Dana, interesting counterpoint -- but, admitting it for the sake of the argument, I don't think there's much time left for it. EZ-Pay and its brethren have been in wide use for a while now, and that's a logical, familiarizing, and accurate analogy for prospective payment providers to use. I still think (granting that my perceptions of Joe the Public's values may be completely off base) that it might be easier to gin up fear of pervasive CCTV, with the aid of red-light/speed cameras.

Justin, yes, I'm not actually suggesting not to worry. I'm suggesting that we temper our worries about any one of these issues with an awareness of we're already willing to give away, which I think my (severely in need of distillation) mobile example drives home. Those of us in class, at least, have a clear choice between giving up or crippling our handy gadgets or living life under constant tracking.

Thanks for the feedback -- I will think about this some more and try to come up with some changes.

-- DanielHarris - 09 Apr 2009

You respond that you "make the mobile-RFID comparison specifically because I suspect that even in our class, very few of us have regular second thoughts about leaving our phones on." I think that you are trying to make the more nuanced point that for all the hoopla about RFID, people don't give a second thought to carrying a cellphone and that maybe they should be more consistent in their fears? Is this right? If so, I had a hard time distilling that excellent point from the text.

As for the point about lobbying, I agree that the smashing chips and playing with tin-foil problem (hilarious, by the way) is a real concern for privacy advocates. However, I think the solution is thinking about more effective ways to communicate RFID (and other privacy) issues to the general public, not to abandon speech about technologies that do indeed pose a threat to privacy. But perhaps this is what you mean by the word "lobbying", in which case we are on the same page.

-- JustinColannino - 08 Apr 2009

Daniel, I take your point about the hide-the-ball nature of focusing on RFID rather than on other technologies which essentially raise the same privacy concerns. But I do wonder whether you may be a bit off base when you say: "I worry that many peoples worries about RFID privacy are subtracting respectability from a movement that's already vulnerable to accusations of paranoia rather than adding significant resources." It seems to me, as a bit of a newcomer to this arena, to be the opposite--- that is, that the focus on RFID makes sense because its less immediate nature may make arguments around it seem more plausible and thus respectable.

This may be only my own experience, but I suspect someone naïve to the problem of technology and privacy may be more willing to hear about technologies that are less familiar to them, like RFID. A person unsophisticated to your arguments still has a cellphone, which they probably like, and Facebook, which they probably don’t want to give up, and credit cards which they can’t imagine living without. I wonder if focusing on RFID (which undoubtedly runs a bit into the tin-foil hat problem you write about) at least has the effect of allowing listeners who might turn off a more mainstream argument, precisely because it was mainstream, and thus reached them in ways they’d rather not think about, to get some grounding in the idea that technology can and does impinge on our privacy in all sorts of devious and subterranean ways. Of course, it’s also quite possible the same people who would hear “cellphone privacy invasion” and immediately switch off because, hey, who’s going to give up their cell phone, are the same people who hear “RFID” and immediately begin looking for the roll of Reynolds. Either way, it’s just something to think about as a possible (small) counterpoint to your argument.

-- DanaDelger - 08 Apr 2009

My position isn't equally true of every privacy concern -- I'm making a specific comparison between the information provided by howling IDs and mobile phones. One can get exactly the same information -- a unique identifier and its position -- from your mobile phone as from RFID, but we already have a perfectly good mobile-tracking infrastructure built out and in use. It just doesn't make sense, I argue, to worry about the government tracking your e-passport while you leave your mobile phone on, because they're exactly the same type of threat. In contrast, cameras (for now) capture different information (someone who looks like X was at Y) than do credit cards (someone paid for Z with X's credit card) than do mobile phones (someone with SIM card U was at S series of places). I make the mobile-RFID comparison specifically because I suspect that even in our class, very few of us have regular second thoughts about leaving our phones on.

I agree that raising the profile of RFID privacy concerns generates attention, but I worry that many peoples worries about RFID privacy are subtracting respectability from a movement that's already vulnerable to accusations of paranoia rather than adding significant resources.

-- DanielHarris - 07 Apr 2009