No chipping away at privacy. We're shooting down a spy seattelite to keep everybody happy!

No, but Joe's right -- the country won't go for it -- we're still rob[]ing ourselves.

That's just they way it goes. The bible says there will always be wars.

Nonsense -- let have summits now, and get it over with. Man, the President has a tough job.

NO WAY! It takes away all privacy. Where would the line be drawn? I would never buy anything with an RFID.

Can anyone say "1984"? Most of the younger generation have not read this book, which is very difficult to find in a library.

Even though this book was written many years ago the insite as what was going to happen in the future was spot on.

We are unknowingly giving up our rights on a daily basis and soon will become a police state unless our rights are restored and the goverment gets out of our daily lives.

Very Concerned.

If this guy selling these chips is too lazy to look in his own refrigerator to see whats in there or see if something is outdated,then I believe he is the same type of individual to sell out his country for a buck.He and people like him, disgust me.These chips WILL NOT make this country better, they will only serve the power hungry elites to find more ways to control the masses and fill thier sick need to control all they see.

The potential for abuse is staggering. With the government's current "everybody's a terrorist" campaign, it's not a great leap to believe the same warrantless wiretap philosophy would be applied here as well. So much for innocent until proven guilty and no search and seizure without "reasonable cause". Ah, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are overrated and bothersome.

Wonderful technologies seem, with great regularity, to be used with the lowest bar of morality. Take early genetic testing for tragic diseases for example. Wonderful for early treatment. Unfortunately, very soon I fear insurance companies will use the same technology to for early denial of coverage. Great!?! You know you have a terrible disease which is curable. Sorry, you've been denied coverage to pay for it so you're dead.

If have used a NEXUS card for the past five years. This is an RFID card issued by Customs to allow expedited border crossing to our north. It is a tremendous time saver. The border crossings use the same white square scanners shown in your story. They occasionally fail to scan even when you are very close to them. My only concern with it is potential ID theft. I hope that the government’s system deals with that possibility.

Your concerns are overblown by ignorance of the unknown. If you are really concerned about someone snatching your ID off of your enhancesed drivers license, simply wrap it in aluminum foil. The transmitters and recievers use such low power, that simple foil can keep it from talking electricly.

Does anybody read the Bible? This is one more way for the government and the antichrist to track us and take away the last of our privacy. Next, microchips in people and then ? I will never agree to any microchip. What kind of world are we leaving for our children ?

You know I thought people were getting smarter in the world today but I guesse they are getting dummer why are they wanting to put tracking chips into people? The government wants total control as it is ,for people that are suppose to be "self governed" but people tend to forget that we have rites and allow things to slide because they are too scared or just to lazy to fight for what is rite people need not just to remember the rites that Washington ,Jefferson ,Madison ,Linclon ,and all the outhers ,fought for but the comments made from them when they wrote the Declaration of Independence should also be remembered and put into efect. I think your computer chip is foolish and shows the real ignorence bye the people running this country

The Will Smith movie, Enemy of the State comes to mind. It's not the people who use the technology responsible about whom we have to worry. The future must live with our mistakes. Tread lightly on thin ice.

If you notice the video, the RFID chips are part of the regular garment tags, where the standard bar code is located.

If you're like 99.99999% of all people who remove these annoying tags after purchasing, then the problem is solved: no possibility of tracking you after purchase. This is a trivially easy solution and I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned in Robert Mak's piece.

Weaving the tags into the fabric is ridiculous - and people would understandably not stand for that- and no company would dare to do so out of fear of a public relations fiasco.

If you notice the video, the RFID chips are part of the regular garment tags, where the standard bar code is located.

If you're like 99.99999% of all people who remove these annoying tags after purchasing, then the problem is solved: no possibility of tracking you after purchase. This is a trivially easy solution and I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned in Robert Mak's piece.

Weaving the tags into the fabric is ridiculous - and people would understandably not stand for that- and no company would dare to do so out of fear of a public relations fiasco.

There are some technologies,that we should just walk away from. I have no problem if you are tracking boxes in a warehouse, but if it is inside a product the consumer must be able to disable it. If it is in our drivers license or passport, again, the ability to read it must be closely monitored and restricted by law.

“He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16-17

Like the person said above, these things are gonna be like stickers, so just peel them off and get over it.

As RFID Technology and lower costs advances there is a great need for it from the inventory and prevention aspect side of business.

