CALIFORNIA STATE SENATOR INTRODUCES BILL TO HALT ORWELL’S BIG BROTHER

ZDNet.com reports from an Associated Press article that California Democratic state Senator Joe Simitian has introduced a bill that would prevent employers from outfitting their employees (usually in the shoulder) with RFID devices that could track their movements. RFIDs are computer chips that can be inserted under a person’s skin, and are able to hold all kinds of personal data and be read by tracking instruments from various distances. The technology is developing faster than individual protection requirements, as usual, thus, another flavor of Big Brother to threaten our privacy. To illustrate the critical nature of this situation, the 45.7 million credit card numbers stolen in the TJ Maxx incident were the result of criminal hackers in the company’s parking lot using a directional antenna to download the data. Denise Richardson, a colleague in this battle for our privacy, did an excellent article in American Chronicle on the RFID threat, documenting an investigative reporter’s experiment from the local Miami ABC affiliate. With a RFID chip reading device, she was able to skim the private information from the wallets of several co-workers at the TV station that each felt was secure in their pockets or purses. But Roxanne Gould, representing a high-tech industry group says Simitian is wrong, and that her organization is opposed to “anything that demonizes RFIDs.” What we should do is implant a chip in Gould with her sensitive data, and let her walk around for several weeks, and see just how many times she is hacked, while tracking every move she makes. See how she likes Big Brother on her back.