destruction. We know about how it causes cancer, makes you impotent, and reads your mind. But you better watch out. We know how to stop it too, and there's no way you'll ever attach an RFID tag to my tinfoil bodysuit!
I guess what it's going to come down to is this: which is more annoying, losing your luggage, or losing your privacy?
Considering how LITTLE privacy we have in airports these days anyway, I'd rather take a little assurance that my drawers will make it on the plane after the security guards are done sniffing them.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Suppose my luggage wants to go on an unplanned excursion and get away from all the hussle and bussle of the airport luggage system. Suppose it wants to take a more scenic route. Lord knows is has before.