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A Technical RFID Primer
gManZboy writes "Roy Want, principal engineer at Intel Research, has a pretty meaty technical overview of RFID up at Queue. If you ever wondered how these little things actually work it's worth a read. For instance, I was intrigued to find out how the tags (which are generally battery-free) can absorb enough energy from RFID readers to then power up and transmit their own signal back to the reader."
I'm assuming you'd let the engineers out of the office when the fire alarm was going off, otherwise you'd probably be looking at quite a jail term.
Ooo! A store can track my purchases up to 10 feet beyond their door! Wow! I better call Secret Squirrel for some countermeasure tips!
And of course it had the old idea of an ubergovernment plan of having sensors in every toilet seat and lamp post so that they can track how often I change my underwear.
Honestly, people... The X-Files is over, and our government can't keep Chechnyan rebels from crossing in from Mexico. They can't even prevent the vast waste and fraud perpetrated by the uneducated masses against the various money giveaway programs.
So they're suddenly get their act together and implement a shiny, sparkly supersensor array in order to track which communist manifesto you bought this week down at the Chairman Meow Bookshop/Animal Companion Emporium?
Regardless of how much a retailer's internal facility might disrupt their ability to monitor me, I still plan on getting one of RSA's RFID jammers when they're out.
Huh. Interesting. Do any descendants of P. T. Barnum work at RSA? I think you'd be better served by an orgone energy accumulator.
--- Ban humanity.
RFID has so many uses, but we all know it's ultimate purpose is to be used as the Mark of the Beast as soon as the Antichrist appears.
You first heard it from me.
Real programmers can write assembly code in any language. -- Larry Wall
For instance, I was intrigued to find out how the tags (which are generally battery-free) can absorb enough energy from RFID readers to then power up and transmit their own signal back to the reader."
I don't mean to be argumentative, but are you serious? This was the first time you had heard about this? I thought this was the fundamental feature for RFID--the idea that the tag doesn't require any kind of battery or other external power supply.
It scares me that on a technical site like slashdot the submitter is much more likely to know every privacy concern about RFID, yet know very little about the underlying technology. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? When did "Your rights online" trump technical information on slashdot?
Don't think commies (although they can be blamed for anything:). Think marketing and muggers. As you walk around town you'll get a marketing profile from all the RFID tags delivered to everyplace you go. Problem is, you won't be able to stop this kind of targeted marketing because your clothing will be tagless - and you don't want to cut a hole in your brand new pants. Heck I'm wearing a tagless tshirt like that right now.
I don't know about you, but I'm pretty anti-marketing myself. The idea of "minority report" style marketing makes me want to puke. The idea that someone not only knows the manufacturer and model of my shirt, but whether or not I'm wearing boxers or briefs gives me the ebee-jeebies. It would also give muggers a priceless resource for picking victims. It wont take very long for public databases of RFID tags to manufactureres to start appearing. A few RFID scanners for the public are also already available.
10 feet is plenty of space on most streets, restaraunts or bars to find out if someone is worth mugging. Even more if people start making out of spec scanners that put out more power to get a stronger (longer range) return signal. Now, all that being said, I'm not oppposed to RFID at all, I think it has excellent potential. The problem is that RFID tags are being expressly designed directly into future products to prevent you from removing a tag without damaging or destroying the product.
Hate do be a bug, but please mod the parent down. Site is performing fine, so no need to post here.
Who cares? It's a good article. Stop whining.
Wow, are you really that clueless? You sound like the perfect target for marketers: you'll believe what they say without question.
Who says only stores can detect your RFID's? Anybody will be able to buy a reader. That means anywhere you go, you can be identified remotely, and all your posessions you are carrying/wearing can be identified without your knowledge.
Maybe you don't care if people know you're carrying a $3000 laptop and wearing a $600 Rolex and $1000 shoes. Maybe you don't even care that they can identify _who you are_ by what you are carrying. Sure as hell lots of other people DO care.
It's such a short leap to other illegitimate uses for RFID's that I can't believe you are so blind as to not see them. Think about it, and do some more reading.