Your Laziness is Putting You at Risk

 

I can't believe that "security experts" are surprised by this. When Exxon started using this technology in their Speedpass, followed by credit card companies, I saw the flaw instantly. It's the reason why I never got anything with RFID technology built in. Purchasing things shouldn't be that easy. It's the same reason I don't do "one-click purchasing" online, either.

Any time information is available - whether it be credit card numbers or personal info - through the air just by being in proximity to someone with a scanner, you're a wide-open target. I hate that the government is using this in any way, even though it's only imbedded in passports - for now. It's only a matter of time before someone gets the bright idea to imbed this in drivers licenses, simply for "informational purposes," of course. They'll start by using it to count numbers of people going through a public place, such as a subway system or airport.

But it's only a small step from there before scanners are powerful enough to scan people at a distance and get a readout - purely for "safety reasons," don'tchaknow. The next time there's an amber alert, police can check the identity of drivers without stopping them or even alerting them to their presence, simply by routing all traffic through a scanner checkpoint. On routine traffic stops, police will be able to scan a car and all the occupants from their own vehicle without even having to place themselves in danger by walking up to the vehicle. Police will be able to simply drive by a criminal's house to make sure they aren't violating their curfew. But what if the criminal simply leaves their license at home? Tracking bracelets with embedded chips would do, but why not just go ahead an implant a chip beneath a criminal's skin just to make sure they don't somehow find a way to get them off?

And once the government starts embedding chips in people, it gets all 1984-ish pretty quickly from there.

It might seem like I'm going off a tinfoil-hat cliff here, but think about how much government encroachment has occurred just in the last twenty years. Remember how far-fetched body-image scanners were when the movie "Total Recall" was released in the 1980s? Did you ever think you'd see the day when we would have to take off our shoes and submit to a third-base grope session just to board a plane? Is it really that far-fetched to think that the government might try to exert additional control over its citizens or try to keep track of their movements in the name of safety and security? And is it too far-fetched to think that they would use technology like this to do it?