Corporate America is Tracking Your Every Move

Millennium Radio New Jersey ^ | Tuesday, February 20, 2007 | Kevin McArdle

[Calpernia]

It would be positively Orwellian if corporate America was using high technology to track your whereabouts without your knowledge. Welcome to "1984."

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology can be thought of as a next-generation bar code. A simple RFID tag consists of a microchip and antenna, which when stimulated by a remote "reader," sends back information via radio waves. Like a bar code, an RFID tag identifies the product it is attached to for inventory or purchasing purposes; but an RFID tag can do more. For example, RFID tags can hold information related to the expiration date of a product, record whether a product has been exposed to excessive hear, or could be used to assist with product recalls. An RFID-tagged product can be tracked as it moves in commerce, providing better ways to identify and meet consumer demand for products.

"If the device remains on the item," says Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman, "it can also track the whereabouts of the individual who purchases it and I believe that's an invasion of privacy." Surely such technology is reserved for only hi-tech gizmos and the most expensive wares a store has to offer, right? Wrong? Watson Coleman says, "RFIDs are in your clothing, in your underwear, in your razor blade packages, any item that you purchase."

The purchaser of the item is usually unaware of the presence of the tag and unable to remove it. The tag can be read from a distance without the individual being aware that it is being read and if an item is purchased using a credit card or a loyalty card is used at the time of purchase it would be possible to tie the unique ID of the tagged item to the identity of the consumer.

The majority leader is sponsoring a bill would require businesses purveying items with RFID tags to post notices on their premises and labels on the products and would also require the removal or deactivation of the tag at the point of sale. 14 other states have similar legislation pending.

[Smokin' Joe]

Make a long list of generated pseudo names to keep in your wallet...

I did something similar to this years ago by just using my first initial, both first and middle initials, nickname, etc. It was interesting to see what junk mail came in with what name on it...sometimes multiple mailings from the same source with all the different permutations on them.