Truth to Power •

Smile, you’re on RFID

Imagine a world where everything is fitted with an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) spychip, containing a unique ID for each of the same product to differentiate it from others, and tracked in real time.

It sounds far-fetched, but that is exactly what RFID companies like Accenture and the Auto-ID labs at MIT have been trying to do since 1999.

Products that have been fitted with RFID include Calvin Klein and Abercrombie and Fitch clothing, Kleenex and Huggies baby wipes, Toyotas after 2004, Viagra and Oxycontin prescription bottles, company loyalty and membership cards, library books, every new US passport beginning in October 2006, and many, many more that companies won’t disclose. </em>

Viagra AND Oxycontin? Who really wants to know where Rush Limbaugh is every second of the day?

James Mann

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