RFID - Invasion of Privacy or good business

[Turtle]

Privacy issues aside, both of these articles quote statements that don’t make sense technically.

 

But this is exactly about privacy, and hold on for the technology advance(s).

 

...Though implanted GPS receivers are much talked about, there are substantial technical hurtles between the idea and technical reality. Even the smallest GPS antenna is still big (no dimension under 1 cm) for an office procedure implanted device. Even the thriftiest miniature GPS receiver is still much too power-hungry than feasible for an externally powered RFID. These are not trivial issues.

 

Use of radio ID tags faces limits - International Herald Tribune

...The garments in the department store, in Essen, Germany, contain radio frequency identification chips, small circuits that communicate by radio waves through portable readers and more than 200 antennas that can not only recommend a brown belt for those tweed slacks but also track garments from the racks, shelves and dressing rooms on the store's third floor.

 

This pioneering pilot project of the Metro Group, a retail chain in Germany, heralds a shopping experience of the future in which dress shirts can wirelessly offer accessorizing tips to shoppers. But the rapid development of RFID technology is also being regarded cautiously by the authorities in the European Union, who are moving quickly to establish privacy guidelines because the chips - and the information being collected - are not always visible. ...

 

Since we know about the potential for loss of privacy and the growing criminal & unethical abuse stemming from it, and so to do the criminals and greedy, then it seems a logical conclusion the latter element is going to go for it whether we cry out or not. There is nothing wrong with crying wolf when there is one.