RFID Fears
January 26, 2006 | 6 Comments
This video is a visual representation of a subset of my worst fears around RFID and digital identity. It takes a second to start, but it’s worth it.
Watching this makes my skin crawl. Don’t fool yourself into thinking this is some sort of extreme paranoid science fiction either. We’re just a few steps away from realizing this as reality. This is the scary 1984 kind of science fiction that is terribly grounded in today’s emerging technologies. I’ve been saying it for months, combining digital identity through federations with RFID and efficient indexing builds just the distopia exhibited here.
I’m glad someone has made a film that so clearly shares my fears.
Tags: 1984, chris oakley, digital identity, federated identity, federation, Fun Whatnot, identity, indexing, oakley, RFID, scary, science, science fiction, technology, tracking, video
RFID in Passports
November 3, 2005 | 3 Comments
I’ve been concerned and generally against RFID since the first time I heard about it. Maybe its because I know a little about security, or identity management, or hell even the way markketing in a digital world works. Anyway, our brilliant US State Department is planning a roll out of RFID in passports for October 2006.
From Wired, Fatal Flaw Weakens RFID Passport:
In 2004, when the U.S. State Department first started talking about embedding RFID chips in passports, the outcry from privacy advocates was huge. When the State Department issued its draft regulation in February, it got 2,335 comments, 98.5 percent negative. In response, the final State Department regulations, issued last week, contain two features that attempt to address security and privacy concerns. But one serious problem remains.
Good that they fixed a couple problems, but a ton more are certain to crop up. I feel my fears aren’t misplaced. I guess I’ll have to keep posting this negative RFID stuff to help promote awareness of this garbage.