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Hacking the RFID Network
An anonymous reader writes "The world's largest retailers are developing the EPC Network as the infrastructure for a global rollout of item-level RFID. In many ways this 'Internet of Things' resembles the ISBN system or CueCat's codes-to-content. But the network built for tracking consumer goods could also be used for intangible items: airline seats, music tracks or service calls."
on overusing this new system
Track music downloads and service calls? That's billions of unique items every year. How many items do these RFID tags support?
The major shortcoming of RFID tags is not their rollout in stores, it's that they want to do things like weave them into clothing fabric or hide them so you've got to work to get them out. I don't know about you, but that's a bit excessive. Moreso, the range on the tags is an issue; the tag may be tiny, but you can still get a considerable amount of range out of that, look what's possible with GPS.
Then we've got the registering everything idea. If we put RFID tags on everything that can go for 100 feet, and if everything has a unique identification code, then the government can ask for a list of which codes are associated with which objcts. Then, as stuff is baught, you swipe through your drivers lisence and a database is updated with what you have. Combine this with bank account data, wifi hotspots on poles that are constantly pinging devices, garbage trucks equiped with rfid scanning technology, and other pieces of information, and you've got one hell of a spying system. All those evil laws the people in power dream of would be possible.
If there was a law that said the RFID tags could only be put on removable stickers, and must have a range limited to less than 5 feet, then it'd be ok. It's the "weaving them into products" thing that's got everyone upset. Infact, if that weaving thing didn't exist, I think RFID tags would be pretty neat; you could buy a bunch of food and query it through your house, which could download and update a database of recipe's which could be setup on some kind of whacky algoritm that figures out which is going to go bad first.
The only problem there is that as the chips evolve, we'll be throwing small flash cards on em with advertising or more complicated systems of ensuring produce hasn't been tampered with, which if the laws don't change, will require licensing since you're copying; licensing to eat, not a good thing.
AS far as tracking people is conserned, we all know of the mark of the beast, and we all know that tracking accounts with rfid tags is just plain stupid. If you're going to track a person, have them wear a wrist band or something; even the guys on star trek didn't have that little pin thingy embedded in their forhead.
Candy-Coated Knowledge
If there's anything to say about the japanese, it's "wow, they're screwed up". If tagging your kid everywhere they go says something, it says "I don't trust you"; and the longer kids aren't trusted with responsability, the less they will be responsable, and if the world is filled with irresponsable people....
Dear lord...that'd be one screwed up place...
Candy-Coated Knowledge