Micro RFID chips raise privacy concerns

Daily Aztec | Feb. 22, 2007

By John P. Gamboa

Science fiction movies and books often portray the future as a world in which every individual has been tattooed with a barcode and can be easily traced by anyone at any time. However bleak this image is, recent advancements in radio frequency identification have shown us pieces of this bleak world and a possible utopia.

RFID is a technology that uses small microchips to transmit stored data through the use of radio frequencies.

A common RFID application is the FasTrak electronic toll-payment system used by Caltrans on highways around California. The FasTrak badge is a type of RFID transponder that uses radio signals to send credit card information to the radio terminal at a toll station.

While this sort of technology has been in use in California since the early 1990s, the most recent application of this technology has shown promise for the future, as well as some questionable features. Some retailers use RFID to track the whereabouts of products in stores and to have the ability to see if a certain product has been stocked improperly.

Many people fear that as RFID technology gets cheaper and easier to use it will be misused at the public's expense. Groups of privacy advocates fear a sort of Orwellian future with every individual being implanted with an RFID chip to eliminate the need for money and forms of identification, thus making us lose our individuality because they would branded like cattle.

Such startling uses have been put into practice already. Several nightclubs in Europe have implanted RFID chips in their VIP members to make it easier for them to gain access to exclusive places. While this application is quite odd, the fear of the government using RFID to track Americans is a greater fear. The government could possibly know the whereabouts of all its citizens at any given time if a nationwide application to RFID was used.

On Valentine's Day, Japanese chip maker Hitachi unveiled a new advancement in RFID technology to further any speculation of the possible misuses. Hitachi showed the world the creation of RFID powder. Hitachi developed what it calls mu-chips or .05 mm by .05 mm RFID chips, which are smaller than a grain of rice.

There were immediate speculations of the possibility that a person could be given an RFID chip and not know. It could be inconspicuously slipped into food, clothing or one's body given its ultra-small size. It even has the possibility of being embedded within a piece of paper and effortlessly track the whereabouts of any person.

Debra Bowen, who is running for Secretary of State, said in a 2003 hearing, "How would you like it if, for instance, one day you realized your underwear was reporting on your whereabouts?" There is an inherent fear that America's consumer society would be amplified even more so with corporations reporting our whereabouts in order to increase the effectiveness of advertising that would entice people to purchase more. Should Best Buy employees really know that you went to Circuit City after you discovered its prices are higher?

However, the technology's possible practical applications could rival any misuse. The U.S. government is already placing RFID chips in passports for electronic identification of citizens and to deter forgeries. If the mu-chips were to be embedded in paper and money, counterfeit documents and money could be a thing of the past. If stolen, a mu-chip unknown to the thief could be used in tracking the document in question once it passes through RFID readers in an unauthorized area. The proof of a legal document could be proven with RFID technology and $100 bills would no longer require the meticulous inspection upon its use.

Consumer buying trends, product tracking and data collection could be better than ever with the application of the technology to a greater degree.

Privacy in the United States and identification systems must balance each other out in the future with the increasing questioning and development of the RFID technology. Whether the technology can be misused will be debated for a long time; however, forms of RFID will be continuous because it's like any other technological advancement that will help people in the future.