RFID: The Next Big Thing in Retail and Municipal Surveillance

Continuing on yesterdays posting about RFID recycling bins.  It seems our own city council wasn’t aware of the tags either until after the Tara Servatius show where she covered the story (after I scooped her army of research interns).  Reading a little more about these.. it seems to be a world wide phenomenon as these chipped cans are showing up in cities and many countries around the world.. with much the same negative reception. Governments are using the data to impose new taxes and fees and wealth transfer programs… joy! Isn’t that what recycling is supposed to be about anyway?  Word is the collected recycling data in Charlotte will be kept on file for 3 years.

So now that we know garbage trucks are being equipped with RFID readers.. what else might we expect?  This story tells of how RFID is the next big thing in retail.. and the tags will soon be showing up on all your groceries and just about everything else you buy.  So it’s conceivable that garbage trucks will be able to track every individual item your household throws away.. and weather it was recycled or not.  This differs from the current efforts that just go by the weight of the can.  It’s bad enough that all your purchases are being analyzed by the feds for nebulous anti-terrorism reasons.. now the local governments will be able to track what you throw away and tax accordingly.  If you doubt this would happen… just give it time. I think you will see this sort of thing in less than 10 years.