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Friday, October 24, 2003
Big Brother Comes to the Classroom:
Remember RFID? They are basically external microchips that broadcast a unique ID, allowing them to be tracked easily. WalMart has been at the forefront in implementing their use, seeking to replace the UPC bar code with RFIDs.
Well, now a charter school in Buffalo has decided to implement RFIDs to track the attendence of students at the school. Coming soon: tracking library, nurse, and office visits. Every student will have a tracking dossier.
While being able to track your kids makes sense in some way, I don't like this technology. The potential for abuse is enormous. I also don't like these kids serving as essentially a test bed for the technology. If it serves their purposes here, why not track employees in large companies? Why not track everyone, for that matter?
I agree with privacy consultant Richard Smith:
I think the Buffalo experiment is getting children ready for the brave new world, where people are watched 24/7 in the name of security. My main concern is that once we start carrying around RFID-tagged items on our person such as access cards, cell phones, loyalty cards, clothing, etc., we can be tracked without our knowledge or permission by a network of RFID readers attached to the Internet."
That about sums up my view. Once we start down the slippery slope of tracking people, there will only be an increase in the implementation of such ideas. To wit, Intuitek President David M. Straitiff, whose company developed the RFID system for the school, scoffs that abuse of the system would become an issue. It's precisely that cavalier attitude about RFIDs that makes them dangerous. Labels: Archives_2003
.: posted by
Dave
11:13 AM
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