A short while ago I wrote a post about RFID transponders being placed in credit cards and included some information and a link to a video showing how easily they could be hacked.  This week, I saw an advertisement on TV for the same type of shielded credit card sleeves to block unauthorized reading.  They were selling for $20.00 (USD) for five sleeves.  Sizes for passports, security ID badges, and the like were also available. 

Technology has gone farther than these relatively "above-board" uses for RFID over the past ten years.  The technology has developed from bar codes, to the simple RFID transponders that caused an alarm to go off if one tried to leave a store with an stolen valuable item, to inventory tracking uses and more.  Along with the furor that has come with the changes in the credit card industry, there have been several cases of people's credit limits being lowered due to where they shop (say, from upscale stores to Wal-**rt.)  The tracking of marital counseling is being monitored because it might indicate that financial problems are coming with divorce and the CC company doesn't want to get stuck with a large unpaid balance.  The same is true for people identified as having difficulty paying for their homes or who have lost employment.  This happened to me about about a year ago when the BOA-Constrictor company cut the credit limit on a card I have with them (through an auto club) in half.  It was a high limit card and I only used it for gasoline and auto services as there was a 5% discount.  My credit rating has been consistently "Excellent" with all three reporting bureaus.  I think they noticed I had sold my house.  No reason was given on the notification and I believe I recall the letter congratulating me on the change in credit limit (possibly believing I was senile enough to miss the fact that it was cut, not raised.)  Now I am being passive-aggressive with them by leaving a positive balance of $0.47 in the account.

The other side of this type of data collection about our spending habits has little or nothing to do with RFID, but rather to what is done with it.  Credit card companies, banks, debit card processors, and retail stores all may track our purchases to consolidate our spending data into a combined database to predict our future behavior.  Again, a two sided phenomenon.  If we are to be rewarded for good credit ratings, on time payments, and offered discounts on items we are likely to purchase it could be a good thing.  If it is being done to "protect us from ourselves" and inhibit our getting deeply into high interest debt it might be a good or bad thing.  The fact that it is done to us without input from us is troubling.  When information is collected about us without our knowledge and used for purposes unknown to us, it becomes very troubling indeed.  The simple answer that was proposed by investigating groups was to pay in cash.

RFID chips have continually been reduced in size and ability such that they have been implanted in banknotes, gift certificates, documents, and whole paper media.  Let me display a single picture and refer you to the source.  On the right half of the illustration the "line" is a human hair.  The microscopic sized objects are RFID chips, are 1/64th the size of those on the human finger on the left side, are 0.05 x 0.05 mm in size, and have a read only memory (ROM) capacity of 128 bits, enough to retain a 38 digit ID number or equivalent alpha-numeric characters.  Let me display a single illustration and refer you to the source, http://www.loveforlife.com.au/node/6852

You might well find the site to be too extreme or conspiracy oriented to be believable.  I did on many issues.  Take away only three bits of information.  Microscopic RFID chips exist.  They may contain 128 bits of memory.  They will fit into the bore of a hypodermic needle.  Please read the original article and follow several of the links from the text or below it.  You may not believe 98% of what you read, but I think the remaining 2% will scare your pants off.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2009, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

"They want to put this on every consumer item and even every piece of money....in ID cards and everything you have...even your body!.... It is already taking place and they can hide a spy chip in the dot on the i of product label......and tell where you are, what you do, and more.....hey its fun in the new United Police States of America!...." - From: www.spychips.com [....if you don't want to sleep tonight!.....]