American consumers

RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification and is a term that will become increasingly well known as usage of new technology becomes pervasive. There is no question that tiny chips, which enable tracking of physical goods from assembly line to warehouse to retail outlet to checkstand, will replace barcodes previously used for that purpose.

Some RFID chips are tiny, they are nearly indistiguishable from dust in many cases. Photo link:

These dust sized RFID chips are capable of transmitting their own SKU (Sales Keeping Unit), same info currently encoded in barcodes, distances of up to 20 feet to an "RFID Reader". But that's not all these diminuitive little chips can do. They are capable of sending a unique serial number that can identify item it's embedded in - down to it's date and location of manufacture. Barcodes were limited to carrying information that identified classes of products. RFID carries information equivalent to product DNA, while allowing a number for every item on planet!

When that item passes an "RFID reader" at manufacturer's door, tracking system knows item has passed out of building. Another reader signals that it has now passed into a train or plane to be shipped to a warehouse, where another reader tracks arrival and storage information, then successive readers know it passes to truck, grocery shelf, retail check- stand and out door. All of this can now be accomplished without opening containers, leading to huge cost savings throughout "supply chain".

Privacy issues don't arise until consumers link that chain. Walmart is now REQUIRING their 100 largest suppliers to use RFID tags at pallet level. Meaning that those tags are currently in use to identify and track groups of products as they arrive at Walmart warehouse up until shelving at giant retailer. Some products, such as Gillette razors, had been testing individual item tracking up until final sale and removal from Walmart store. Privacy advocates slowed that practice by launching a boycott of Gillette.

If privacy concerns over tracking of a single product through store to sale caused slowing of implementation of this technology, what can we expect when EVERY product is RFID tagged? There is no doubt this is coming and not in distant future, but within next 5 years or so. The US Department of Defense is now requiring ALL vendors to use RFID technology and embed tags in products sold to US military by next year.