Thursday, November 13 - “RFID vs. Consumer Privacy"
Have you taken an RFID home with you? RFID chips, tiny tracking devices the size of a speck of dust, can be used to secretly identify you and the things you're carrying. Data can be read right through clothes, wallet, backpack, and purse.
RFID is a consumer goods tracking system that couples radio frequency (RF) identification technology with highly miniaturized wireless computers to enable products to be identified and tracked at any point along the supply chain and beyond with profound implications for consumer privacy.
If you have "keyless" entry to your car, or use an Exxon Speedpass to buy gas, you're using RFID. If you live on the East or West coasts, you probably use FasTrak or EZPass to pay highway tolls from your car without stopping; both systems use RFID technology. The United States Department of Defense uses RFID for military supply chain for everything purchased by the U.S. military -- from beans to bullets and from toothpaste to toilets to tanks.
RFID can be used on ANY physical item with unique information in an embedded chip. The chip sends out an identification signal allowing it to communicate with reader devices and other products embedded with similar chips. The “smart tag” with RFID has a very small radio transmitter that is inactive (like a bar code) until it receives a radio signal. When it does, it broadcasts one piece of information. It sends its serial number back to a master radio, where it is recorded in a database to identify and track every item.
What will the future look like when EVERY belonging is marked with a unique number identifiable with the swipe of a scanner; when the refrigerator or medicine cabinet keeps track of its contents; when the location of a car or a cell phone is always pinpoint-able; and when signal-emitting microchips storing personal information can be implanted beneath the skin or embedded in inner organs?
Will RFID technology be limited to supply chain management where companies can keep track of the quantity of a product in stock? Will personal privacy be discarded as our every move is "tracked" into a database? What are the implications (pro and con) of RFID?
REGISTER: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm
Time: 9:00 and 10:00 AM (CENTRAL time zone)
Format: 45-minutes formatted into 30-minute presentation and 15-20 minute Q & A
Cost: $75 per site
Questions: Chandra Allison, at (615) 322-6511 or email chandra.allison@vanderbilt.edu
Patsy Partin, M. Ed
Director, Virtual School
Vanderbilt University
2007 Terrace Place
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 322-6384
Have you taken an RFID home with you? RFID chips, tiny tracking devices the size of a speck of dust, can be used to secretly identify you and the things you're carrying. Data can be read right through clothes, wallet, backpack, and purse.
RFID is a consumer goods tracking system that couples radio frequency (RF) identification technology with highly miniaturized wireless computers to enable products to be identified and tracked at any point along the supply chain and beyond with profound implications for consumer privacy.
If you have "keyless" entry to your car, or use an Exxon Speedpass to buy gas, you're using RFID. If you live on the East or West coasts, you probably use FasTrak or EZPass to pay highway tolls from your car without stopping; both systems use RFID technology. The United States Department of Defense uses RFID for military supply chain for everything purchased by the U.S. military -- from beans to bullets and from toothpaste to toilets to tanks.
RFID can be used on ANY physical item with unique information in an embedded chip. The chip sends out an identification signal allowing it to communicate with reader devices and other products embedded with similar chips. The “smart tag” with RFID has a very small radio transmitter that is inactive (like a bar code) until it receives a radio signal. When it does, it broadcasts one piece of information. It sends its serial number back to a master radio, where it is recorded in a database to identify and track every item.
What will the future look like when EVERY belonging is marked with a unique number identifiable with the swipe of a scanner; when the refrigerator or medicine cabinet keeps track of its contents; when the location of a car or a cell phone is always pinpoint-able; and when signal-emitting microchips storing personal information can be implanted beneath the skin or embedded in inner organs?
Will RFID technology be limited to supply chain management where companies can keep track of the quantity of a product in stock? Will personal privacy be discarded as our every move is "tracked" into a database? What are the implications (pro and con) of RFID?
REGISTER: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm
Time: 9:00 and 10:00 AM (CENTRAL time zone)
Format: 45-minutes formatted into 30-minute presentation and 15-20 minute Q & A
Cost: $75 per site
Questions: Chandra Allison, at (615) 322-6511 or email chandra.allison@vanderbilt.edu
Patsy Partin, M. Ed
Director, Virtual School
Vanderbilt University
2007 Terrace Place
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 322-6384