Spy chips?

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

So my electronics teacher was telling about RFid tags today (Radio frequency identification). Used to tag animals and such. But he brought up a frightning possibility. Putting it in cars to track speed. More tickets? But that's not all... Putting them in children at birth in order to track them. Invasion of privacy much? Here's somre more info:


RFID stands for Radio Frequency IDentification, a technology that uses tiny computer chips smaller than a grain of sand to track items at a distance. RFID "spy chips" have been hidden in the packaging of Gillette razor products and in other products you might buy at a local Wal-Mart, Target, or Tesco - and they are already being used to spy on people.

http://www.spychips.com/what-is-rfid.html

The way the technology works passively with no batteries, is the antenna picks up the signal, and convert it to power, in order to send it's id tag out. It requires a very small amount of power. The scary part is, you can buy these chips publicly for about $20.

There's good sides as well. But these possibilities frighten me.

Discuss.

[jcrules99]

why the hell does gillette wanna know where i live?!

thats crazy... i dont like it

[hampstor]

On kids maybe it isn't a bad idea. I can't remember how many times I go to a mall and there's some kid wondering around crying looking for his/her parents.

One of the reasons Walmart is RFID'ing items because it makes receiving inventory incredibly fast. Instead of taking a skid apart and scanning items individually/counting items to verify quantities, just run an RFID scanner over the skid and you'll know exactly whats in there and how many.

If people are so scared that walmart is going to somehow use this to track you to your home, THROW OUT THE PACKAGING.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Well it's not even that, I mean, the cips are so small, you can stick ony smaller than the size of your pinky nail in the product itself. And what they're trying to do, is install the scanners in the tv, so they scan your home, and tell companies what your buying, so instead of getting a commercial for bowflex, you get one a little closer to home, lime from panasonic because you bought their dvd player.

And the thing with tagging kids, is what about once they become 18? Lawsuit much?

[googe]

you have a few misconceptions regarding how RFID works.

you cant just track things wherever they are with them. you have to be a few feet away. they dont have a secret control room with a big world map on a plasma screen that has a blinking dot wherever you take the gillette package or anything.

the security problem is that they want to implement it in things like ID cards. this presents a problem in that a "hacker" could sit in a public place and "scan" people that walked by and know everything about them, or that retailers could take far more personal info than they need when you walk in or out of their store.

it wont help you find lost children either, unless you do something like put it on all of the doors and see which door the kid last went through or something.

you cant sneak chips in something to track other chips around them. they are 1 way. a tv cant track a bowflex then report back. you cant put them in vehicles to track speed. you can however use them to scan at the entrance to a toll both or a toll lot or something and automatically bill an account. i guess in theory you could use it for speeding if there were scanners installed at every intersection hooked up to computers to determine if you got to the next intersection too fast. i wouldnt be worried about that anytime soon though. a lot more expensive than just sneaking a little chip in. cops wouldnt adopt it anyway because people would soon learn that its plain impossible to speed and not do it, then theyd lose their cash cow.

you can track who comes and goes, but not where they are, basically. the reason for this is because as it mentions, the device is not powered. this means that even if you have a high powered scanner from far away, the chip itself cant generate enough power to get the signal back to the scanner.

all of those other tracking worries need to be done with gps receivers.

[codetrap]

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[codetrap]

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[Supa Dexta]

They have something like this in green bins back east.. If you pull out this black plug, theres a small (what looks like glass) tube, maybe an inch long..

I always said, in the future your cars will be monitored, and you will automatically be issued tickets for speeding, and duration of the speeding.. you wait and see!
ha

[01RedDX]

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[Supa Dexta]

I'm not saying they will be rfid, they may be wireless internet or something, keeping track of your speed at all times realtime, and each speed zone will be registered to that speed, so gps tracking entering and exiting certain zones, will keep track of when your over, I'm sure they're will be some leniency at the borders of zones, but if your in the middle of a zone, doing quite a bit over, thats when it would be tracked/calculated and a ticket issued based on how much over and how long over.. this won't be for a loooong time, but I could see it happening as rights and freedoms deminish...

[worm]

Have one in my Dog great little device if he ever gets lost, but I can't say I think it's a good idea to put into humans.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

No no no, you misunderstood... There is a reader in the tv, hooked up to a database, seeing what people bought... It's a little more complicated... And the speeding thing, is trying to set up reader stations along the highway to edmonton and count how long it takes to get there...

And I know that it doesn't pinpoint, it just broadcasts it's information when it's close.

I'm just saying, scary possibilities. And you COULD use it to pinpoint, if you have mobile readers... Take 3, move them till all three are saying "we can see it" then move them until it's on the edge of each one, and where they meet, is the area.

[FiveFreshFish]

There's going to be a good business in detecting and disabling these tags.

[HyperZell]

Wow, this is a pretty creative use for RFID. What they were originally meant for (and are only starting to get very big) is inventory control. Imagine walking through a massive warehouse and instantly knowing how many boxes of kleenex you have. It's meant to help out in logistical operations, especially regarding reorder points and automatic data synchronization. As for using it to track you...that's pretty far-fetched, not to mention unethical (and illegal somehow, I'm sure.) Read what Googe said regarding that.

A lot of these possibilites can be negated just by thinking it through a little.

[szw]

I think a pretty smart use of RFID in the future will be in casino chips so they can track bets. This will probably be showing up soon I think.

[Supa Dexta]

Originally posted by HyperZell
W Imagine walking through a massive warehouse and instantly knowing how many boxes of kleenex you have.

2! One in the bathroom and one on my desk.. This is an rfid chip warehouse...

:rofl:

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

No. I know it is far fetched, but on the horizon, all the states has to do is use a patriot clause, and voila. There are already protest groups around the states because these have been suggested, and apparently the speeding one is implemented in the UK (perhaps a member there can confirm/deny that).

Just because it's far fetched, doesn't mean it won't happen in the near future. I could probably design and implement a small scale one for say... My house, using stuff I order online/buy at electronics stores, in about a year, it's really not that hard.

[HyperZell]

Originally posted by Supa Dexta


2! One in the bathroom and one on my desk.. This is an rfid chip warehouse...

:rofl:

Ugh.



Originally posted by LilDrunkenSmurf
No. I know it is far fetched, but on the horizon, all the states has to do is use a patriot clause, and voila. There are already protest groups around the states because these have been suggested, and apparently the speeding one is implemented in the UK (perhaps a member there can confirm/deny that).

Just because it's far fetched, doesn't mean it won't happen in the near future. I could probably design and implement a small scale one for say... My house, using stuff I order online/buy at electronics stores, in about a year, it's really not that hard.

Actually, watchers of Top Gear will remember them addressing something like that, although it hadn't happened yet. And there's a big difference between building and implementing.