For the future though, improper use of as in electronic cracking of an ID badge is of a greater concern to a company's security.

RFID is here to stay. The improper use of information gathered for wrongful intentions is one avenue that we all such care about.

This nonsense about "Just cover it in foil" and "Just peel the [stickers] off" show the real ignorance of truth of many in our society. Either that, or they cannot wait for all of us to be tracked so they can keep their eyes on us.

Why do you think these things are going to be designed to simply be readable from a short distance? Just like pc's originally had very limited power, they have continually improved, to the point that the original pc's are completely irrelevant in today's world when compared to pc's of even 20 years ago, much less to when I first worked with them.

With the exponential power increases of the last few years, you cannot rationally argue that the ability to track people in their own homes will too far into the future. And that's even if the military quits investing in this technology immediately.

The only thing that will stop the "authorities" (whoever is interested at the moment) from pervasively tracking people they deem "to be of interest" will be legislation and consequences for violating your privacy (you phone and internet are already being monitored).

Have you ever been to a slaughter house and witnessed the animals as they approach their end? Sad as that is, it doesn't compare to watching people willingly go along with the progressive dimination of their freedoms. Even the animals have a sense of impending doom.

The next logical invention, a device to kill the RFID at exits of stores. People should have a choice to turn them off.
In some cases RFID can not be removed, they can be embedded in a product.
They have silicon, lead etc...another great toxin load for landfills.
So picture a thief reading what is in your house...

this should be illegal in conection with peoples privacy ... keep that with the industry ... not on Licenses and not on peoples items ...

I'd boycot any store that used this and I'd stand up and say no to any employer that tried to do this at work. I'd immediately contact my union representative.

If a store can track my clothes in the store, they can give that information to the government or other companies to track me outside the store.

It's the same thing for work. There's nothing stopping the company from trying to track me outside of work.

This entire thing horrifies me.

The problem isn't with the technology, its with the use of it in ID cards... The government should not have encouraged the use of it in ID cards without feedback from the people as that is the area of use that people are most concerned with. There are multiple different types of RFID chips that require different types of readers. AS long as the same type of chip isn't used for both ID cards and consumer products there isn't too much of a problem in my mind. In the meantime, we should tell Mr. Morris to work on controlling the use in ID's before he starts worrying about people being able to buy their ketchup in a hurry.

Great- it'z the end of the world

& it would be a company N Seattle to kicc it all off...

I think that it's more the white, conservative, male "right" who pushes for & supports these kind of things-

If it ain't broke (that broke) then don't fix it

This is another way for Man to try & play God. We as human beings have gotten so smart that we've made a full 360 & landed right back at $tupid...

RECEIVE NOT THE MARK!

No to RFID chip. "Big Brother" ring a bell?
Also being a Christian I will not have a chip or be tagged in any way.

I don't know what "being a christian" has to do with anything on this topic but you knew this was going to happen as soon as we started plugging in and tracking our dogs and cats. Beta testing has been done on fido and fluffy so now its off to the big market we go. Any retail outlet, internet or store front, that decides this is a good thing will only see the back side of me walking out their door. Inventory control? Fine...use it and enjoy but keep it out of my house and in yours.

RFID will be used to discriminate.

Stores such as Safeway already discriminate using their “club card” by creating two classes of customers. One of these classes (those who will not allow Safeway to track them for privacy, racial or religious reason) they charge and extra penalty price on their purchases. When Safeway uses RFID on each shopping cart now they can increase the discrimination to change different prices for each customer based on whatever criteria they wish.
A test store is already doing this. Here is a link to document this claim:
http://www.spychips.com/metro/albrecht-tour-2.html

Safeway has proven that they cannot be trusted to be fair and honest.
Phil Lyon was innocent and falsely arrested based on false information that Safeway gave to the police.
He was later cleared when the real criminal confessed.
If Safeway lies to the police why would you believe they would not lie to us about how the will use the information gathered about the “club” members.

This is the mark of the beast. Sounds far fetched but read in the bible. The prophecy has spoken and it is all coming true. Once this chip starts being put in humans (which it already has) it will control everything. We will not be able to buy, sell, or trade without it. Read this Revelation 13:16-18 (New International Version)

"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark."

This will be the mark, when the anti christ comes. Our stores, our markets are already doing this and people are getting it in them, meaning that eventually, WE WILL need one to buy or sell. RECIEVE NOT THE MARK!

