I wish I was articulate enough to pick apart arguments for RFID. There seems to have been a change in society, where old ethics don’t apply because new technologies exist. People go ahead with dodgy things because they can.
This BBC article on RFID (radio frequency identification) really bothers me.
Quick summary of RFID first: “It works much like a barcode, but instead of having to be passed in front of a scanner, tiny transponders send out radio signals. Each tag is unique so any one item, be it a pack of razor blades or a shirt, can be tracked individually, all the time and just about anywhere.”
“For people like Glover Ferguson, the chief scientist at consultants Accenture, RFID technology means we need to think again about the norm of what is privacy.
“We will be more willing to surrender privacy if we get something in exchange and are aware of the risks of giving that information””
Are we? I’m not. But do I get a choice? We can re-think the concept of privacy, but that doesn’t mean abandoning it.