Ford Reveals Your Identity
Does a passport with an RFID chip freak you out? Not if you don’t carry your passport on you. How about RFID-equipped drivers’ licenses? Well, stick the license in a shield and nobody will be the wiser. Never heard of RFID? It’s a chip that needs no power. It sends out a number that identifies you. Think of a barcode on your forehead. How about RFID equipped cars?
Some car manufacturers have quietly equipped cars with RFID chips. I’m not at liberty to disclose their identity, but I can tell you that they know your name as you pull up in front of the dealership’s shop. Car keys with RFID are also becoming en vogue. That’s how the keyless system can open the car for you as you walk up to it. Now, Ford Europe officially embeds RFID chips in their cars.
2000 RFID-equipped Fiesta and Fusion cars leave Ford Cologne per day. The data are used for a benign purpose: To optimize the delivery process. According to Automobilwoche [sub], RFID-equipped cars are delivered 15 percent faster. Erroneous shipments have been practically eliminated. Ford will introduce this system in all of its European plants, and therefore in all of its European cars. “Other uses” of the chip are being researched. With an RFID chip in every car, complicated cameras will no longer be needed. Your number will show up using an inconspicuous reader.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Seems about the same as using EZ-Pass on the Turnpike, or a credit card at the grocery store. If you don't want to be identified electronically, use cash. The 'inconspicuous reader' has to be pretty close to work, and the party collecting the information needs a profitable and legal way of utilizing it. This story is about tagging VINs from cars for inventory management purposes. If they're handled like clothing tags, the car's RFID tag may be discarded upon first sale of the vehicle, and no owner's name associated with it. Perhaps US deployment will require such a usage mode.
It's not as if the NSA would wiretap and record every bit of audio, video, and data transmitted electronically that they can get. Domestically. Without any warrants. Oh wait. They already do. "Carnivore" was a small kid on a ladder, with his ear to your wall. The current NarusInsight monitors everything. Simply everything. 10+ petabytes per month. Minority Report? Coming soon. Narus' next-gen stuff is associative and attempts to be predictive. So, if you have shopping habits that coincide with a killer/terrorist/non-conformist, 'they' will be watching you. Better yet, your data will be Kevin Baconed. That is, better hope that you don't go to the same Starbucks as your local coke dealer does. Or eat at the same Ethiopian restaurant that somebody on some terror watch list does. Orwell was right. He was just a bit off on the date.
I'm not saying you shouldn't be aware of all of this but I subscribe to Larry Ellison's maxium "You have zero privacy - get used to it!" This is, after all, the twentyfirst century. We are supposed to have flying cars by now according to my grandfather's Popular Science magazine.
My brothers and sisters in the computer industry will be able to defeat it, dont worry. Even if they embed it in the fender, the exhaust system or the on board computer, any chip is either removable or able to be disabled. Or perhaps collect and send false information? Could be intresting, a false itinerary on a small thumb drive, plug it into the USB port on the dash. I aleaady have an entire fake network ready to run on a 16bg thumb. Should not be too hard to get around this one.