Posted on 02/08/2008 5:55:20 AM PST by Mike Acker
What sort of trouble does this technology enable?
Technology can be a Good Thing but that doesn't mean we should fall over the bar-stool implementing new technology -- "just because it's there"
We need to ask the question: What sort of trouble does this new technology enable?" before we proceed.
Now Laz, be nice or I’ll paintball your little black helicopter Red, White and Blue.
;^)
mornin’ t’you too, Laz ... haven’t seen ya’ for a while ... how y’bin ?
Maybe the fact that someone, somewhere, will have the ability to know everything you buy, eat, wear, drive, where you go, etc...and either tell or sell that info to someone else.
On the up side, I guess it will create lots of jobs...there will be a great need for people to manufacture the rfids, the monitoring devices, and the monitoring personnel themselves...all in some third world country.
Just as the guns in the wrong hands...
Understand this: I will cook you and eat you.
I have been wonderful! I have discovered that Karen — my would-be fiance — was a liar and a cheater, so I moved on from her. I am seeing two gorgeous women non-exclusively right now. My career has taken off; I have a wonderful opportunity to partner with a multimillionare I met in the program of recovery I particpate in; my health is exceptional and I continue to lose weight and gain lean muscle mass.
If it was any better than this, it would be a felony.
How are YOU?
My happystick is still stained from when you paintballed THAT.
BTW: That hurt.
There is nothing in that document that said you have the right to a computer, a car, tacos or anything else either.
Yes but we cannot deny people access to them simply because a few misuse them.
So Thor decides to go down to earth and “partake” of the local feminity.
He goes to the local pub...
No...
Wait...
Nevermind - this joke is kinda rude...
We’ve always had trouble with misused technology. That’s human nature. The second thing somebody did with an invented object was something they shouldn’t have. The fact of the matter is that RFIDs are incredibly useful in a large variety of legitimate applications (mostly inventory control and package tracking). And really the horse has left the barn, if you want to stop RFIDs from being misused you need to work on the usage, RFIDs themselves are here to stay.
The hits jus' keep on comin' ....
Send it to me in Freepmail!!!!
I thought that was pretty telling.
I never notified anyone or anything.
What are you, Amish?
I'm only half-joking. Many years ago, I read a story in Wired Magazineabout the Amish to approach to technology. This later article casts more light.
Author Bruce Sterling made some contacts amongst the Amish, and revisited a few more times; i recommend searching the site for "bruce sterling contacts" (without the quotes). It really is interesting, at least to me.
They're not, as most outsiders assume (and I did), knee-jerk opposed to any new technology; they oppose luxuries, not practical necessities. They oppose telephones in homes, which they feel encourage people to stay inside and weaken a sense of community, but most communities have outdoor telephones. It's much more nuanced than I thought, and I encourage reading the articles.
Coming back to RFID, it certainly has great practical applications and potential for abuse. We already have credit bureaus, computer databases, surveillance technology, wiretaps, e-mail surveillance, GPS tracking, SPECTRE, COYOTE, TEMPEST, and all manner of other technology that can be abused. To me, sweating over RFID is worrying about closing the barn door when the horses are long gone.
I see some great possibilities for RFID. Embed tags in all prison uniforms, and you know where everyone is all the time. I wouldn't be difficult to automatically spot patterns of a suspiciously large number of people closing on the same locations, and thereby alert the COs to a potential riot. Soldiers with RFID could find wounded comrades more quickly.
Put an FRID in the bracelets they put on hospital patients, and you can track where anybody is all the time. Especially useful for elderly patients who tend to wander off.
On a more mundane level, you could go to a grocery store, grab a shopping cart with RFID and a small touch screen, tap in your shopping list, and get exact directions to where you can find the stuff you want. The collected data is tied to the cart, not to you, so no worries if you don't want the world to know you're buying herpes meds.
Or you could go to the airport, borrow a bare-bones PDA at the ticket counter, and get directions to your gate and up-to-the-second updates on your flight status. Hand it back at boarding.
I'm fine with it, with the right ethical and legal guidelines. First of all, no one should have an RFID tag on his person without an explicit notice (I'd make an exception for one planted under a legally-obtained warrant). That notice should include the specific uses for the data collected and have an opt-out option.
I wouldn't support implanting RFID in a human body. I wouldn't support its use in secret, with exceptions for criminal investigations under a warrant, same as with wiretaps, bugs, hidden cameras, and GPS tracking.
Benefits of RFID:
Inventory management and control
Cost reductions
Security
Safety
Improving packaging of products
Animal control/retrieval
Property identification
Theft prevention
etc. etc
Risks:
All of the creative things people come up with to steal, spy etc,
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