That’s why I’m becoming a bigger and bigger fan of cash - it can’t be traced back to you.
In any case, I remember finding out my brother had a RFID-enabled debit card, so I promptly helped him line the relevant pocket in his wallet with a layer of aluminum foil. Fortunately, I have nothing with an RFID chip in it with personal information besides my passport, and when/if it looks like I’m going to use it, I’m buying one of these: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/910f/ before taking it out of my house.
Nice, thanks for posting that. I wish I had this when I used my passport. I didn’t realize that it had one of these chips.
Don't bet your life on it. Hold a modern bill up to the light and notice the thin magnetic strip running top to bottom near the left side. That has the serial number encoded
ATM machines spit out $20's. Hardly anybody uses $50's or $100's, so when you make a purchase and hand over a $20, that bill will most likely go straight back to the bank from the store. If the bank gets mandated to use cash counting machines which also record the serial #s of incoming cash, and ATMs that record the serial #s of outgoing cash, and forward those records to a central office, then the fed can have a list of where you've likely been shopping. And if a drug dealer is busted with cash which came out of your ATM, you may find yourself getting some questions
This may not be in place today, but it would be easy to put in place at some point