Radio Frequency IDentification technology (RFID) is not new, but it is quickly finding new applications. An RFID tag has a small microchip with radio antennas that carry a small amount of data and have a unique identification number. The tag transmits the ID number, via radio signals, to the RFID reader, which needs to be in the vicinity of the tag. The reader is linked to a computer with a database; that is how the information is stored. In principle, RFID tags can be attached to anything –objects, animals, places, people- and some readers are so powerful that make the transmitted information accessible from all over the world via Internet. To give a macabre example of the use of these devices, Wal Mart is planning introducing RFID tags in all its supermarket products in order to precisely trace customers’ routes through the shop, as well as their shopping habits, so that special personal offers can be made to customers with a specific profile in real time. There are less Orwellian applications of this technology in passports, public transportation payment systems, libraries or human implants -certain nightclubs embed RFID tags in their VIPs’ hands so that the process of paying for drinks is reduced to the wave of a hand. Any technology has the capacity of morphing into the sublime or the irrelevant. In the case of RFID tags, the irrelevance of most of their present applications reminds us of the shrinking value of individual privacy.
