RFID chips embedded in passbooks and ATM cards will identify and profile customers as they enter bank lobbies, beaming bank balances to employees who will snicker at the customer with a mere thirty-seven dollars in the bank while offering white glove treatment to the high-rollers.
RFID could also be used to infringe upon civil liberties. The technology could give government officials the ability to electronically frisk citizens without their knowledge and set up invisible checkpoints on roads and in pedestrian zones to monitor their movements.
While RFID proponents claim they would never use RFID to track people, the fact is that they are not only considering it, they've done it. The United States government has already controlled people with RFID-laced bracelets—and not just criminals. And now they're planning to embed spychips in U.S. passports so citizens can be tracked as they move about airport terminals and cross international borders.
Hitting the open road will no longer be the "get away from it all" experience many of us crave. You may already be under surveillance, courtesy of your RFID-enabled highway toll transponder. Some highways, like those in the Houston area, have set up readers that probe the tag's information every few miles. But that's child's play compared to what they've got planned. The Federal Highway Administration is joining with states and vehicle manufacturers to promote "intelligent vehicles" that can be monitored and tracked through built-in RFID devices (Minority Report-style).
RFID spychips in your shoes and car tires will make it possible for strangers to track you as you walk and drive through public and private spaces, betraying your habits and the deepest secrets even your own mother has no right knowing. Pair RFID devices with global positioning (GPS) technology, and you could literally be pinpointed on the globe in real time, creating a borderless tracking system that already has law enforcement, governments, stalkers, and voyeurs salivating.
There will be no more secret love letters in the RFID world, either—not if the U.S. Postal Service has its way. They would like to embed every postage stamp with an RFID chip that would enable point-to-point tracking. Even more disturbingly, RFID could remove the anonymity of cash. Already, the European Union has discussed chipping Euro banknotes, and the Bank of Japan is contemplating a similar program for high-value currency. Your every purchase could be under the microscope.
So could your trash. In the RFID world, garbage will become a snoop's and criminal's best friend. Today, it's a dirty job sifting through diapers and table scraps to get at tell-tale signs of a household's market value, habits, and purchases. In the RFID world, scanning trash could be a simple as driving down the street with a car-mounted reader on trash day.
How about the "smart" house? Researchers have developed prototype "homes of the future" to showcase RFID-enabled household gadgets like refrigerators that know what's in them (and can tattletale to marketers), medicine cabinets that talk (to your doctor, government, and HMO), and floors that keep track of where you are at each moment. The potential is staggering. Your insurance company could remotely monitor your food consumption and set rates accordingly, health officials could track the prescription drugs you're taking, and attorneys could subpoena your home activity records for use against you in court.
I'm missing a few, though. His career went through a number of transformations in terms of style.
