rfid tags
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Recently, on our University messageboards, there was a discussion about how to best go about putting in a guard booth at one of the entrances to campus– specifically, how to ensure that the gates accompanying said guard booth could keep criminals out, but allow students in easily. I suggested RFID tags as a solution, and was of course immediately branded (by some) a peddler of all sorts of satanic devilry– one somewhat clever response replaced all instances of “RFID tags” in my post with “the mark of the beast”. Everyone has trouble accepting new technologies, I guess.
In any case, the theological implications aside, I have to wonder why anyone doesn’t want to see RFID technology implemented on a wide scale. It really is an easier and more efficient way of ensuring that all sorts of electronic exchanges occur without the end-user really having to do anything.
The most inefficient part of grocery store checkout (indeed, checkout anywhere) is the actual process of scanning each individual item for purchase and making sure that they get paid for. If the tags attached to individual items could have active tags built-in, a scanner at the checkout could scan them instantly, leaving only payment to be completed.
Like any technology, there’s a dark side– your purchases could be analyzed later if someone were to attempt to use an RFID reader to track your purchases. The RFID tags on the products would continue to transmit after you checked out, which probably makes privacy advocates cringe. Then again, your fridge could track your items as well, and, for instance, let you know that your milk was going to expire.
But, in my opinion, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Privacy can still be protected, especially if a strong encryption scheme can be adopted. If your credit card was protected by 256-bit encryption mechanism, you might be able to actually pay for your purchases with a single touch of a “yes” button at the grocery store, and once you left, your credit card number would remain safe. You could buy things without actually being there– imagine standing in line at Disneyland and using a built-in kiosk to purchase a hotdog to eat after you exited to the ride?
Indeed- RFID tags are already being used in many areas. Wal-Mart is an early adopter, and many other business, from casinos to networking companies, aren’t far behind. This technology is going to be adopted– the question at this point is “how well will it be adopted?”, not “will it be adopted?”. In that sense, privacy advocates and other anti-RFID groups are providing an important service to the public by keeping RFID adopters honest. Even if we disagree on the chips themselves, I can certainly applaud that.
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Note: This post was written based on articles at RFID News, Applications and Sources. Although a review is not required by the site in my PPP entry, I’m going to give a quick rundown of this very useful site in the hopes that my readers can find more information about RFID if they’re interested.
As a site, it is clean and well-organized. The lack of flash ads is particularly nice, and the color scheme is cool and professional. I very much like their logo too:
There are a lot of interesting and informative article at the site, including entries for 802.11 RFID, Active RFID, Barcode RFID, Bluetooth RFID, Disable RFID, Passive RFID, RFID Chips, RFID Journals, RFID Readers, and RFID Tags. The “similar entries” area is pretty good at pulling relevant contextual information, and their RFID news section seems pretty broad. (This article made me laugh) Overall, I was impressed with the site.
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