plutherus

OK, so at first, the ability of stores (and thus police, hackers, and assorted criminals) to track your every move using tiny tags half the size of a grain of sand might seem somewhat scary:

http://news.com.com/2010-1069-980325.html

But what the writer of that article is missing is all the positive applications of this technology:

As stores grow to rely more and more on these, they will abandon other methods of shoplifting prevention. Eventually, they'll get to wholly automated systems that just automatically deduct the price of whatever you pick up from the balance on your RFID-enabled credit card as you leave the store. Which means, at some point in the not-too-distant future, you will be able to walk into any store, turn on a simple Van de Graff generator for a moment, which should fry any RFID tags within a few feet if you prepare it properly, and walk out with whatever you want, no charge (no pun intended).

Since the range is fairly short, even for specialty readers, there will have to be readers throughout the city if Poindexter and his heirs want to make use of these. Which means they'll be at least as accessable as cell towers, even more so, for anyone wanting to splice in, and read the signal for themselves. (Don't worry about the signal being encrypted, somebody from the development team will reveal the encryption algorithm before they can even finish building the networks, just like they did for Clipper, DVDs, Cable boxes, and pretty much every other wide-spread encryption system ever created.) Once you're reading the signals, go ahead and feed it to a cell phone, or a Blackberry unit, or other device, and broadcast it out. Network with other people in other towns, the same way the guys tracking wireless access spots do. Then you can simply place a transmitter on your favorite cop, or drug dealer, or door-to-door salesman, or person you think is cheating with your spouse, or bully who made fun of you in high school, or United States President, or whoever, and broadcast every move they make over the internet. Even more fun, watch what they buy, and who they give it to. Every gift your public official buys can become public knowledge. Blackmail through Email.

This is wonderful stuff. I can't wait for it to be everywhere!