Opinion: Fantastic technology takes frightening turn

“Wow” quickly morphed into “Whoa!”

Have you heard about this?

In New York, Miami, Chicago and San Francisco, owners of Mini Coopers will soon have the option of being greeted by huge billboards that will recognize them by first name. This is how it will work.

If you are an owner in the cult of Coopers, you will be contacted in these four cities to decide if you want to be personally greeted by a billboard that addresses you, not only by first name, but also customizes a message according to your interests or vocation.

Mini Cooper will send you, at your request, a coded key fob for your Mini that will be embedded with a microchip signaling device. When you drive by a “talking billboard” you may see the message: “Cal, you are looking good today, big guy” (which is nice when you’re 5’7”). Or: “Sally, teach the rest of us how to live today” (Sally is a teacher).

Marketers have tapped into both technology and psychology. Sure the Mini folks signed up in droves, but the implications are frightening.

Technology crossed the line

Specifically, the technology is RFIDs. If you have not heard, that acronym stands for “radio frequency identification.” These minute chips of magic are imbedded in necks of our dogs, the ears of our livestock, cards you wave at a little box to let you into your office, a dot on your windshield that automatically bills you when traveling a toll road and even woven into the fabric of clothes telling retailers what item went out the door and – here is the scary part – to what destination.

I love technology. I love my automated coffee pot, fathomless laptop, garage door opener, Bluetooth in my car, e-mail retrieval on my phone and bloodless surgery on my knee.

I do not love the intrusion of people I do not know into the privacy of my personal life.

This is the most frightening part: I am starting to sound like my crazy uncle back in 1956 who believed Social Security was the trick of Roswell aliens.

The “wow” of technology may be turning into the “over my dead body” of privacy.

Is it not time for consumers to refuse the enticements of “faster, better and cheaper” in favor of “private property … keep out”?

I have signed up for every “no call” list that exists and these nameless neophytes of nanoscience still bulldoze into my dinner haven with “Mr. LeMon, I am not selling anything but … .”

We have become the slag heap for episodic, opportunistic mining by capitalistic cannibals who are intent on using every chip of information they can glean from our economic droppings.

If you have not noticed, Big Brother has not moved next door; Big Brother has come home in your jeans.

More truth than fiction

RFIDs are fantastic … and frightening. Think about the implications.

When you buy a car and it is fully traceable with RFIDs, will you get a cell phone call from a hotel that says, “We notice you are just 3.2 miles away from us, and we would love to have you spend the night at our special RFID price of $109”?

What if your next employer decides to do an “RFID scan” in lieu of an interview to review all your legal, financial, religious, political and medical histories?

Or let’s say the Internal Revenue Service audits you and does not ask any questions. They just ask you to step through what appears to be a Transportation Security Administration magnetometer. Sorry, their printout screams, “Subject Lied, Space Available in Cell Block C.”

Sure, there is some tongue protruding through my cheek, but there is more truth than fiction here.

I have always believed identity theft, snooping big government and invasive marketing were only for some schmuck who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and should have bought a shredder a long time ago.

The talking billboards, embedded nano-RFIDs in my clothes and Web masters who have mastered tracking my Internet preferences all give me the creeps.

If we lose our privacy, we lose our humanity.

There is no “wow” here.

Cal LeMon of Executive Enrichment Inc. solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. He can be reached at execenrichment@aol.com.[[In-content Ad]]