The Paranoid Poster - New product defends against drive-by ID theft

Radio frequency identification (RFID) chips are tiny bits of computer technology that you may recognize as annoying anti-theft tags on clothes, electronics, books and the like that occasionally trip the sensors at store exits. The chips contain universal price code (UPC) information and serve as unique identifiers for products. They are incredibly useful for companies tracking inventory and handling logistics.

Some pet owners, parents of small children or adult children of Alzheimer's sufferers have even had RFID chips embedded under the skin of their loved ones The same technology could be employed to hold our personal medical histories or streamline credit card purchases and other financial transactions.

If every food item in your kitchen was RFID tagged, a smart refrigerator could even read your inventory and automatically generate a shopping list for you and send it to your local grocery. Such usefulness has marketing drooling over the business promise of RFID technology.