RFID Chips are Here
RFID is being embedded in everything from clothes to money and
your privacy is disappearing.
RFID 101
Invented
in 1969 and patented in 1973
1/3
of a millimeter wide
build
a more sensitive RFID receiver.
prices
are dropping.
Delta tagging
40,000 customer bags
Three seaport operators track
the 17,000 containers that arrive each day at US ports.
The US Department of Defense is using RFID to trace
military supply shipments.
Star City Casino in Sydney, Australia RFID
tags in 80,000 employee uniforms in order to stop theft.
Visa smart cards use RFID chips to conduct
transactions.
Michelin is going to insert
RFID tags into its tires.
The European Central Bank may embed
RFID chips in the euro note. Ostensibly to combat
counterfeiters and money-launderers, it would also enable banks
to count large amounts of cash in seconds.
Gillette
(which purchased 500 million RFID tags for its razors), Home
Depot, The
Gap, Proctor
& Gamble, Prada,
Target,
Tesco
(a United Kingdom chain), and Wal-Mart. Especially Wal-Mart.
Walmart,
& Gillette are making "smart
shelves" that alert managers to restock razors.
Wal-Mart intends
for its top 100 suppliers to fully support RFID for inventory tracking
by 2005. Wal-Mart will point an RFID reader the 1
billion sealed boxes of widgets it receives yearly
There is no
law requiring a label indicating that an RFID chip is in a product.
RFID-tagged
shoes,
Everything you own is "numbered,
identified, catalogued, and tracked."
placing
RFID tags into all sensitive or important documents: "it will
be practical to put them in paper money, in drivers' licenses, passports,
stock certificates, manuscripts, university diplomas, medical degrees
and licenses, birth certificates, and any other sort of document
where authenticity is paramount."
Applied
Digital Solutions has designed an RFID tag
Delegates to the Chinese Communist Party Congress were required
to wear an RFID-equipped badge at all times .
. You
can crush it, puncture it, or microwave it (but be careful of
fires!
You
can't drown it, however, and you can't demagnetize it.
So don't be lulled into a
false sense of security.
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