One area of privacy that would be hard to resolve is the ability to determine from outside a house what a person owns (at least, the things which have RFID tags). Imagine a gym that drives around the neighbourhood detecting those families that have a few too many Twinkies in the pantry in order to send a salesperson to their door. I don't have a solution to this, short of the development of sheet rock that blocks radio signals (the housing craze of the future?). I don't think, however, that this mild loss of privacy outweighs the benefits generated from RFID technology.
Conclusion
People might want to ensure certain products are not identifiable in any way. For instance, Mr Tilburn might not want someone to detect that copy of "Debbie does Des Moines" that he keeps under the dresser so that Mrs Tilburn won't find it. In such cases, there are two options. One is a device that scrambles the signal so that it is no longer readable. The device to do such a thing could be cheap and available at local retail stores. Another is the decision simply not to use RFID tags on sensitive products. I would imagine the former option would be more appealing to retailers, as in a completely RFID world, it would be cheaper to use RFID in the supply chain than to fall back on older technology just to avoid creating an embarrassing moment for customers.
RFID is exciting technology that will enable new software and hardware opportunities. It need not become a serious privacy issue, however, provided people are intelligent about the places, and the manner, in which RFID technology is applied.
John Carroll is a software engineer now living in Geneva, Switzerland. He specialises in the design and development of distributed systems using Java and .Net. He is also the founder of Turtleneck Software.
Talkback
I'm ok with these tags being used for productivity reasons but once that process is over the tag should expire once the product has been purchased.
Privacy should never be compromised because it becomes the thin edge of the wedge. If your examples of "drive by" marketeering became the norm, this would be the excuse used by politians to introduce it further eg "well.. you already have it here so its a little extension to the current situation." Introduce anything in little phases and you'll get away with most things.
We have already surpassed the the old Russian regimes of being watchedand controlled that everyone so boldly put forward as a reason to fight communism.
On the concerns of Mr. Tilman and his video. Suppose the RFID tag were in the packaging and the sales assistant removed it before he left the shop. That way he gets his video and Mrs. Tilman never knows! After the point of sale the RFID tag has dones its job so removing it is no loss and it ensures the privacy on sensitive items (medicine might be another sensitive product area).
At first sight, the single application with the greatest social impact, would be the proposed tagging of banknotes by the ECB.
Imagine not being able to spend stolen money.
Imagine knowing who to mug before the spending checks are in place.
Imagine 'unmarked notes' not being possible.
Imagine......
Posting a concept invention that involves these RFID tags being deployed to keep clothes on a special coathanger on the correct coathanger when faced with the public trying garments on. That is to say success of concept depends on garments not remaining on incorrect coathangers unnoticed. This is to enable resolution of the virtual/real conflict when an item is unique and on the shopfloor at the same time as being list on the internet. Initially thought it could apply to haute couture clothes, but then got told they are made to measure products only so the concept bluetooth coathanger would not be of use. However the initial concept of a bluetooth coathanger was to enable charity shops (thrift shops in USA)with unique items to shift products between shops and sell online simultaneously what is on the shopfloor. May seem to be too costly but would be very economical and profitable if reservation transfer system were appreciated in the context of a national chain logistics system as in the UK. (And futher supported by a digicam fax invention to enable uploads of new donations at a local level to a national databse entry point without computer skills at local shop level!) Of course whatever the concept would certainly work when second-hand (i.e. unique) products on coathangers were of very high sales value such as Elton John's (e.g. popstar) cast-offs! So you can imagine the problems of a browsing public mixing up garments on coathangers when a simultaneous sale is going on live on the internet? However now that I realize that haute couture would not require bluetooth coathangers, it beggars that eternal promise of a new paradigm of micro production arising from online sales revolution. That is to say clothes could be mass produced as unique items and sold at mass produced prices e.g. already measured and cut haute couture. If anyone is interested I could explain further how the bluetooth coathanger would resolve the physical / virtual conflict arising when a unique item on the shopfloor might be in the hands of a shopper while someone online has bought it online! Tricky legal question on who would own that unique item that has been doubley sold! (sold twice) One might try and follow the bluetooth coathanger concept invention outline on my website www.tide2000.com in the inventions section if interested. Lists some other concept inventions. Back to topic the RFID seem important because the bluetooth coathanger concept will not work if customers put back garments on the wrong coathangers. So the question is at what cost could RFID ensure garment and coathanger stay matched correctly? Ps making an assumption here of its suitability of this technology as newsgroup feedback a couple of years ago proposed RFID. No time to pursue this particular technology as more into logistical systems, so any enthusiast on RFID that can get to grips with the bluetooth coathanger concept welcome to commercialize the product.
Yeah....RFID. Exactly what DigitalAngel is using in their Verichip product, to track your every thought...
http://dubiousprofundity.com/article.php/20050524103025821