RFID: Spy vs. Spy

With apologies to Sergio Aragones, the brilliant cartoonist of Mad Magazine’s Spy vs. Spy, I want to chat about RFID chips, those miniature devices that allow us to track the movement of inventory. I am a fan of this technology and often have my students write briefs on the integration of RFID into warehouse management systems and the retail supply chain. I even have an RFID chip in my car! It is in the toll transponder on my windshield. But are we being spied upon?

I’ve also written some about RFID and it was during one of my interviews that I ran into Katherine Albrecht, a Harvard educated RFID privacy expert. My conversation with her was years ago when RFID was really in its infancy. But, as the technology has grown so has Albrecht’s influence and reach. She feels that RFID chips are intrusive and a way for government and corporations to track our movements. She’s written a series of books called Spychips and they look to be interesting reads. If her books are as interesting as our conversation was, they are must reads.

RFID, a logistics panacea or an invasion of privacy? I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but……!