NYT on RFID

The New York Times has a piece on RFID tags. It's basic, but worth reading as a milestone - the technology is starting to enter the public eye. These RFID tags will have unique serial numbers - every RFID-tagged item you purchase will be uniquely different from every other nearly-identical item, enabling it to be identified and associated with you long after the purchase. And no, microwaving will generally not destroy the tags, and no, most items won't be microwaveable anyway. Try to microwave your couch.

Microwave the couch

[ArsonPerBuilding]

You mean you don't have a jiggawatt microwave gun?

That goes next on the list to a lime pit for all mad scientists.

Re:Microwave the couch

[Goldberg's Pants]

So, what you do is go and buy something liable to attract FBI attention (large quantities of ammo, anarchist cookbook etc...), then go nail the RFID tag to the house of someone you don't like.

I like the sound of this... *evil grin*

Remeber folks

[pubjames]

Remember folks -- when you buy tinfoil, remember to remove the RFID tag from it before you make your hat.

Oh no!

[cperciva]

My couch is going to have an RFID tag? But... that would allow people to track me everywhere I go -- I never leave home without my couch.

Re:Who cares?

[pubjames]

Why should I? I'm not paranoid.

That's because you don't understand the dangers. The knee jerk reaction to this type of story is to worry about "big brother", government spooks, or whatever. But that's not where the danger lies...

What you do is becoming more and more traceable. Every telephone call you make on a mobile phone, for instance, is logged and traceable back to you. Don't need to worry about this because you're not paranoid? Think again. You see, it's not the government you need to worry about. It's your wife or girlfriend!

Sometime in the near future...

Wifie: Hey, I brought one of those personal stuff locators today, you know, the ones that locate stuff by RFID tags?

Nervous husband: Oh, erm. That will be useful...

Wifie: Yes, very useful. I found a large heap of pornographic magazines on top of the wardrobe...

Nervous husband: Oh! Erm... That's...

Wifie: And why do you keep condoms hidden in the back of your washbag? I'm on the pill. The machine says they were purchased only last week.

Nervous husband: Ah! Now then... I. Erm...

I'm guessing you're not paranoid because you're not married or you don't have a long term girlfriend. You will be...

Re:Microwave the couch

[StrawberryFrog]

You mean you don't have a jiggawatt microwave gun?

If you do have a microwave gun, please make damn sure you get the cat off the couch before you use it.

They'll just call that WARE Driving

[xyote]

It will be a kind of everyone lives in glass houses society. The only people with privacy will be nudists.

Ask slashdot...

[dubstop]

Dear Slashdot,

Following some advice that I read on a popular website, I attempted to microwave my couch. In the subsequent house fire, I lost many of my prized possessions, and my microwave oven was damaged beyond repair.

Do I have recourse to legal action in this matter?

Fun with RFID tags

[cat_jesus]

You don't have to disable RFID tags to screw with the data collection and tracking systems. If you are able to find and collect RFID tags you can carry them around with you wherever you go. Imagine having three or four car RFID tags on you as well as about a hundred refridgerator RFID tags. Dumpster diving for RFID tags would be great fun. You'd have tags from stuff that never really led back to you and would confuse the hell out of anyone trying to make sense of the history of the items. You could do things like remove all of the RFID tags from your clothes and keep only one RFID tag in your wallet that was from a pair of underwear. If anyone looked at the data they'd think some guy in the same pair of underwear he's been wearing for weeks is walking around carrying a few cars and a bunch of Refridgerators.

This would be much more fun than filling our frequent shopper cards with bogus information or completing surveys with ridiculous answers.

Re:Blocking

[SmallFurryCreature]

It would suck to have one of these at the automated checkout though.

For one thing you have to wait forever for the plant sorry, checkout girl to find enough printer paper to print out every item for sale in the world.

Re:Microwave the couch

[Cloudface]

So the necessary item is a gamma-emitter what can be used on a couch? I saw a nifty UV flashlight recently, but... Wouldn't it be, not ironic, maybe, but a little *weird* if we wound up getting death-rays and zap-guns and phasers simply out of a need to circumvent things like RFID?

Re:Fun with RFID tags

[Suidae]

Na, the automatic doors at the supermarket won't open unless you have RFID tags for at least a shirt and shoes.

Just for fun

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

>Try to microwave your couch.

Following Slashdot's written instructions, and in reliance on their good faith, I experienced the following adverse consequences.

Lifting the couch to the microwave caused a back injury which has limited my daily activities, interfered with my ability to earn a living, and caused continuing pain and suffering.

In order to fit the couch into the microwave, it was necessary to disassemble the couch. Some of the structural pieces have not gone back together properly. Slashdot will, I am certain, see the advantages of a negotiated agreement compensating me for the loss of use of my couch, and for the additional injuries suffered when I tried to sit on it after reassembling it.

An irritating smoke was released while microwaving the fabric and stuffing. I have had continuing respiratory symptoms and am suffering psychic pain over the fear that I may have been exposed to carcinogens.

Severe electrical arcing occurred near the springs while the sofa pieces were in the microwave. This started a fire which destroyed my house. I also expect compensation for destruction of property, and for living expenses while the house is being rebuilt.

Please contact my legal counsel with the address for service of process, and the policy number and name of carrier for your liability insurance.

(It's a joke, son).