Radio Frequency Identification.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has been around for at least 50 years but has been a hot new technology for only the last five years. Basically, passive (no power supply) microchips called tags or labels are attached to merchandise, and then the tagged merchandise can be tracked with a hand-held "reader" that senses the tags using a radio frequency signal. This supply chain inventory tracking device has had a surprisingly negative impact due to some unpopular applications.
Early Adapter Problems
The first problems with RFID were felt by the businesses that bought into the technology. First there is the price. The readers are expensive and the tags can be prohibitively expensive when dealing with millions of articles. Also, the readers don't always work as advertised. A metal object touching the tag or a noisy radio frequency environment can severely reduce the effective range of the readers. These problems, coupled with the incompatible radio frequency standards of Europe, Japan, and the U.S., can make RFID use a real headache.
Privacy and Security Issues
The U.S. Army was an early adapter of RFID Technology. Then they realized that RFID tags made it easier for unauthorized agents to tell what was in crates and boxes that were in foreign ports. Prada and Swatch embedded RFID chips into products they sold to track customer activity, until protests and boycotts changed these polices. People didn't like tracking devices in the objects they carried. These and other episodes have given RFID technology a Big Brother aura that automatically turns some people off.
LoJack for People
By far the greatest objections arose when the RFID microchips were first implanted in people. Applied Data Solutions in Malvern, Pennsylvania, makes two different chips (Verichip and Digital Angel) that are marketed for human implantation. There is a good market for these chips with those in danger of kidnapping or who have a realistic fear of getting lost. The chips can be tracked by GPS. However, a lot of people now consider RFID the final step toward a Big Brother society. Some religious people consider RFID the mark of the beast and a sure sign of the final days before the Apocalypse.
Tags: consider RFID, Frequency Identification, people consider, people consider RFID, radio frequency, Radio Frequency Identification
