h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We'd had a discussion on here about a year ago, about the introduction *everywhere* of the Radio Frequency IDs, being used on cargo, in consumer goods, in pets...but now, they've reached employees.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070721/D8QH34P80.html

Would you do this willingly, if your employer asked it?

[I hope you wait to answer that *after* reading the Q and A in the article, about the technology -- it's mentioned stuff I hadn't heard before.]

I already have a Faraday wallet.

What's a Faraday wallet?

>>Microchips are now fixed to car windshields as toll-paying devices, on "contactless" payment cards (Chase's "Blink," or MasterCard's "PayPass"). They're embedded in Michelin tires, library books, passports, work uniforms, luggage, and, unbeknownst to many consumers, on a host of individual items, from Hewlett Packard printers to Sanyo TVs, at Wal-Mart and Best Buy.<<

That's scarey enough I didn't know that about most of those things.

>>Darks, the CityWatcher.com executive, dismissed his critics, noting that he and his employees had volunteered to be chip-injected. Any suggestion that a sinister, Big-Brother-like campaign was afoot, he said, was hogwash.<<

That doesn't really make sense though. If the point of microchipping was to allow access to highly confidential material, then wouldn't refusal to be chipped mean you couldn't do your job?


I basically agin microchipping humans - there are all sorts of breaches of human rights waiting to happen.

Faraday wallets...

"Our RFID Blocking Wallets ensure that cards with RFID tags within the wallet can NOT be read while the wallet is closed. This gives you the ability to control when, how and by whom your cards are accessed. To allow the RFID tag in the card to be read, simply open the wallet and direct it towards the reader. Our products are lab certified by the United States GSA for protecting RFID cards used by the Military. "

http://www.difrwear.com/


az

Ummm, is there a full-body Faraday C*ndom for these folks, then?

That's what I was wondering too, SC.

Kind of like this...
http://public.fotki.com/azahar/stuff/rfidsuits.html


az

I expect we'll see that style in WWD...any day.

Since I can't pick the bit that will link by itself, here's the entire Hootoo link to a thread about a fellow who works in an actual Farady suit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F96544?thread=4242150&latest=1 Quite stylish, doncha think? ;-)

For identifying people, an active smart tag could be much harder to copy, since it could engage in encrypted communication with a reader, rather than just blurting out its serial number to any reader that asks it.

Nothing is entirely uncrackable, but things can be made much more secure if there is a percieved demand for it.