by silicon.com
US prisons have started using RFID chips to keep track of prisoners,
protect staff and increase security.
To date this technology has been mired in privacy concerns. Most
notably, German shoppers have taken to the streets to protest their
shopping habits being tracked via RFID and silicon.com readers have
voiced their own fears over whether schoolchildren should be tagged.
So in some ways it makes sense that RFID is taking hold in a
population which has, at best, limited rights of privacy.
Some may argue that this is right and good. Convicted criminals have
broken laws and thus do not deserve the right to privacy earned by
law-abiding citizens.
Admittedly, the uses of RFID in one Ohio prison do not sound overly
invasive -- prisoners will wear RFID transmitters on their wrists and
staff will wear them on their belts so their location within prison
grounds can be tracked. If prisoners try to remove their transmitter
or warders are knocked down, computers will be alerted.
Compare this to US hospitals' plans to implant chips in the arms of
patients and staff.
http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39122815,00.htm