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For the benefit of the ignorant, the Borg are bad guys. Their sole goal is to conquer and control the entire universe, something they do by implanting their technology in the bodies of those poor unfortunates who attract their attention.

Well this is all science fiction - but maybe only for a little while longer.

Technologies such as RFID are now making it incredibly cheap to perform at least the tracking part of the Borg dream. Nanotechnology it's not, but the humble RFID chip *is* now small enough to be implanted under your skin and politicians are doubtless already consulting with their advisors as to how this, or similar, technologies can be used.

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination.

In the USA, one school's plans to issue all kids with RFID tags (so that their movements around the school and attendance in classes could be automatically tracked) have been derailed by a public outcry -- but I suspect this is only a temporary glitch.

There are already a number of hi-tech companies overseas that use these tracking badges to simplify the task of locating employees and enforcing security -- the benefits are obvious.

But how long before we find the pressure to carry an RFID-equipped ID card or other device becomes too great to resist?

I'm betting that the first place we see RFID being forced upon us is in the areas of transport and banking.

There's already a push on to introduce road tolls on some of our newest roads - but the big problem is handling the payment of small amounts without introducing bottlenecks and hold-ups at peak-traffic times.

In Singapore they have a little pre-paid RF tag that sits on your dashboard and automatically gets debited each time you enter a toll area. If you run out of credit then you're in trouble and I suspect that dozens of heavily armed police descend on you and demand your credit-card.

Here in NZ, the introduction of widespread tolling has prompted ideas such this one where EFTPOS would become part of the payment system. Unfortunately, requiring people to stop and key in a PIN number would be counter-productive and produce long queues in rush-hours so it would not surprise me if some kind of RFID device were chosen instead.

Now, while it might sound like a good idea and, if it were pre-paid, even preserve some anonymity -- I'm still a little worried.

Once you've got one of these RFID tags in your car, there's nothing to stop any number of other covert readers being installed whenever and wherever it was felt useful to monitor vehicle movements. Your anonymity would be gone in a second if just one of the points through which you passed was equipped with a camera -- since the ID of your card could then be matched to your rego number and thus back to the registered owner.

What would come next?

"In a move deigned to reduce crime (since we know that most criminals use a vehicle to get too and from the scene of their crime [Hawkins]), we're now setting up a nationwide monitoring network of RFID readers on our roads" ??

Personally I've got nothing against RFID -- it's a really useful technology that stands to greatly improve the performance and efficiency of many services.

My only question is: can we trust those entrusted with the task of managing such a system?

Hint: How can you tell when a politician is lying?

Answer: Their lips are moving.

Friday stuff
Come on folks, Lighten-up material seems pretty thin on the ground right now.

Here's something that just goes to show how great minds think alike (whilst fools seldom differ).

Exactly what I've been working on since my place got burgled before Christmas.

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