Are we ready?

There was a huge uproar over a California school's RFID Student Tracking. It makes me think, are we ready for RFID in our day-to-day life? Could RFID monitoring had prevented or limited Columbine High School tragedy? Can RFID monitoring make our schools gun-free and drug-free? I don't know the answer, but these questions generate some interesting possibilities.

After I posted my request for submitting pilot test projects, on various RFID forums, I received a request for testing from a school technologies developer who is planning to implement RFID technology in schools. This developer is outside US and has an ambitious plan to track thousands of students and teachers. Similar efforts are in progress in Indian sub-continent. Are these people not concerned about privacy or the benefits of using RFID far outweigh privacy issues?

Comments

DrPat said…
I continue to be awed at the detail you post here - I hope the link on my blog has steered some readers your way!

I have to admit that my knee jerks more than a little at the thought of wide-spread RFID tracking of school students.

This is a concept that may encounter the "society shaping technology" drive Pool wrote about in Beyond Engineering. (See http://paperfrigate.blogspot.com/ in the February archive for a review of that book.)
February 15, 2005 1:44 AM
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