The Popular Science blog has an entry about an invention by Melanie Rieback called the “RFID Guardian.” Like a regular Firewall, it blocks attempts to access information via RFID unless you want them to.
It sounds like a neat invention, but the thing that struck me was this:
a personal firewall she’s developing [. . .] will protect your privacy in an world where your clothes, library books, and passport contain RFID tags.
It’s very interesting to me that library books were mentioned in this venue. We don’t have RFID at Halifax Public Libraries, but we are definitely talking about it. I wonder what are the ethics of a world where some people can blog RFID calls and others cannot, and most of it based on whether someone can afford a piece of technology.
A little bit scary to think of a world where only the few can reasonably expect to have something resembling a private life. Although, like most things, it will probably become affordable (and hackable) faster than we can say “Circ [everything under] de Soleil.”
Punctuated Equilibrium: A Librarian's View of Public Policy 