Posted on 07/31/2003 10:21:45 PM PDT by Pro-Bush
Tracking Chip Concerns Privacy Advocates
Good For Retailers, Questionable Merit For Consumers
CHICAGO -- If your cereal box could talk -- or your batteries or shoes or any consumer good you take from the store to your home -- what would it mean to you and your privacy?
Lisa Parker reported that "it's coming to a store near you." She presented a new type of technology, to help manufacturers "track" their items.
Parker posed the question: how far can they take it? Maybe right into your living room, meaning that the tracker could be really convenient or really invasive.
"Bar codes, move over," Parker said, because a tiny device the size of a grain of salt could be the next big thing for consumers and retailers alike. A radio transmitter tag that would basically "talk" to its manufacturer or retailer, telling it helpful information about product, but possibly very personal information about consumers.
In the friendly skies, it could help track your luggage. Delta Airlines is testing it. Tire maker Michelin is putting it in tires to help combat car theft.
The radio frequency identification tag, known as RF-ID, is tiny in size, but already big on controversy.
When RF-ID goes into a product, that item could then be tracked by radio signal wherever it goes.
The lists of pros and cons is growing, Parker said.
On the pro side, tracking inventory would become a snap for retailers.
"It actually allows us to track and trace the product around the globe," said Ralph Henderer (pictured, left), of chip manufacturer Entegris Corp.
Consumers who buy a big ticket item could easily learn its history, Parker said; where it's been or if it was used. Even on the grocery level, a store could know the instant a tube of toothpaste leaves the shelf.
It's great for inventory, but would they then track it inside your home, turning a radio chip into a virtual spy chip? It's an ominous question, Parker said.
Research indicates that the tags could be turned off before consumers leave the store, but the mere possibility they might be left on has privacy advocates on guard here.
The good news is that there's time to iron out the kinks. The tags now cost 30 cents a piece and would reportedly not make it onto mainstream items until they cost a penny a piece.
I do have a problem with it, but it is not going to happen!
The person who's saying it will, Albrecht, is the head of CASPIAN, and also opposes the discount cards given out by grocery stores.
She's a conspiracy nut, and thrives on whippping other conspiracy nuts into a frenzy.
See how well it works, right here on Free Republic?
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