The way a government controls its population is by being able to identify and classify them. To control them you must watch them and know where they are.

Who would have thought that the United States would be the most watched society on the planet. We have cameras at the ATM, on the corners of building, in the Walmart parking lot. They are everywhere. People with face recognition software are at the big football games and at the airport running our faces through their database searching, scanning, watching.

Walmart knows when you come back to shop with them.

Technology has allowed Walmart to require vendors selling them inventory to insert RFID chips (Radio Frequency Identification) into every item in the store. These chips were originally installed for inventory purposes. All you need to do is scan an unopened box, and you can tell how many of something are inside by the ID information you get. Now Walmart finds that it can collect marketing data on you when you return to shop. These chips continue to broadcast information and are virtually indestructible.

So I am not anonymous when I walk into Walmart anymore because they are collecting information on me constantly. If you paid for your shirt with a credit card the computer at Walmart can link your personal information to the chip in the shirt, and now Walmart can know the kinds of items, the time of day, the number of times a week and even more about you as a shopper. They can market things directly to you based on the data they collect. Remember it is in every item or packaging in their stores.

My new passport has one of these RFID chips in it now. Instead of standing in line waiting my turn to see an immigration official I can speed through because my chip broadcasts everything about me to the immigration readers at the customs desk. It is supposed to reduce my wait time. Now the federal government is considering issuing a national ID card with none other than a RFID chip in it. All my personal information available and required to be carried but it protects my identity they tell me. So I am to make myself open to be tracked, searched, scanned and watched even more now all because of issues like terrorism and ID theft.

How did we get to this point? When in America did we become so afraid that we are willing to be watched and tracked like this? Why do we have to submit to being scanned naked in front of a machine at the airport that looks beneath our clothing?

Benjamin Franklin said, ‘those who would sacrifice their liberty for security deserve neither.”

Johnny Franks

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Gee, Mr. Franks .... paranoid much?

First off, the U.S. is nowhere near the most watched country in the world.
Ever been to England?

Secondly, your RFID rant sounds like a bad science fiction movie.
Walmart does not have RFID chips in every item in their stores. That program is still in experimental stages and will be used mainly for inventory tracking and not some subversive spying as you imply.

The idea that all your clothes will have RFID chips to broadcast your personal info all over everywhere is something out of Hollywood. How would a Walmart computer get access to any of your personal info unless your credit card also had a RFID chip installed? They could do the same thing right now with the bar codes that do appear on every item. Ooooh, scary.

And what is wrong with a passport with a RFID chip that allows you to speed through Customs? It's not like the government doesn't have all that information on you, anyway.

I have no problem with a National ID card and find it ironic that many of the people (not Mr. Franks) who are always going on about illegal immigration are some of quickest to cry out in horror whenever the idea of a National ID card is brought up.

Bret Douglas
bretdouglas@live.com

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Mr. Douglas’ state of mind is exactly what got us into this mess. "Let’s just go along with it because someone has put out strategically aligned propaganda stating that it is for our own good." Enough with the excuses that support more intrusion. It’s not Hollywood, and no one cringes at being called paranoid or a conspiracy theorist anymore. I proudly think of it as liberty loving patriotism. Maybe you should look into that instead of turning a blind eye to our depleting privacy, etc.

Carrie Hopkins
carriedhopkins@yahoo.com

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Mr. Franks,

Aren't you the same who has advocated red light and speed trap cameras in Red Bank and elsewhere? If you have nothing to fear from them, why be concerned about face recognition software or RFID chip technology? After all it is for our common good, and if we have done nothing wrong we shouldn't worry.

Ted Jameson