The principle of RFID (Radio-Frequency ID) tag tracking is that the tag can be read remotely from several feet away. Thus, if you carried such a tag around with you, it would be relatively simple to track your movements wherever you went. Some people are nervous about the privacy implications of carying such tags or, for example, having them embedded in their clothing.

This idea reverses the usual model of how these tags work. Buildings, bus shelters, train stations, businesses would be tagged with RFID tags and individuals would carry around readers, perhaps as functions of their PDAs. At the end of a day you would be able to see a list of all the RFID tags you had walked past that day. This would show you where you had been, the bus you caught that morning, which clients you had visited, even perhaps which rooms in your office building you visited. This information would be yours - there is no way the RFID tags can know who is reading them and so there are no privacy concerns.

Businesses would have an incentive to tag their premises so as to get a mention on your personal 'log'. This idea might help to remind you what you had done on a particular day, or help you to link notes you had taken to your location when you took them and the people you were talking to.
-- hippo, Mar 30 2005

I can see a variation on geocaching coming from this.

Proliferation of pocket-sized long range readers might cause some security concerns since some people do carry around RFID tags in the form of building access/security cards.

+
-- half, Mar 30 2005


Hmmm, I don't remember walking buy a business called "Cheapest Viagra on the net!" today. Oh, no....
-- krelnik, Mar 30 2005


“Where have you been?!”
“It’s all right here, honey.”
<mumbles under breath> “Whew! Good thing I passed this off to my friend this morning.” </mub>
-- Shz, Mar 30 2005


Yes, [krelnik], you'll need a spam filter on your RFID reader. Howwever, the RFID tags could deliver money-off vouchers etc. as well so there may be some benefits from the more unsolicted tags.
-- hippo, Mar 31 2005


I noticed all your ideas were in the past tense, but this would be so useful if you wanted to use public transport in a foreign city (for example, the underground railways in China, or the bus service in South Korea), or check items in a museum.
If there was a wireless link it would be great. It could even allow you to enquire about the details of goods in a department store, with the appropriate database.
-- Ling, Apr 01 2005


The portable reader part may prove somewhat difficult to impliment, or so I've been led to understand...

All the same, there's plenty of good fun available in this idea... and larger vehicles, which might be able to use more powerful, and therfore longer range readers could have some other applications.
-- ye_river_xiv, Oct 03 2007


This would need to be a very cheap product as it doesn't provide a fuction that can pay for itself. It's a good idea for when money is abolished. Wait for the age of Star Trek to come around. Long Live Picard
-- punk_punker, Oct 03 2007


I'm just not seeing this as an advantage over GPS.
-- quantum_flux, Oct 12 2007



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