Credit cards. Subway cards. Passports. Jeans. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, consisting of tiny microchips or “tags” (some smaller than a period) that reflect unique radio signals back to a reader, that has been diffusing into our lives for years. Researchers find novel applications for RFID all the time (The RFID Journal reports on new research every week). Yet, the same old question persists, more relevant than ever: how much monitoring is too much?
RFID can act as bar code replacements, facilitate person-specific advertisement, monitor payments (like EZPass), track merchandise, track people and even, potentially, diagnose diseases.
Shady Palms, an assisted-living center in Florida is one place using RFID for its residents, the majority of which have dementia. The RFID Journal reports that the center is sewing Guardian Angel Carewear RFID tags into residents’ clothing. The tags set off alarms if residents start to wander too far from the facility. I recently wrote on a new RFID research system, also at Shady Palms, that uses tagged wristbands to garner information on residents’ walking patterns to try to diagnose early signs of dementia. (Check out the article here for details on the technology and others like it.) This is a tricky situation, because certainly systems that increase patients’ safety are useful, but at the same time those with dementia may not be able to protect their own privacy.
Aside from the elderly, companies have also focused on using RFID systems on children. An Israeli-based company called KeepMClose, recently announced prototype RFID wristbands for young children. Since cell phones are too hard for the very young, the company suggests that parents can rent these wristbands at amusement parks, stores or malls. I can certainly understand parental desire for safety nets, but this makes me wonder: when parents rely on technology to watch their children and when children become so used to automatic and continuous monitoring, will that make parents less attentive and children less self-reliant? Will this kind of technological hand-holding and pervasiveness negatively impact a growing child’s sense of independence and confidence?
While convenience may increase with RFID, many, many people and groups have expressed privacy and safety concerns over such systems (Caspian and McAfee are a few). Some go so far as to call implantable chips as human branding and potentially fatal, perhaps rightly so—in 2007, the media brought to light a study suggesting a link between malignant tumors in animals and tags made by VeriChip, a company that makes implantable RFID chips for animals and people. (The New York Times article is here.)
If you’re concerned with your own privacy, Instructables has a way to block or destroy RFID chips (basically with either a microwave, knife, or hammer), detailed here:
How to block/kill RFID chips – More DIY How To Projects
Also, a group of MIT students illustrated last summer how to hack into Boston’s RFID-based Charlie Card to get free rides (which certainly caused a hubbub at the MBTA!).
