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C-dub wrote:Because of the extremely short range of RFID

When did RFID become "extremely short range"? The current record is 66 meters (with a reader that costs around $250), but the guy who holds that record says 10 miles would be easy if you don't mind boosting the power to your antenna. The tag reader is supposed to discard any signals that take longer than 100 microseconds to come back, but if you allow late signals and use a big enough antenna, he thinks up to 317 miles is possible.

If you're ok with really smart bad guys being able to tell where every school kid is in a 317 mile radius, go ahead and issue them RFID-tagged ID cards. Incidentally, a circle with a 317 mile radius works out to have an area of 100,489 sq miles, which is bigger than 42 of the 50 states.

RFID Range: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/02 ... ange_rfid/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Area of States: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/area.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Abraham wrote:I want to believe the various U.S. agencies are ethical (obviously there have been exceptions...) and wouldn't use such a tactic unless it's necessary to catch criminals/terrorists.

See, if the government wasn't allowed to do this without a warrant, it wouldn't matter nearly as much. As it is right now, a bad cop wants to place GPS tracker on a dude they don't like to see if they can get any dirt on them. The plan succeeds, the bad cop finds out that the dude went to a gun store and tells the guy's rabidly anti-gun boss, and the guy gets fired. If the system was working, though, the whole plan would've failed when the bad cop was denied access to the GPS tracker because there wasn't a warrant.

The question is never, "How can this be used?" Instead, ask, "How will this be misused?"

C-dub wrote:

Dave2 wrote:

C-dub wrote:I know it seems like an intrusion, but what really is the difference between this and just following someone around? LE can follow anyone without a warrant. This is just a cheaper and more effective way of doing so.

Yeah, but that's way more resource-intensive than sticking a gadget under their car, so they won't be tracking just anyone.

Or is it your point that without a gadget under the car LE will only be able to track those that are more deserving?

Yes, that is my point. I'll bet they're even deserving enough for the cops to get a warrant to track them with a secret GPS gadget, if such a thing were required (which it should be). The "warrantless" bit is the only part of this scheme that I object to.

C-dub wrote:I know it seems like an intrusion, but what really is the difference between this and just following someone around? LE can follow anyone without a warrant. This is just a cheaper and more effective way of doing so.

Yeah, but that's way more resource-intensive than sticking a gadget under their car, so they won't be tracking just anyone.