rss feedWhat Happens in Vegas . . . Stays in Computers
Posted by Harkavy at 8:31 AM, April 10, 2008
Creepy privacy threat sure to get under your skin.
The RFID threat to privacy is spreading fast in Las Vegas casinos.
Read "RFID keeps tabs on Vegas bartenders and, soon enough, on you, too," a report by Patrick Thibodeau on Computerworld.
Don't count on vacationers complaining about these tags keeping track of their every move, desire, and need — they'll be having too much fun losing their money to care about it. But that acquiescence just means that this "radio-frequency ID" microchip assault is likely to spread faster into other parts of our culture.
Those records of your activities will stay on computers and will likely be marketed throughout the private sector. For sure, those records will be used by governments and law-enforcement, and they no doubt will be hacked, too.
The Bush regime, which has constantly pushed for wider use of RFID technology to track people instead of dogs and equipment, took a major step in January, as the AP reported back then:
The technology was approved by the State Department and privacy advocates were quick to criticize the department for not doing more to protect information on the card, which can be used by U.S. citizens instead of a passport when traveling to other countries in the Western hemisphere. …
The administration wanted to begin requiring passports or passport cards in mid-2008, but Congress mandates that the rule not go into effect until summer 2009.
Lib senator Pat Leahy is one of those fighting against the RFID. Late last month, when Homeland Security issued new, stiffer passport rules, Leahy noted of the Bush regime's flunkies:
Former Bush health secretary Tommy Thompson had an RFID tag implanted a few years ago — the lap dog was named to the board of a company that makes them, so he was more than willing.
Read Stuart King's Computer Weekly column for more.
You think life's a bitch now? See Dan Newling's 2006 story in the Mail on Sunday (U.K.), "Britons 'could be microchipped like dogs in a decade.' "
