the constant skeptic

Taken from this international herald tribune article:

Four American cities will see talking billboards starting today. Mini Cooper, of all companies, will provide customers with personalized messages as they approach the billboards based on the information stored in their key fobs. You know, dear readers, that this is just a sugar coated RFID like device that is just the start of things to come. You already see it at your local Exxon station with the friendly happy ‘Speedpass’. That exxon tiger just makes me feel all warm inside, how about you? Take a look at exxons campaign contributions…

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It will be dubbed as convenience when you no longer have to wait in checkout lines at stores, you will simply swipe your RFID enabled card and your account will automatically be deducted. Maybe not even swipe anything, maybe as you walk out of the door, the sensors will read the items you have on your person and charge your account the amount necessary and a little light will turn from red to green and the exit door of the store will open to let you leave. GOODBYE PETTY THEIVES!

It will be dubbed useful when your children will wear bracelets as homing devices to keep them within range at all times, since it is already being used in some prisons for the same purposes.

No one will call it evil. No one will call it the mark of the beast, except maybe some right wing extremists. All I can say is that I hope that these devices will be secured with some +260 bit encryption to protect from the newly spawned and spawning RFID hackers who will lie in wait by RFID drive thru ATMs and RFID enabled clothes stores. Anytime you use it for purchase, there is an opportunity for the hacker to steal your account information.

So invest in security folks. Invest in big brother because it is too late to fight it. Maybe I’ve already been implanted… I had a dream the other night that a voice inside my head was talking about ‘uploading’ and being ‘almost finished’ and then the voice reported success, and then I woke up. And now I have a mysterious red mark the width of a needle on the right side of my temple.

look familiar?

Guess it will just make me a good consumer. So get out and buy stuff will your old debit cards while you can, RFID enabled cards will be coming, and these old cards will be the stuff of retro-mania very soon.

- check out my previous RFID posts here

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