On Friday 20 February 2004 03:17 am, Jim McGhee wrote:
> ted.frater wrote:
> > snip
> > When you buy a tube of toothpase you dont have to tell Colgate where
> > you are!! in order to use it. Thatll be next on the menu.
>
> Actually...
> You do. Ever heard of RFID? Pretty soon everything in the grocery
> store will have a chip on it that can be used to track it.
>
> Jim
*sigh*
RFID tags aren't nearly the privacy horror that people many people
seem to think they are. An RFID tag is basically part of a radio
circuit, such that in *close* proximity to a radiating device it
responds in a passive manner and gives off a code. That code
will be used as a UPCs , for lookups in a database as to what it is.
You cannot scan for RFID tags from a street and see what things
are in people's homes. You cannot glean information from them
just wandering around--there is a very short distance from which
they may be read. They aren't made very well. The holy grail for
the manufacturers of them is to hit about 5 cents per tag, which
is a good indicator of how robust and complex they are.
In short there are many issues which affect privacy in our lives
today, but these are not among them.
STeve Andre'
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Received on Fri Feb 20 10:33:39 2004
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