RFIDs For All!

I get frustrated whenever I read articles about RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags. The list of possible applications is too limited. Every article talks about their uses in grocery stores, in the manufacture of passports, in regulating the circulation of library books, in tracking pets, and the like.

Am I the only one who notices that RFID tags and tiny GIS transponders could be used in far more interesting, nefarious and objectionable ways? If transmitters the size of a grain of rice were readily available, why not put one on your kid's car? in your boss's briefcase? or under the bumper of a police car? It would be fun and satisfying and very profitable to track people without their knowledge, and I'm sure people could come up with even more interesting and probably illegal uses for them.

Illegal, perhaps, but not easy to prevent, discover, or prosecute.

Anonymity and electronic technology are incompatible. As technology evolves and improves, it is going to get easier and easier to spy on each other. Before long, it will be as though the entire world lives in a small one room house; no one will be able to completely disappear.

If the ability to see where everyone is is distributed evenly across the entire population, then this ability will probably improve our relationships with each other. I.e., if everyone has equal ability to spy on everyone else, then the result should be peace and calm and better behavior. If, on the other hand, the ability to observe everyone else is limited to just a few individuals, whether the government or a few corporations or to law enforcement only, then the result will be increased paranoia and an oppressive, Orwellian future.

Thus the morality of surveillance technology lies not in the technology itself nor even in the use of it, but rather in the distribution of access to it.

Bring on the RFIDs, I say, but make sure I can get my hands on a few for my own use!