Bruce Sterling
Its probably about time Bruce Sterlings excellent blog was linked to from Openned, here it is. I have book marked the page that is specifically about Arphid technology and art. I have taken a sample article from the blog and included it here just to promote "Spychips" further cause I think it is an excellent book.
"SPYCHIPS" PAPERBACK RELEASED BY PENGUIN/PLUME
Authors Predict Public Backlash as RFID Plans Reach Consumers En Masse
As the Penguin/Plume paperback version of the award-winning book "Spychips" hits bookstores this week, the authors are anticipating an intensified consumer backlash against companies like Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart.
"You can't read the offensive corporate schemes revealed
in this book and not be infuriated with them," say authors Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre.
The eye-opening work about the downsides of Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) has already shaken the industry and prompted legislative initiatives worldwide. Now that a newly updated version is being distributed by a division of Penguin, the second-largest English-language trade book publisher in the world, it will circulate to an even larger audience.
RFID is a controversial technology that uses tiny microchips to track everyday objects, animals, and even people from a distance. These RFID microchips have earned the nickname "spychips" because each contains a unique identification number, like a Social Security number for things, that can be read silently and invisibly by radio waves.
"We've caught major companies red-handed proposing uses for the technology that most people would find frightening and abhorrent," say the authors. "We combed over 30,000 documents in putting this book together, and the evidence is airtight. They can't deny the patent applications on file at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and they can't retract their own words."
Revelations in the book include IBM’s “PERSON TRACKING UNIT” that can remotely scan the contents of women's purses and track unwitting members of the public through RFID-tagged objects they are wearing and carrying.
IBM suggests that marketers and government agents could use the device to scan people in places like retail stores, libraries, theaters, elevators, and even public restrooms. Other companies like Procter & Gamble, Phillips, NCR, and Bank of America are also implicated in "Spychips" through public documents that detail their own people tracking plans.
The book's social impact has been likened to that of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," which alerted a generation to the dangers of unbridled pesticide use. "Spychips" has earned critical acclaim and garnered a passionate following in privacy and civil liberties circles. Now its backing by Penguin/Plume and its availability in a low-cost paperback edition will take it to the next level of public awareness.
Here is the forward written by Bruce himself:
here it is.
See you at Openned 5
"SPYCHIPS" PAPERBACK RELEASED BY PENGUIN/PLUME
Authors Predict Public Backlash as RFID Plans Reach Consumers En Masse
As the Penguin/Plume paperback version of the award-winning book "Spychips" hits bookstores this week, the authors are anticipating an intensified consumer backlash against companies like Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart.
"You can't read the offensive corporate schemes revealed
in this book and not be infuriated with them," say authors Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre.
The eye-opening work about the downsides of Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) has already shaken the industry and prompted legislative initiatives worldwide. Now that a newly updated version is being distributed by a division of Penguin, the second-largest English-language trade book publisher in the world, it will circulate to an even larger audience.
RFID is a controversial technology that uses tiny microchips to track everyday objects, animals, and even people from a distance. These RFID microchips have earned the nickname "spychips" because each contains a unique identification number, like a Social Security number for things, that can be read silently and invisibly by radio waves.
"We've caught major companies red-handed proposing uses for the technology that most people would find frightening and abhorrent," say the authors. "We combed over 30,000 documents in putting this book together, and the evidence is airtight. They can't deny the patent applications on file at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and they can't retract their own words."
Revelations in the book include IBM’s “PERSON TRACKING UNIT” that can remotely scan the contents of women's purses and track unwitting members of the public through RFID-tagged objects they are wearing and carrying.
IBM suggests that marketers and government agents could use the device to scan people in places like retail stores, libraries, theaters, elevators, and even public restrooms. Other companies like Procter & Gamble, Phillips, NCR, and Bank of America are also implicated in "Spychips" through public documents that detail their own people tracking plans.
The book's social impact has been likened to that of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," which alerted a generation to the dangers of unbridled pesticide use. "Spychips" has earned critical acclaim and garnered a passionate following in privacy and civil liberties circles. Now its backing by Penguin/Plume and its availability in a low-cost paperback edition will take it to the next level of public awareness.
Here is the forward written by Bruce himself:
here it is.
See you at Openned 5
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