From IEEE Spectrum

Goodbye Roll Call, Hello RFIDs

For some reason, I have vivid memories of roll call from elementary school. It was a daily drill that gave each student a chance to rehearse his identity by riffing on the word "here!" Whether you sang it or burped it, you had to make it memorable. Or at least, that's how I felt about it.

But it's a nostalgia I may not share with my kids, as tracking devices have begun to dispose of the ritual all together. Last month, a preschool in Richmond, California installed a curiously expensive, high tech system to track the attendance of its students. And it could serve as a pilot program for others to come.

Upon arriving in the morning, according to the Associated Press, each student at the CCC-George Miller preschool will don a jersey with a stitched in RFID chip. As the kids go about the business of learning, sensors in the school will record their movements, collecting attendance for both classes and meals. Officials from the school have claimed they're only recording information they're required to provide while receiving  federal funds for their Headstart program.

However, the story has caught the attention of both the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who have expressed alarm at the potential infringement of privacy rights. Together, they have submitted a letter of concern to school officials, including a request that they clarify what security precautions were put in place with the program.

This is not the first time a school has tried to track its students with RFID. In 2005, according to the AP, another grade school in California handed out RFID badges and was met with an equal amount of outrage from the ACLU and privacy rights watch dogs.


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Wal-Mart to Begin Electronically Tracking Your Panties

Starting next month, Wal-Mart will put radio-frequency ID tags on all its garments. By waving a wand, they can identify the location of every product, down to size and color. When you bring it home, the tag goes with you. The removable tags are similar to the ones traditionally used to track large-scale shipments. Wal-Mart's decision to implement the technology will be the first adoption of RFIDs for a major retailer. And naturally there are privacy concerns:

While the tags can be removed from clothing and packages, they can't be turned off, and they are trackable. Some privacy advocates hypothesize that unscrupulous marketers or criminals will be able to drive by consumers' homes and scan their garbage to discover what they have recently bought.

They also worry that retailers will be able to scan customers who carry new types of personal ID cards as they walk through a store, without their knowledge. Several states, including Washington and New York, have begun issuing enhanced driver's licenses that contain radio- frequency tags with unique ID numbers, to make border crossings easier for frequent travelers.

According to a privacy expert the Wall Street Journal interviewed, civilization is utilizing RFID technology in exactly the dumbest way possible:

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