Privacy concerns and risks of RFID technology adoption

Technology

During recent years there has been increasing concern and public debate over the possibility and probability of consumers being tracked through clothes, shoes, food, and even the cash they carry in their wallets (McCullagh pp). The generic name for this technology is RFID, radio frequency identification, which are miniscule microchips that listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code (McCullagh pp). Most RFID tags do not have batteries and use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response (McCullagh pp).

RFID tag is a bar code with super powers and is used from retail warehouses to emergency rooms (Ho pp). Stores envision using the technology to track products from shipping pallets to cash registers, where customers would use it for wireless payments and physicians see new ways to instantly access lifesaving patient information (Ho pp). However, privacy advocates envision an "Orwellian" future where people will be tracked by ubiquitous RFID tags that are in everything from cars to clothes to patients' arms (Ho pp). The tags contain electronics that broadcast small bits of information, usually a number, when exposed to radio signals sent by a "reader" device, the number is linked to information in a computer system (Ho pp).