The problem with those Huckabee folks it the settle for McCain. The Mark of the Beast really got going with the Nixon wiretapes of the early 60s. But they just don't see it. The Patriot Act, is fine, but the people who started it &
ALWAYS want to step it up a notch are (R). Not so?

Fasism is from the right, that's what I learned in school. Just too many example of that--ongoing.

Yep. Doesn't take a rocket-scientist to figure that out.

I've got news for all of you. What should scare you the very most when reading all of these postings, is the fact that 90 percent of the writers cannot even spell correctly or string a simple, coherent, and grammatically correct sentence together. This graphically demonstrates what will ultimately be our undoing. The only news is the history you didn't learn. We in this country have put such a high premium on having stuff and such a low premium on education and learning, we are drowning with information and technology and starved for knowledge. But every time you shrug your shoulders and say, "Who cares?" about spelling correctly and using proper punctuation, learning math, history, geography, and English, you are giving up your ability to make your own decisions and your power to defend yourself against those who seek to control you. See a connection?

C'mon people...relax. RFID chips cannot track you, or anything malicious. For one they dont have any power, and without power they cant do anything active, such as transmit your location. They are easy to find and remove, or destroy them by cutting the leads. You should be more concerned about the GPS in your cell phones, which does track your location, and of course your phone records, which the Govt seems to be able to view.

Punctuation. Daddy Bush doesn't care if you have good diction, as long as you work. The fact is people don't understand, that we are still living with Eisenhowers troops -- that gave us a heart_attack.

Enough said. Sue, I think you get too carried away with *syntax and not enough,,on meaning.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

SafetyJoe. Whatever the statement, where's your period.?

If the RFID chip is ever put into common sales practice, I will make a habit of running a high-powered neodymium magnet over every new item I ever purchase. Better yet, I may only buy used items from eBay. So much for inventory.

M. Lacey - are you serious? The younger generation hasn't read 1984? I really love it when the "older generation" makes assumptions about the "younger generation" based upon ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. The vast majority of my average high school aged friends have read 1984, and it's required reading in a lot of schools.

Bill that is great if a magnet would work, but it would not work.

Also you will not be allowed to buy or even shop without a tracking chip like the one the state is going to put in your ID card/ drivers license.

You already cannot shop at Costco without a drivers license linked to your membership card unless you pay a penalty surcharge, a sort of costco jizrah.

They are good at hiding the chips and they will only get better at it.

What I find truly disturbing is not the emergence of new technology, but the fact that so many of you are living your lives based on the ravings of a madman from thousands of years ago. Religion is obsolete. Mark of the Beast? Please, you're only embarrassing yourselves. You said the same thing about the UPC code when it first came out, and Satan still hasn't shown up. Know why? Because he's make-believe. Just like God. Time to get rid of the fairy tales and start behaving like grown-ups.
As for the invasion of privacy, there are bigger battles to be fought than anti-theft tags. How about the fact that a branch of government led by religious nut-cases has decided that they need to be able to listen to your phone conversations without a warrant. That is truly frightening, and is being perpetrated by "good Christians" that you elected.

Washington State is pushing the inhanced ID in compliance with Dept of homeland Security (DHS)
the compliance is called the Western Hemishere travel initative. This term implies that it goes beyound the US borders and could possibly include all of the western hemispere: Canada, Mexico, Central America and South America?

There is debate about "chipping" infants, Dr's bring up the possiblity that the chips will cause cancer in the infant. Is "chipping" your child the same as "chipping your pet? hmmmm.

The world went digital with a slient whisper, no more analog, companies knew about this months and years ago, and we got a short blurb on 11 o'clock news that at midnight analog is gone. Not because of consumer input want or spending patterns, "some group" decided to make laws for digital to come into being.

Pres Clinton (D) put into effect the changing of some national parks and national forests to national monuments. This means that they are considered "national treasues" off limits to the civilian population, but not off limits to the military. The American tax payers pay for the upkeep of these national monuments and are not able to enjoy them for recreation.

No matter what you believe, your life as you know changed and will never be the same. Technology has advanced far beyond what the media and government is telling us: are we losing our privacy and our freedom?

How much of what has been said in this blog related to RFIDs, DHS and Government control (From both parties),

It is left for us to decide: To be informed or to follow blindly where "they" want us to go.

ps:
The Bible indicates that Satan already is the ruler of the world.
He offered rule to Jesus when temping Him with rule over all that could be seen. Satan has been ruling on earth along time.

