Authored By: Radio frequency identification tags are showing up in more and more of the products you buy. This technology allows companies to track a product, like a carton of milk, from the warehouse to the store shelf to the checkout scanner.
In 2007, businesses bought 1.7 billion of the tags, and within 10 years the demand will soar to 450 billion.
Stores use them to know when to restock shelves and to prevent shoplifting. Soon the tags will make food safer, by making sure it's kept at the right temperature and isn't sold past the expiration date.
But some observers see the technology as a threat to privacy, because it can track everything you buy, how often you use it, and when you discard it. Like other technologies, it will be up to people to determine if it becomes a blessing or a curse.
This program first published September 2009
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If RFID's are a threat to personal liberties what's to prevent someone from carrying around a personal jamming RF source? Seems like that's a market waiting to be exploited. Don't want to have the products you buy tracked then just jam the RFID reader.
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