Mr. Paranoid Conspiracy

Radio Frequency IDentification

Mr. Paranoid Conspiracy here! I want to take a second and talk about the "privacy issues" with RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification).

RFID technology implants a transmitter (of sorts) within the book, perhaps in a spot that you'll not know it's there. Upon checkout, the transaction becomes part of your record.

Now, in a time of global distrust and paranoia, do you want the government looking at who's checking out any number of texts flagged as "possibly subversive?"

And you can't tell me that only non-innocents will get caught up in the government snooping. It wasn't too many years ago the police came knocking on my door to accuse me a phoning in a bomb threat. They got this erroneous information from the phone company.

I had indeed phoned the place hours before the incident, but I certainly did not make anything remotely like a threat. In fact, I was asking if they had an item I wanted in stock. But somehow technology (or the humans trying to interpret info generated by it) failed.

Now add the fact that eventually, fueled by Patriot Act inhibitions, the government could conceivably take the library out of the loop by placing a covert RFID reader outside the library (or bookstore), say mounted on a lamppost.

Remember, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you...and they only need the smallest excuse.