"...fast and reliable read performance up to a range of 40 ft..."

Privacy?
LOL!
"Knock, Knock, Homeland Security!, We're here for your RFID scans, hand 'em over!"

-----------
Motorola's RFID Cargo Tag offers the durability and flexibility your cargo and asset tracking applications require.

Its rugged design tolerates 24-hour-a-day exposure to nearly any environmental condition including natural and incandescent light, vibration, shock, rain, dust, oil and chemicals. And its flexible mounting options enable attachment to nearly any flat surface - including metal, plastic and wood. With Motorola's patented tag technology, you'll get accurate, fast and reliable read performance up to a range of 40 ft./12.19m for your enterprise applications.

Kaye: It great to believe in a hirer power, nothing wrong with it. But, to throw in the towel.

That's the problem with those people, I find.

Sheesh, even the Huskster has probably had an affair.

The Devil is not in the details.

Let's just get it right -- that is our choice.
(not to be bamfoozled)

I have read all the posts before mine, and all I have to say is that very few of you have really done your homework. You are just saying whatever you have been told by someone else that didn't do his or her homework either.

The RFID tags have NO POWER they are powered by the reader. Ergo they cannot be used to track you in open areas (like in an earlier post, worry about your POWERED GPS cell phones that everyone has, they CAN be used to track every move you make). RFID tags could be used to track things from a VERY short distance. So, if you have one and you were using it for northern border travel, the border agent would have to actually handle the RFID (EDL) to read it.

Plus, with the new EDL's they come with a protective sleeve that PREVENTS ANY UNWANTED TRANSMISSIONS!

Go read up on things before you beat them down!

If you don't see where this is going, type "Florida family RFID chip" in a search engine.

If it has no power and can't track your location, then why are they trying to sell it as a kidnapping deterrent?

Cory, I went and looked up the family in Florida. Apparently you didn’t understand or read the article. BUT this is a direct quote from it, and I will explain what it means after.

"All of the individuals will be fitted with a capsule-shaped device known as the VeriChip. Made by Applied Digital Solutions (Palm Beach, Fla.), the VeriChip includes a 125-kHz RFID chip, an electromagnetic coil for transmitting data and a tuning capacitor, all in a silicone-and-glass enclosure measuring 11.1 x 2.1 mm."

They will be fitted with NOT JUST A RFID CHIP. This is something called VeriChip and it DOES include transmitting power through a power and sending device with an RFID chip embedded for information to be sent and stored. It is like saying that all laptops have wireless (cell phone) internet. BUT for a laptop to get onto wireless internet, it needs more then just the computer, but the wireless card and the software to run it. The RFID chip is the computer with no wireless card and the VeriChip is the computer with the wireless card and all the associated software.

In this blog we are talking about just the RFID chip, not the other parts like a device to power them or transmit data.

The chips that would be placed into WA's EDL and into consumer products would be just the chip, powered by the scanner. NOT what is talked about here with an electromagnetic coil, which is what gives the families chips the ability to be tracked.

www.freedomtofascism.com educate yourself from experts on this topic and many others

People, you are a fool to believe that it would start and stop just at retail clothing ....please think with a little vision here That will only be the beginning

First it will or could element jobs but also make retailers costs go down making products at the store less expensive. It would be possible to track you but only to a point the receiver in the chip and the scanner would have to be within close proximity to get a reading. The chips and the scanners could also be made so that the the chip has two numbers; one for each individual store and one for the individual product therefor limiting the scanning possibility's from far distinctnesses. limiting the scanning possibility's could also be a drawback because if some one steals something from the store the store and police could not track the suspect who is unknowingly has a stolen item with an FRID tag and is being tracked by the police. It's not the perfect technology but I don't think think there ever will be a perfect technology.

"Why do you think these things are going to be designed to simply be readable from a short distance? Just like pc's originally had very limited power, they have continually improved..."
Actually, the RFID standards second version deliberately decreased scanning range... this is why technophiles like the folks at slashdot.org were up in arms when the state dept went with version 1 tags in our passports...

I see the pro's of this technology, but the cons far outweigh them. Just because we can create a technology, doesn't mean we should or have to use it.

If RFID goes mainstream, I will simply avoid any company that uses them, no matter how inconvenient it is for me, because the companies that use them are not thinking about the consumers, they are thinking about themselves.

