Something else for the technophobes: RFID tags to be added to all kinds of products. The Military is on schedule to require everything they use to be identified with the RFID tags by 2005.
These tags are somewhat like Smartcards since they can be read wirelessly by a scanning device at a moderate distance from the item. Barcodes can provide considerabale information, especially in the 3D format; but the RFID tags are much less obtrusive, and considerably more capable of holding lots of information. Civil libertarians complain that these tags could be inserted into a broad range of consumer goods, and data from the tags could be extracted without the knowledge or permission of the person using the product with the tag inserted.
As the world's largest retailer, Walmart has been the standard bearer on RFID tags, but has retreated somewhat from it's stated goal of having RFID technology used by all it's vendors for inbound shipments due to citizen complaints about it's use.
posted by Richard at
Friday, October 24, 2003
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