Afraid that your new electronics equipment from Best Buy is spying on you? It’s that tiny chip on the merchandise, hardly big enough see, that transmits radio signals that is causing all the anxiety.
Had those phony National Guard memos that Dan Rather and CBS tried to pass off been equipped with radio frequency identification chips, then maybe the entire episode would have never gone as far as it did—because we could have traced them to their origin.
But that’s a silly suggestion—this is real: Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an emerging technology that will save businesses, and therefore consumers, tens of billions of dollars.
RFID chips allow retailers and manufacturers to track goods as they move from factories to stores. The chips are read as they pass through shipping docks, warehouses and finally to sales floors. That allows businesses to efficiently monitor inventories. Having either too many or not enough goods ready for sale can doom a company.
Ditto when too many of those goods leave stores without making the requisite pass by the cash register. Placing RFID chips on items can stop a lot of losses due to theft.
They could also ease the often lengthy checkout process. Retailers envision a day when customers can walk right out, purchases in hand, their RFID credit cards automatically charged by readers placed at stores’ exits. No lines means no whines.
Is there a price that consumers will have to pay for all the benefits of RFID? Some privacy advocates are warning that the technology will lead to intrusions.
But there are ways consumers can be guaranteed privacy without government intervention. Stores could deactivate the tags at the time of purchase or affix them to packaging rather than on the item. The market will work out the details to consumers’ satisfaction—if the new technology is given a chance.