Streamlining and Testing RFID Technology 69
Multiple readers have written to let us know that an experiment at the upcoming Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference will use RFID to track the movements of at least 1,500 registrants for the duration of the conference. Those movements will be transmitted onto screens which "show in real-time where people go, with whom they associate, for how long and how often." The system will also be used for games which involve manipulation of the available data. Meanwhile, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a method for testing large quantities of RFID tags, which may serve to greatly speed distribution.
Re:dammit (Score:5, Insightful)
Hardly. I bet HOPE is going to be a circus of people hiding RFID tags on each other, unsuspecting passers-by, luggage carts, equipment crates, laptops, and probably in capsules hidden in hamburger buns in the buffet. I expect very few tags to remain on their originally intended targets.
Re:Disconcerting (Score:5, Insightful)
As far as health, RFID is a low power technology, and active chips emit only a minute fraction of that power. The only real exposure you get is from RFID readers, not RFID chips. And you can't really avoid the readers unless you don't walk through the doors at stores with anti-shoplifting antennas.
Anyway, I think the Xtian Right would rise up before they'd accept mandatory implants, so you'd probably have some strong allies there.
Re:Disconcerting (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, but unfortunately you're not being paranoid enough.
Re:Disconcerting (Score:5, Insightful)
Think of this in what I like to call the 'failure mode analysis':
Your company (100-250 people) uses RFID tags. A fire breaks out. All but 7 people's RFID are accounted for. The FD goes in to the burning building to get them
It's absolutely no good for tracking terrorists.. they won't wear them and you won't have sensors to pick up the individuals that don't have RFID tags. This applies to any building currently in existence.
You decide to tag everyone in a town of 3700 people for an experiment. After an estimated 430 million dollar installation of equipment, the sum total of what you know will be that people get paid on thursday and go to the bar. Walmart is busy on the weekends, and the guy you found cheating is suing you for illegal disclosure of personal information.
Now, say you have a valid use for this, such as security in your data center, or so you think. Only people who have embedded chips can access the data center. There is a car crash, one tech dies, two are in hospital. Now your backup system is down over the weekend, and you can't even buy access to the data center. Yes, that might be a stretch, but I did say 'failure mode analysis'.
Now, if you want to tag your milking cows to keep track of them, make sure they are getting milked, vaccinated, etc. That is useful. If you want to make sure that all the deliveries to your distribution center reach their intended end user space.. that also is good.
Tagging people has a *VERY* limited use, no matter how cool it might seem. I'm always willing to be proved wrong though.
At the conference, it might be cool to have anonymous RFID tracking to see what kind of data it would provide, but linking it to an individual would be wrong. If you want to see how the traffic flows through the booths, it would work but then so would cameras and video analysis software... hmmm I'm willing to bet that the video analysis would be much easier to implement, less intrusive, and much more reliable as there would be no swapping of tags, no RF interference issues, no expensive system to install for tracking etc.
So, somebody tell me what I've gotten wrong here?
Re:Disconcerting (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't believe it but I actually agree with someone here. As someone who knows and develops RFID software the probability of fiscally feasible implants is such an afterthought its not even funny.
Most of implant cases in RFID have been for FUN. Thats right most of them have done it because it's cool or they can start a trend. You know what the same can be said for tattoos, piercings and dying your teeth black (not that I have anything against that)
Its simply not a good implementation of technology. Most implantable RFID is very very low power meaning 3 - 6 inches at best. Can you imagine the amount of readers needed to track your every move like Micheal Jackson in Billie Jean.
You want to be paranoid then be paranoid about gps enabled cell phones. Those are far better at doing the job.
Re:Disconcerting (Score:5, Insightful)
There's probably a few more reasons the government would not be interested in implanting such things in citizens. Cost of operations having to figure out how to install, maintain and monitor everyone. Considering no totalitarian group is doing this now, I think people in current democracies are pretty safe from this.
As mentioned many times in the thread, there's already many other methods of tracking that's already usable by the government when they are interested in you. Hell, we can't even get a few miles of "electronic fence" to work at the border, I really don't see people handing over money for a project of this scale in my lifetime.
For the guy who mentions "all but 7 RFID cards are accounted for" in a burning building and firemen go dying, I highly doubt firemen would go running into a burning building because someone might be in there over employee swipe badges. They tend to go on "Hey, Suzie was on the 2nd floor! I think she's still inside! We can't find her!" instead of waiting for the NT admin to run into said burning building, log into a Win2k machine that's off the network and audit who has come and gone from the building since the fire started.
Re:Disconcerting (Score:3, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)