A High-Tech Game of Tag

Do radiofrequency identification devices represent a significant threat to our right to privacy?

The radiofrequency identification devices (RFIDs) in toll lanes are part of a system that will be transforming life in many ways. But where some see ease and efficiency, others see a violation of privacy.

How it works: An RFID system has two parts: a data-loaded tag (transponder), and a reader (transceiver) that captures the tag's data via radio waves and then sends it to a computer for processing.

Future uses: RFID-tagged houses that do everything from brewing coffee to turning on the shower. Tagging toothbrushes and drug vials could be a godsend to those monitoring elderly parents living alone.

What's hot: Early adopters Wal-Mart and the Pentagon, wanting more inventory control, are asking some vendors to tag shipping pallets.

The next step: Tagging individual items, then tracking them from stockrooms to store shelves to checkout aisles -- even to your debit card. Being able to chart shopping patterns so closely, retailers say, will benefit customers.

Fear factor: Privacy advocates see the ability to follow goods out of stores as a potential abuse. Some fear that anyone with an RFID reader -- a stalker, say -- could track one's movements by reading the label on a T-shirt. RFID fans dismiss such fears, saying tags can be stripped off purchased items or permanently disabled.

So far, privacy concerns -- plus technical and cost hurdles -- have kept retailers (Wal-Mart included) from using RFIDs widely. But that won't last forever.

From Reader's Digest - July 2004

 

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