6 ms·

It really doesn't take very much creativity to abuse this system. How about a database of who bought each tire cross referenced to a monitoring strip in the roa

It really doesn't take very much creativity to abuse this system. How about a database of who bought each tire cross referenced to a monitoring strip in the road to see who is going where? How about that monitoring strip being in the entrance to every fast food joint, restaurant, store, mall, etc - now you can track drivers just like we track browsers. Since we have your name, we can cross reference your driving and browsing history.

digi_owl 11y ago
And if you put a video camera in a strategic location you can capture every license plate that pass by...
- danielrhodes 11y ago
  This is exactly what I was thinking. As much as these RFIDs seem like a privacy issue, a license plate is already there and in many ways a more accessible way to track a vehicle.
  - deelowe 11y ago
    Especially now that state governments have redesigned the plates to be more easily read by OCR.
- jack_pp 11y ago
  That is not the same. Rfid tracking / filtering is much easier and more precise than video. There is no need for computer vision or any kind of expensive computing. Also it is far easier to abuse by evil civilians. Consider the overhead of installing a high enough quality video camera on a public road for a criminal compared to an Rfid reader.
  - aluhut 11y ago
    Thungs Guide to RFID: Scan all local Police cars. Install readers around Thugs HQ.
nitrogen 11y ago
When you buy tires from e.g. TireRack they are automatically registered with the government.
- robk 11y ago
  Citation on this please?
  - jfoutz 11y ago
    https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=171 https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=...
    - PhantomGremlin 11y ago
      I think you're parsing this incorrectly. My reading is that Tirerack registers the DOT Tire Identification Numbers with the tire manufacturers. Not with "the government". It's the manufacturer who is liable for damages from defective tires. So it's the manufacturer who needs this information.
      - nitrogen 11y ago
        Ah, I see. It still results in the creation of a direct mapping from week/year of manufacture to name and address, which wouldn't be difficult for a government to obtain and use. If the tire RFID contains a serial number, then a few geographic correlations would be enough to assign that serial to a specific person.
delecti 11y ago
While the parent comment was definitely lacking in creativity, a unique RFID in each tire isn't terribly different from a unique barcode on each tire. I'd honestly be surprised if most products I own didn't have one of those.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  > I'd honestly be surprised if most products I own didn't have one of those. A barcode or an RFID tag? The only reason most of your products don't have an RFID tag is that barcodes are much cheaper, and the entire logistics chain - from manufacturing to retail - is already pretty well optimized around those. There is not much value to gain. About the only use for passive radio tags I've seen widely deployed is theft prevention, and half of the times the tags are removed at the counter and later reused.
  - delecti 11y ago
    A barcode. I mean that RFIDs are functionally very similar for purposes of maintaining a database to something (barcodes) that is already very likely on most consumer goods.
    - TeMPOraL 11y ago
      Indeed. Hell, any somewhat complicated product, like an electronic device, usually has several barcodes inside it, as they're also widely used in manufacturing - not just for automating things, but mostly for process control. A person who put the motherboard inside your computer most likely had to scan several barcodes at his station in order to report that those-and-those parts have been connected and passed forward. (Source: I worked on a software that reads those barcodes and controls the manufacturing process.)
    - narrowrail 11y ago
      Nitpick: Barcodes are not (generally) unique to a specific item, just a specific SKU. Whereas RFID chips are item-specifc, so there is a difference. In other words, barcodes won't allow one to differentiate between 2 identical bags of chips, but an RFID tag will allow one to differentiate between 2 identical tires.

digi_owl 11y ago

And if you put a video camera in a strategic location you can capture every license plate that pass by...

danielrhodes 11y ago
This is exactly what I was thinking. As much as these RFIDs seem like a privacy issue, a license plate is already there and in many ways a more accessible way to track a vehicle.
- deelowe 11y ago
  Especially now that state governments have redesigned the plates to be more easily read by OCR.
jack_pp 11y ago
That is not the same. Rfid tracking / filtering is much easier and more precise than video. There is no need for computer vision or any kind of expensive computing. Also it is far easier to abuse by evil civilians. Consider the overhead of installing a high enough quality video camera on a public road for a criminal compared to an Rfid reader.
- aluhut 11y ago
  Thungs Guide to RFID: Scan all local Police cars. Install readers around Thugs HQ.

nitrogen 11y ago

When you buy tires from e.g. TireRack they are automatically registered with the government.

robk 11y ago
Citation on this please?
- jfoutz 11y ago
  https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=171 https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=...
  - PhantomGremlin 11y ago
    I think you're parsing this incorrectly. My reading is that Tirerack registers the DOT Tire Identification Numbers with the tire manufacturers. Not with "the government". It's the manufacturer who is liable for damages from defective tires. So it's the manufacturer who needs this information.
    - nitrogen 11y ago
      Ah, I see. It still results in the creation of a direct mapping from week/year of manufacture to name and address, which wouldn't be difficult for a government to obtain and use. If the tire RFID contains a serial number, then a few geographic correlations would be enough to assign that serial to a specific person.

delecti 11y ago

While the parent comment was definitely lacking in creativity, a unique RFID in each tire isn't terribly different from a unique barcode on each tire. I'd honestly be surprised if most products I own didn't have one of those.

TeMPOraL 11y ago
> I'd honestly be surprised if most products I own didn't have one of those. A barcode or an RFID tag? The only reason most of your products don't have an RFID tag is that barcodes are much cheaper, and the entire logistics chain - from manufacturing to retail - is already pretty well optimized around those. There is not much value to gain. About the only use for passive radio tags I've seen widely deployed is theft prevention, and half of the times the tags are removed at the counter and later reused.
- delecti 11y ago
  A barcode. I mean that RFIDs are functionally very similar for purposes of maintaining a database to something (barcodes) that is already very likely on most consumer goods.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    Indeed. Hell, any somewhat complicated product, like an electronic device, usually has several barcodes inside it, as they're also widely used in manufacturing - not just for automating things, but mostly for process control. A person who put the motherboard inside your computer most likely had to scan several barcodes at his station in order to report that those-and-those parts have been connected and passed forward. (Source: I worked on a software that reads those barcodes and controls the manufacturing process.)
  - narrowrail 11y ago
    Nitpick: Barcodes are not (generally) unique to a specific item, just a specific SKU. Whereas RFID chips are item-specifc, so there is a difference. In other words, barcodes won't allow one to differentiate between 2 identical bags of chips, but an RFID tag will allow one to differentiate between 2 identical tires.