RFID

RFID (radio frequency identification, or remote field identification) scares the shit out of me. Several years ago, Gilette, under threat from privacy advocates everywhere, stopped shipping products with an RFID chip implanted in the packaging. I don’t know if they are using the chips now for anything other than a logistical tracking system, but their initial idea was to implant the chips in order to counter shoplifting; apparently razorblades are a hot commodity on the black market and regularly get stolen from supermarkets. If you bounce this idea around your group of friends during an evening of cocktails you can come up with some frightening ideas regarding the possible implementation of this technology. RFID chips in shoes that can track your movement. RFID chips in money that removes the anonimity of a cash-purchase. You retrieve money from an ATM and it registers which bills it hands out to you. You walk over to your local sandwich shop and buy a sandwich and there the money is once again registered against a particular product. You can then track every cash-purchase done with money tagged with an RFID chip. Or better yet, there’s a family in the U.S. that has voluntarily had RFID chips implanted under their skin, as an experiment. Sure, sure, there are a hundred ways in which you can use this technology for a good purpose, but there are so many ways in which it can be used for nefarious purposes that I get upset just thinking about the ethical consequences of RFID chips.