January 26, 2008...6:06 pm
It’s Not Science Fiction Anymore, Big Brother Is Watching Your Every Move With RFID
From a distance the tiny chips will be able to let those in the know what you have recently obtained.
Do you think that it’s science fiction that the microchip will be tracking your moves? Think again.
There are plans to have customized ads, “live spam” just by the radio tags that will be on a person in the near future. Marketers will only have to get reports from your own house to know which products to spam you with as our own residences become “smarter.”
The technology already exists to allow for objects and people to be tracked wirelessly. Everyday new patents are being deployed to make these marketing tools faster, better and potentially more intrusive.
Right now RFID technology is a hot market for the world’s largest corporations.
The tiny chips can already be found in computer printers, car keys, tires, shampoo bottles and the tags that go beep on department store clothing tags. The books you check out from the library have them as well as “contactless” payment cards.
The use of RFID tags isn’t just to spy on consumers though. Stores use them to cut down on shoplifting and to guarantee that the products that they are selling are the real thing. In the future they will be used to make going to the store easier by letting you bypass the checkout counter, automatically deducting your debit card for your purchases as you exit a store.
When you get home from the store that you’ve purchased your items your house will be using those RFID chips to help you function. Spoiled milk will be a thing of the past as your fridge warns you that it’s expired. Your fridge will always hand you a shopping list for your weekly trip to the grocers and send messages to your TV so that the commercials you view will be of relevance for your home. That microwavable dinner you put in the oven won’t require any reading on your part, the oven will “know” what to do on it’s own.
Companies are hopping on broad for these kind of technology that can “rifle” through your home like a theft in the night to send in a detailed marketing report on what items your family uses.
“You’ve got the possibility of unauthorized people learning stuff about who you are, what you’ve bought, how and where you’ve bought it … It’s like saying, ‘Well, who wants to look through my medicine cabinet?,’” says Mark Rasch, former head of the computer-crime unit of the U.S. Justice Department.
So are we as consumers ready for most companies to have flies on our walls? It doesn’t really matter how we feel as the companies that sell the items we use on a daily basis are hopping on the “free” marketing tour to peek into our closets.



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