Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags may soon replace barcodes as a means for labeling all sorts of things, like the clothes you wear and the food you eat. These chips are truly a mixed technological blessing. On the positive side, RFID tags help stores track their inventory more efficiently and economically.
On the negative, they pose potentially onerous troubling risks to your health, privacy and security. RFID signals can be encrypted, but most commercial RFID tags don't bother to include this kind of security, because it's too expensive.
The USDA may soon call for RFID chips to track farm animals in a governmental database, greatly risking the financial health of organic farmers as well as our own. This measure could literally wipe out most all the small organic farmers that simply don't have the means and resources to secure these high-tech gadgets and implement the required expensive reporting systems.
The vast permutations of RFID technology will have untold effects on your lives, and some will be good ones. Unfortunately, RFID has the potential to create far more problems for your health, if it isn't handled sensibly.
On Vital Votes, Jim from Concord, Massachusetts warns that it may already be too late:
"Well, you may already be sporting RFIDs without knowing it. As far as I know, there's no law against placing these gizmos in clothing or other products you buy and wear on a daily basis. They could even go on your credit card (and be read as you walk through the door of a store to see who's buying and who's not during each visit)."Paging George Orwell: Big Brother is out of control! "Don't worry, however -- you will have zero say in whether these babies are approved or disapproved. Your congressmen and a few well-heeled business lobbies will be kind enough to make that decision for you (in your best interest ... which is any interest they make on money of yours they gobble up)."Is this a great country we live in or what?"
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