CBC Radio's The Current had an interesting in-depth report this morning on the politics of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device) tags (in part 2 of the show). Canada's privacy commissioner singled out RFIDs as a cause for privacy concerns in her report to Parliament this week, so the current spoke to a few people about the issue in order to present a picture of what RFIDs are and why we should care.

RFIDs are tiny chips that can be embedded in just about any item -- including consumer goods -- and either be scanned for identifying information, or (in the case of battery-powered active RFIDs) actively transmit identifying information. The prospect of widespread or ubiquitous RFID tagging offers a lot of benefits for things like inventory management, as well as some possibilities for neat network-to-real-world hacks that appeal to the geek in some of us.

The adoption and guidelines around RFID use is a looming political issue, however, because putting specific identifiers in all the objects around us creates possibilities for personal profiling and tracking that dwarf today's concerns about the privacy implications of credit records and loyalty cards. The Current does a good job on introducing this issue -- it's worth listening to the RFID segment. (RealPlayer file; you'll need to wait through/skip through the letters segment to get to RFID.)