Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Big Brother is Sorting You

An article on The Register regarding the Sorting Door project, a feasability study on examining and tracking individuals based on the RFID tags contained in their clothing and carried goods.

The name of the project comes from the magical "Sorting Hat" from the Harry Potter books, proving that a) anything can be twisted to evil purposes, and b) everybody on the freakin' planet has read Harry Potter.

Some of the projected capabilities of the Sorting Door project are:
1) Generate targetted advertising based on what a customer is wearing
2) Track individuals as they pass within range of a reader
3) Generate personality/risk profiles based on what an individual is wearing
4) Detect anomolous behavior in clothing choices (overcoat in Florida, bikini in Alaska)

I predict a booming business in RFID readers to get rid of these little buggers (2007-2008), to be followed shortly by legislation making the removal of an RFID tag illegal (circa 2010).

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