As with any technology, it is how it is used that is the most important aspect. (Is it just me, or is it wierd that both a swastika and the number 666 are on this chip?)
In 2005, the actions of a small-town school district in Northern California set off a chain of events that could lead to ground-breaking legislation limiting the use of RFID in California and, if other states pick up the rallying call, across the nation.
Last year the Brittan Elementary School District in Sutter, Calif., required all its students to wear an ID badge implanted with a radio-frequency chip. The badges, which stored a 15-digit identifier for each student, were intended to be used as an attendance aid. Parents, however, were up in arms over the practice, which many said violated their kids’ privacy rights.
As a result, state Sen. Joseph Simitian, a Democrat from Palo Alto, authored a bill introducing security and privacy measures around the use of radio-frequency identification—particularly in government ID documents. The bill is sitting on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk; he has until the end of September to either veto it or sign it into law.
There should definitely be legislation regulating how and where RFID is to be used. The potential for abuse by public, private, and government organizations is tremendous.
Here’s an interesting rant site about RFID.
Children have privacy rights?
I recognize the slippery slope argument, but this in and of itself sounds like a good idea.
(Is it just me, or is it wierd that both a swastika and the number 666 are on this chip?)
Fortunately it’s just you, this is a doctored image according to the rant site. 🙂
As a parent, using tags in school seems like an exceedingly good idea. Just what is the downside?
I AM ALL FOR IT. THAT WAY I CAN BUY THE COMPANY STOCK THAT GETS THE NO BID CONTRACT (PROLLY A BUSH OR RUMSFELD OWNED COMPANY)TO R.F. IMPLANT US ALL AND I CAN MAKE SOME CASH.
AND I WILL BE ABLE TO TRACK MYSELF FROM MY LAPTOP. BONUS
Do you remember years back when they came out with a computer chip I think before the pentium their was a strange ink print on the chip that can be seen under a microscope.
Everyone was surprised how it got their and then it was learned that the chip designer put it their as his signature.
Smart ALIX please don’t edit this for being too long!
Thanks, Richard
#1 –
Yes. Children have privacy rights. Not so much from their parents, but from the rest of us they do.
Still, it’s an RFID chip in a badge, presumably on a lanyard or a clip… It isn’t injected in the arm or anything…
I want to know the range of system’s tracking capability. Can this only locate a child at school? Or, can this be used outside of school? Can a third party locate a child with this system?
It seems safety issues are the paramount concern, and I want to know that it is completely safe to use.
If it is, THEN I will oppose it on privacy grounds. What did you expect? I’m a member of ACLU.
Privacy is a joke. We are all on the internet where a few with the know-how could easily access all our files, documents, pictures from our drives (by default, Windows XP leaves hidden shares and a no password Administrator account). Really, privacy is a joke today. There is really no way to combat this except for one way, which is to not save anything on hard disk drives. Just keep memories locked in your heads not on files. That also means that we must not value the past. With these RFID tags, the government could implant one of these into our bodies as soon as we are born. What you are thinking would not only be known to Big Brother, but He will have the technology to make you think what He wants. Kowtow to BB. WE WORSHIP HIM.
The basic RFID system does not include any real-time locating systems (RTLS). You can think of an RFID system in this application like an optical bar code we’re all familiar with. The readers are probably mounted above classroom doors, and they simply detect the tags that go through the doorway. Range on these is likely no more than three feet either side of the door. The system can only tell you that Billy crossed the threshold in Room 101 at 8:15 am, and again at 9:05 am, and that’s it.
So at some level, the system can assume that a student is in a particular place, but unless he walks past a reader as you are watching the system console you can’t say for sure where anybody is at any given moment. Basic tags cannot do real-time locating.
As for safety, RFID readers put out less power then you get aimed into your head from cell phones, when you consider the proximity to RFID antennas and your cell phone antenna. If you have a pacemaker, you don’t want to stand in front of an RFID antenna for a long time, same as everything else that runs at 915 MHz. I’ve never heard of any legit personal safety issues with RFID. Heck, you probably have one in your car already, and it reads the ignition key.
#5
If the tracking system only works in a limited range of the school, then this seems to fit well within the rights of the school to monitor the children.
If it can and would be used to track kids all over town, then there’s a problem… and a scenario where that ACLU card would come in handy.
Outside of school these tags are the same as passports. Except, the kid is in his hometown on a school bus as opposed to a foreign country, and lots of kids will have tags which contain a meaningless student number. Not sure what that gets you that you in addition to what you can already get six different ways w/o RFID.
The problem is that they are readable outside of school. So, as an example, a mall could read the tags to find out which kids from which school on what days are coming to the mall after school. All kinds of such schemes are possible.
wasnt the swastika an ancient indian (as in the sub-continent india)
symbol of peace? I seem to remember hearing that once
I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. So what if these kids wear a badge at school. Many companies have badge system for security uses. Plus, its not as if the school district can track these kids when they leave campus, so who gives a crap.
If they were proposing implants or some crap, then that would be out of line. People need to remove the large cylindrical organic material from their collective asses and get pissed off about something that matters….. *cough* Congress *cough*
If you’d like to learn more about what the legislation does, there’s a fact sheet from the Electronic Frontier Foundation here:
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/RFID/sb768_fact_sheet.php
The Governor will make a decision by the end of this week whether to sign the bill or not. If you live in California and want to express an opinion, his contact info is here:
http://gov.ca.gov/site/contact-governor
Just curious, but do you think 3 before the 666 is a reference to the Third Reich as well? 🙂 Me too… and the twin towers blew themselves up and the Queen of England is a reptile. 🙂
10, But so what? Today’s student ID is readable too, if they’re wearing it. Picture and name, right on the front.
The stuff on the RFID tag is meaningless anyway…Student #24357. That’s less than you can get now by reading their license plate number with your eyes, or a VIN, and going online.
BTW, you probably have a tag on your car keys right now. Are you paranoid about that? 🙂
#7 – Thanks for the explanation. I appreciate it.
#8 – I really do agree with you. I just think it’s fun to play with the temperure dial on the conservative oven.
#12 – well, Gee… This actually does matter. Privacy is going to be the hot button political issue for several decades and this is part of a privacy issue. As a society we are going to working to define the boundries of privacy, what we will accept, and what we won’t, and it will be done through debate, the courts, legislation, and on accossion, violence… Just like civil rights. If you think these issues are really all that cut and dried, then you aren’t thinking at all.
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At the end of the day, I think we’ll decide that the use of this technology in this way represents an additional degree of safety for our children and doesn’t really violate anyone’s rights (not that our rights as they relate to privacy are clearly defined yet).
But the amazing degree of potential for abuse, political coersion, espienage, fraud, etc, will cause even the most innocuous technologies to face stiff opposition going forward.
Good. That means the society is still functioning the way it should be.
See? The ACLU isn’t completely useless…
I think it’s weird that you spelled weird wrong…
I like the look of the chip doctored or not it fits perfectly.