A billboard about you

Imagine cruising up I-75 when a billboard changes its message to greet you by name. Then, a personalized ad appears, enticing you to buy a product in which you have expressed interest in the past. Amusing? Or is it more like a nightmare from Orwell's "1984"?

It could happen soon. With the implementation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), we humans can now be tracked quite easily. One example of this technology is those E-ZPass cards, which you may have used on the interstates. A driver mounts a small plastic card on the inside of his windshield and just sails through the toll booths. A tracking device scans the card and automatically debits his bank account. Now, the State of Ohio knows all sorts of information about him and has its grubby hands in his pocket. I'm sure politicians won't try to take advantage of that.

In the past, RFID chips were used for tracking machine parts in factories and counting farm animals. Harmless enough, but recently, a doctor in England had a chip surgically implanted in his arm so that he can buy drinks in a bar without having to reach for his wallet. Creepy.

In the United States, regulation of RFIDs is in the competent hands of the Federal Communications Commission, the same folks who went into palpitations about Janet Jackson's right breast but who continue to allow the bloodiest fictional mayhem into our living rooms every night. In China, a Communist country, the Ministry of Information is responsible for overseeing the use of RFID. That gives you a nice warm feeling, doesn't it?

Privacy advocates are going crazy, and I must admit a few alarms went off in my brain as well as I read more about this new technology. Visit Engadget.com/2007/01/13/mini-usa-rolls-out-rfid-activated-billboards and decide for yourself.

One big concern is that if the highway bureaucrats are able to track us, don't you think the bad guys out there can find, buy or steal an RFID reader and get our personal data? Do you think it might be possible to stalk someone this way? I'm sure RFIDs are making the con artists positively giddy at the prospect of picking someone clean without worrying about nasty personal confrontations. Now, it's just a few keystrokes from a remote location. The potential for abuse is staggering.

How about this scenario? You purchase a product and are never told it contains a tag that transmits information about you to a third party. Or let's say you buy an RFID-tagged item with your credit card. How hard would it be to combine databases and cross-match to get all of the personal information that is embedded in your credit card? People with an RFID scanner can now see what you purchase, where you have been, when you went there and then combine that with your social security number, address and name. Divorce lawyers must be drooling.

A technical Web site, Arstechnica.com, said a bug in this system could affect airport baggage operations, making passengers' passport data available to anyone who cares to log on. As if this weren't enough to worry about, there have been some studies that show implanted RFID chips have caused tumors in test animals. For an Associated Press story on that, go to here: Medicalnewstoday.com/articles/82032.php. Of course, VeriChip Corp, the maker of these devices, says those reports are absurd.

Check out a book called, "How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID," by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre. These women look at the technology from a religious perspective and believe that RFID chips were prophesized and have some connection to the mark of the beast. Actually, I always thought that about Carrot Top, but that's a different article.

With RFIDs you could get your own personalized billboard, or maybe a lot more.