Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Article: A grocery store that practically reads your mind

St. Petersburg Times: A grocery store that practically reads your mind:

"One big impediment until now has been Big Brother privacy fears. Critics say the chip attached to a package of Gillete Mach III razors could keep beaming its location all the way to the buyer's home, paired with his name and address that's in the store's computer database. And the chip attached to a coat or jacket even could be tracked to reveal the user's visits to a bank, a shopping mall or a strip club. But proponents say that's not a likely scenario because the establishment would have to be equipped with RFID antennas to pick up the signal.

Still, to assuage such privacy fears, Metro added an extra computer terminal at the store exit. Shoppers can de-activate the chip inside each product one at a time if they don't want their purchases tracked beyond the store's exit."

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