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Radio chip tracking in consumer products
Posted by Raul Ruiz on Wednesday, February 26 @ 22:10:57 EST
Contributed by Lithorn
Privacy
Lithorn writes "Tuesday's New York Times has an article entitled "A Radio Chip in Every Consumer Product." The article discusses the implications of recent developments in transceiver technology. Transceivers are nothing new -- essentially, they are radios that use the same components to transmit and receive signals. A small transceiver can react to radio signals that strike it by sending a pre-programmed response without tapping an independent power supply. Recent advances in manufacturing methods have decreased the cost of these tiny devices to the point where the makers of consumer products might realistically build them into every package of such ordinary retail products as breakfast cereal and razor blades. The advantages of such a system over bar codes are obvious for applications like inventory management and theft prevention. Unfortunately, manufacturers and retailers are already talking about using this new tracking ability to link individual units purchase to individual purchasers using personal information from credit card accounts and discount card programs. The purported reason for doing this is to protect consumers -- for example, to warn purchasers of tainted products in the event of a recall. How long before retailers share that information with manufacturers? And marketers? And insurers? And anyone else paying cash?"
 
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Re: Radio chip tracking in consumer products (Score: 1)
by mbstone on Saturday, March 01 @ 02:48:45 EST
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The RFID chips used in commercial products and card-keys are called transponders (not "transceivers"). They are indeed radios, but depending on their design they may or may not "use the same components to send and receive signals."

A "transceiver" is capable of continuous reception and transmission, like a CB radio or cell phone. A "transponder" is a device that receives one or more pulses of radio frequency (RF) energy and replies to the sender by transmitting one or more pulses of radio frequency (RF) energy in return. Some transponders are relatively large and complicated -- like the two-way satellite GPS units used by truckers, and the transponders that identify aircraft on the radar scopes of Air Traffic Control.

Use of small, passive RFID transponders in consumer merchandise would aid in the detection and prosecution of cargo theft. Why else whould anybody care about detecting the serial number of your toaster and matching it with your purchase? More murders could be solved, defendants might have to explain how their Rice Krispies wound up at the crime scene. Depending on the range of the tags, the societal benefits might outweigh the (speculative) civil liberties hit.


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Re: Radio chip tracking in consumer products (Score: 0)
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