The PATRIOT act has long faded from popular consciousness and Google seems to be a bigger threat to the concept of privacy. Paranoid speculation is leaning more towards corporate espionage dystopian theories than government-run ones. RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) technology can accomodate both, and as 2007′s incorporation of RFID chips into U.S. passports demonstrated, it seems to be mostly following the trend. 

Radio Frequency Identification refers to cheap, ubiquitous tags attached to objects that emit a distinct radio wave. Businesses use them frequently for tracking various products along the supply line, but their use has expanded drastically. These tags can not be read from anywhere; whatever reads them has to be relatively close, yet privacy concerns are largely focused on how easy it is for anyone to design a reader. For instance, RFID chips in passports usually contain the passport’s information, meaning anyone who can receive an RFID signal can counterfeit a passport.

However, its full potential remains untapped, and the Vice President of Systems Architecture for Sony Ericsson, Hakan Djuphammar, expects every mobile phone sold in 2010 to contain an RFID chip. From there, it’s not difficult to envision corresponding developments. RFID may be embedded in keys for cars or homes, or the use of IP (Internet Protocal) mapping combined with mobile user location data to prevent credit card fraud by determining card location at all times. Real-time traffic mapping using RFID could also be sold to GPS companies to provide detailed dynamic information. Djuphammar, who describes these scenarios as “win-win” made no comments about the possibility of opting out of having an RFID-enabled phone. 

American Express, which is designing an “ExpressPay” system using RFID tags in its credit cards, so the card just has to be tapped against a reader for a purchase to be made, has also speculated about RFID applications. According to Spychips.com, an advocacy website against the proliferation of RFID tags, an American Express patent application suggested using the technology to monitor consumer movements within a store- what items they picked up, how long they spent in certain aisles, whether or not they paused to observe specific promotions. American Express met with one of the most prominent anti-RFID groups, CASPIAN, and agreed to review their patent application about this technology, and to take more steps to ensure consumers are aware if they have an RFID-enabled card and could opt out of it.

It seems hard to argue that they should. The Vice President of InformationWeek blogged about RFID technology, “In a world jammed with surveillance cameras, cell phone cameras and imminent smart-grid brains that will scold you for using more electricity than some bureaucrat thinks you should, this paranoia over RFID goes beyond silly to absurd.” While this could be an overstatement, we do live in an era where companies continue to blur the lines between market research and invasive voyeurism. RFID technology has too much unexplored potential to simply be ignored -both for simple curiousity as well as profit-driven utilizations.

Tags: Radio K