Another note, I see RFID chips as a way to market and advertise us to death. Can you imagine how obnoxious it will be every time you touch something or move it from one place to another to trigger a device to "suggest" things to you constantly? I already avoid websites with lots of ads, especially pop-ups, but RFID will be like having pop up ads in the real world.
No thank you.

Any technology can be used for good or for bad....for well intentioned reasons....for reasons that are not so glorious.

What's perceived as keeping someone safe may be twisted by others to become that person's downfall.

I don't know about the good or bad part of RFID, all I know is "IT IS" (and probably evermore shall be).

Now how can we send this new technology in positive directions? NOTE: positive as perceived by the person contributing the point.

Everything has +'s and -'s. Life is compromise but we need to draw a line at some point. Remember life is the other name of "COMPROMISE" and we cannot compromise with things threatening or have possible threat against civil liberties.

This is one of those things where you need to weigh the pros and cons. this technology could revolutionize our country, think, we could put these in our IDs or money to make counterfeiting harder. Manufacturers could put these in weapons so police could tell if someone close by is armed. People here who say that the government is against us forget about voting. If you dont like this try to pass a law against it, lets let the people decide.

I'm thinking the tag in the cloths we buy will not have any information other than that which pertains to that particular item. And I also believe that once the tag has been read at the register, a kill tag command could be sent to the tag when you pass by a transmitter on your way out of the store making the tag useless. I also believe these tags can be encrypted so the data can only be read by authorized readers and that just because you have a reader does not mean you can read the data from a tag. Chances are even if you could you would only get information that would look like this, 15646549841249716665245541+65. If you don’t have a database to match up the data with then you have no useful information.

I watched the evenings news on this subject. and I read through some of the blogs that were written. I was wondering if anyone at the station is a christian or reads the bible. Doesn't it say that our bodies are to be treated like temples? If someone over indulges in drink, food, or what- ever. Are they not sinning against God. Wouldn't putting foreign objects in our bodies be just as sinful. Maybe it's not being done yet, but we're being acclimated to these chips by the gradual extent on how it's being used. First it was the farm animals and pets. This was being advertised on the television last year. But this technology has been around for years and being used in the farming industry around the world. This tech- nology is being put forth in these last days to stop man's communion with God. The idea is to put one in every human on earth. All information
about your personal and credit history could be read by anyone with a scanner and computer. Privacy will certainly go out the window. Fact or fiction? Just watch. The only reason that these would be needed was for and out of greed and turn aside your spiritual beliefs. Trust in God or the devil. What do you want?

P.S. I read Ken's tag as it was just above me when writing this. The chips carry no sort of batteries to energize them, as the scanners pass over them the scanners will automatically read the chips, they will be energized by frequency put out by the scanner. And there will be no
"kill commands". The idea at this point is to follow an object (if it were stolen) and be more readily able to track it. The same idea is to be used on humans. If you don't go along with the status quo you will be ostracized, hunted and persecuted. Humanity reduced to a number and by what your willing to commit yourself to. Aren't we a wonderful species to do this to ourselves?
No, this hasn't happened yet, but you can bet they're lining up they're ducks. When is humanity going to make the stand and put this demonic scheme back in the bottle? In all truth and the bottom line is you've got to look at this in a spiritual context. The war is on for your souls, ladies and gentlemen, the war is on. It's up to you to tell this government what is good for this country, because if this country's government continues to proceed in this direction it will have turned away from God.

I feel like you are all so paranoid. You are probably the same people who freak out when I ask for your ID when you are paying me with a check. Yet you jump with joy when I hand you coupons for your favorite products, coupons that are generated from the information we get from your "loyalty shopper card". Get over it, if someone wants your private information they are going to find it. Yes you could argue that there is no reason for us to make it easier for them to get your private information, but why let the worry consume you? The only vaild point I read that is against this technology was from the person who wrote about "pop up ads", I too find them rather annoying.

I feel like you are all so paranoid. You are probably the same people who freak out when I ask for your ID when you are paying me with a check. Yet you jump with joy when I hand you coupons for your favorite products, coupons that are generated from the information we get from your "loyalty shopper card". Get over it, if someone wants your private information they are going to find it. Yes you could argue that there is no reason for us to make it easier for them to get your private information, but why let the worry consume you? The only vaild point I read that is against this technology was from the person who wrote about "pop up ads", I too find them rather annoying.