Wired News reports that following the privacy-driven backlash against tiny radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, companies like Procter & Gamble, Sara Lee, Kellogg, Johnson & Johnson, and others are attempting to re-spin RFID as a homeland defense technology. According to the article–which refers to confidential documents uncovered by privacy rights group CASPIAN–the companies claim that tagging products with RFIDs will facilitate recalls in the event that terrorists poison our food supplies.
"The Auto-ID Center, an RFID consortium, presented its technology to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in Washington, D.C., last year. In fact, many Auto-ID Center sponsors consider Ridge's blessing to be key to public acceptance. An internal presentation by Fleishman-Hillard, the powerhouse PR firm that advises the center, lists Ridge as a 'top-tier opinion leader.' And the minutes of another meeting, attended by a representative of the Department of Defense, records a group statement that the technology will catch on 'when the government mandates it for homeland security reasons.'"
