a "New" way to be "FOUND"

[DocBoCook]

I'm going to go with Invasion of privacy of private citizens, possible 4th amendment?

[toreskha]

This was almost inevitable as soon as the technology was ready. It's already used in passports - that's why the new ones come with the special sleeves. However, any technology can be countered, hacked and spoofed. This is a never-ending spiral.

Coming soon, R-tags will be in all products that you buy. It started out as inventory control, and may eventually become something else. Walmart in particular has been funding the research so that they can more efficiently control their inventory through the pipeline. It's not perfected yet, but it is getting there.

[ricbak]

This was almost inevitable as soon as the technology was ready. It's already used in passports - that's why the new ones come with the special sleeves. However, any technology can be countered, hacked and spoofed. This is a never-ending spiral.

Coming soon, R-tags will be in all products that you buy. It started out as inventory control, and may eventually become something else. Walmart in particular has been funding the research so that they can more efficiently control their inventory through the pipeline. It's not perfected yet, but it is getting there.

Not only for inventory control, but even your underwear... The RF tag may be sewn into the label tag and the RF tag number will be recorded to you at check out. next trip back to the local store the RF tag is read when you walk in and the next monitor that you walk by will display advertising directed to your buying habits.

[boris]

we don't have that at my store. yet. but at the stoe i worked at previously, one of the sales people had heard about this and being able to use it to mainipulate customers buying habits. that beans me off, but the wife and i circled the wagons about 3 yrs ago and we went to work for them because it is less than 10 minutes from the house. there were other reasons as well. but i sense the bad guys are trying to tighten the noose.

[toreskha]

we don't have that at my store. yet. but at the stoe i worked at previously, one of the sales people had heard about this and being able to use it to mainipulate customers buying habits. that beans me off, but the wife and i circled the wagons about 3 yrs ago and we went to work for them because it is less than 10 minutes from the house. there were other reasons as well. but i sense the bad guys are trying to tighten the noose.

Check the pallets when they first come off the truck. That's where they're first starting to put the tags in, to keep track of the stuff at the warehouse.

They're working to put them in every product. Currently it's not quite practical, because a zillion short-range transmissions going in every direction gets a bit confusing. Rather than having separate channels for each thing, probably the best way to do it will be to have the tags transmit a code that the receiving computer checks against an index corresponding to a list of products.

Excluding the privacy concerns, the main problem with this is the possibility of gross inaccuracy. If there's a glitch in the system, radio interference or old codes get reused, products may get mismatched. LEOs in Chicago driving around with a tag receiver turned on may get 20 hits for black powder that turn out to be an explosive stash of baby diapers.

[boris]

i think i need to " investigate" this.

[wolfhunter]

RFID tags currently cost about 70 cents apiece, so don't expect to see them on everything tomorrow. By the way, the chip on electronics and such that they have to scan before you leave the store is an RFID chip.

[ricbak]

Deer/Wolfhunter is correct is so much as the cost/unit. The technology is pretty much still in it's infancy. The push in RFID is leaning towards the Printable RFID. Do the Google thang an will give you 20 meg worth of hits. Then Look for Printable RFID.
European researchers move toward printable RFID

[stumpjumper101]

I guess they will try to tattoo numbers on our forearms

[toreskha]

I guess they will try to tattoo numbers on our forearms

No need for that any longer.

But the news that Americans had, for the first time, been injected with electronic identifiers to perform their jobs fired up a debate over the proliferation of ever-more-precise tracking technologies and their ability to erode privacy in the digital age.