my dad sent me a link to this article about a woman clothing designer sewing rfid tags into the clothing. i think rfid may eventually be able to replace flash as the most abused technology. luckily, rfid hasn’t been integrated into websites.
the general point is that sewing rfid tags into clothes is stupid. there are 2 basic reasons given in the article: eventually required by retailers for tracking and child security. the first will eventually happen. however, the requirement is for a tag, not that it’s sewn into the clothes. this could easily be done by integrating the rfid tag into one of the numerous tags already on clothes that are removed after purchase. the second reason is just flat out wrong. the woman claims that having an rfid tag will some how miraculously keep your child from getting abducted or wandering off. it will not. the assumption is that there are going to be sensors to make sure that the child is within a given area and sound an alarm if they leave. i would be interested to know how many child abductions come straight out of their home or other defined area (aliens aside). i would think it’s much more likely on a playground, walking down the street, in a crowded mall, wal-mart (this is actually probably the same aliens from the trailer parks). i’m sure this is under the assumption that abducters don’t know these rfid tags exist. once they do, they just strip the kid before or after the abduction and the problem is solved. you will not be able to magically use these to track down your child that has been abducted using rfid. well, until the federal government has installed sensors across the entire country at least every 30 yards (less in the plain areas). these would work, or not, similar to a c.c.t.v. camera. to paraphrase dave attell, “an aspirin (camera/rfid tag) is not going to bring a dead hooker back to life”. if you’ve been raped, great it was caught on camera, still doesn’t take anything back.
the other interesting aspect to this is that each rfid has a unique number. what? now i have to register each piece of clothing with a database connecting it to my kid. wouldn’t it be easier to just have an rfid tag in a locket or bracelet or something that can be worn at all times? even better, why not just get one implanted. kidding.
one other “reason” given is for storing critical medical information. yes, because when my child has a critical medical issue and something goes wrong i want to depend on someone having an appropriate (i’m sure every vendors will be different and incompatible) rfid reader around. they already have something like this. it’s those well known bracelets that have medical information on it easily readable by anyone who can, well, read.
the whole problem is given by this line from the article:
Scott has been in the kids’ clothing design business for 17 years—she started designing girls’ clothing when her daughter was born—and understands the fears and concerns of parents.
i may have missed the hidden meaning in that sentence, but i didn’t see anywhere in there that said she knew anything about security. the key part is obviously “fears and concerns of parents”. parents are suckers. particularly those parents who don’t actually take care of their children because they’re too busy (kid gets bored watching t.v., gets up, walks outside and gets hit by a car). that is her target market. it’s much easier to separate her clothes from the rest by fear than by guessing watch will be fashionable (any negative comments about fashion intentionally avoided) in a few years.
as a parent it’s your responsibility to use your brain. just like it’s your responsibility to teach your child to use theirs. predators, in all life, attack the weak. it applies equally to humans just as much as a gazelle on the plains of the serengeti.
i was really going for a short comment. whoops!
if you want actual information on security, you should read bruce schneier’s blog.