After climbing a long stairs, we finally get to the 5th floor in this building. Wait, an automatic door blocks our way to the classroom. The only way to make the door open is not saying the secret password loudly, but showing our student ID cards instead. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is now widely used in transportation payment, identification, and object-tracking, etc. around the world. And it has changed our lives tremendously: it’s changing our lives, and it will change our lives further. RFID has made our daily living issues easier, and also brought about some controversies which can not be neglected.
First of all, RFID has made the way we take massive transportation system more efficiently. In Taipei, the necessity we have to bring with us when we want to take a bus or an MRT is neither coins nor the monthly-ticket, it is Yo-yo card. While we are out of the balance, we would not look for the service-window. We would rather consult an Add-Value Machine. At the time we arrive at an MRT station, we do not go to a tickets-machine or a booking clerk. On the contrary, we just go through the gate and board the train, and the payment will be deducted automatically as we are leaving the destination station. RFID saves our time of picking coins from our pocket, counting the sum of them, and furthermore purchasing the tickets.
The second most important change made by RFID is the identification method. In the past, if we want to pass a restrained door or gate, we have to enter passwords into a machine, show our identification to the guards or barcode readers, or find the key for the lock. There are many companies that deploy RFID technology to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing the rooms, equipments, or resources that are supposed to be accessed by their staffs only. For more instance, our student ID card is embedded with RFID tags. We can have the authority to hang around on campus by putting our ID cards in front of the sensors. RFID has made the process of identifying more speedy and convenient.
Another effect made by RFID is object-tracking. A lot of libraries deploy RFID technology to replace the traditional barcodes for tracking books, and the library of the NTUST is not an exception. Stores, shopping malls, and supermarkets also use RFID to track objects. They put a sensor-gate at the exit, if someone brings a good which is not paid or a book which is not checked out, the siren will alarm loudly. Thus they can protect their merchandises and collections from being stolen. RFID tags are also embedded into pets. The pet-owners can find their most-loyal-friend easily when they lose their partners. The identification code is much more recognizable than face, and easier to track back to the pet-owner when the database is set well. RFID has made the approach of object-tracking more reliable and fast.
However, the most concerned controversy is privacy. "How would you like it if, for instance, one day you realized your underwear was reporting on your whereabouts?", said California State Senator Debra Bowen, at a 2003 hearing. The above quote concludes that privacy is risked by RFID. First, we have to have the prerequisite knowledge that the security is not absolutely guaranteed. It is possible to be read and decrypted by an unauthorized reader or sensor. Another prerequisite knowledge is that in some extreme cases the signals can be received from tens of kilometers away. Therefore, a well-known concern in turn comes up. The concern is that the owner of a RFID-tagged item and the tag can be read at a distance without the knowledge of the individual, and it is possible to gather sensitive data about an individual without consent. Think about this, how horrible it could be if a group of adversaries can get our identification card numbers or credit card numbers at a distance and forge them! Moreover, RFID tags can be attached to everything – clothes, foods, pens, etc, and thus can be used for surveillance, someone has the suitable equipment can know how we interact with those stuffs, when we go to bed, when we leave home, and so forth. As if we enjoy our lives in our personal spaces which are actually no longer personal. RFID surveillance is most welcomed by totalitarian countries and the governments that are interested in controlling every person. In other words, we gain the convenience and efficiency, but we are prone to lose privacy.
RFID has made our lives easier, and it is still changing our lives. Overall, I very enjoy the advantages it has made. But if it is used in an unlimited way, it could risk and bother our lives. If it is used in library books, stores’ goods, Yo-yo cards, which do not contain the owners’ sensitive information, I am for it. On the other hand, I am against it in being used in civilian ID card or credit card. I do not want to risk my privacy nor life for little convenience, as if a person unclothes him or herself for walking faster nakedly in a city.
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