As wireless technology gets smaller and smarter, it is used in all kinds of innovative ways. Researchers in Japan have developed microscopic RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags that are smaller than a human hair, 0.05mm by 0.05mm. RFID chips in many ways resemble bar codes - they broadcast identification information of one sort or another about whatever it is that they are attached to. The signals from these tags can be used to track products, people, and information. The usefulness of the new micro RFID tags is limited because even the smallest antennas are about eighty times larger than the chips. As antennas shrink in size, this kind of technology will become ubiquitous, embedded anywhere and everywhere.

Initially RFID technology focused on inventory management and logistics: RFID are currently widely used to keep monitor transport of containers at ports, on ships, trains, trucks and their eventual arrival in warehouses. This is by no means the only use of RFID technology, and these new microscopic chips have a much broader potential use - RFID could even be used for paper. Imagine a bureaucracy or records system in which each piece of paper emitted a radio signal that made it possible to digitally track every piece of paper (record) in real time. It would become practically impossible to lose paperwork. And if RFID tags were included in paper money, just imagine the effect on conspiracy theorists around the world.

The other primary use of RFID tags has been on identification documents, like passports and driver's licences and this application has wide-open potential uses too, some of which they are beginning to explore in places like Germany. After an extensive process, German authorities are adding advanced RFID capabilities to ID cards that will be issued to all German residents. In addition to giving authorities the ability to quickly identify someone, the cards, when used with special readers, allow users to identify themselves on their computer, enabling more secure online commerce and authenticated web services.

Explicitly, the government is looking to provide online social services enabled by the ability to (in theory) properly identify individuals. These might be informational services like government registrations and the like, but could also easily extend to online voting and other services that require trusted authentication in order to work.

One major potential problem with RFID tags and wireless technology in general is that security is a huge problem, because everything is eventually hackable. The issue with RFID and related technologies has always been the "identification" part: often these tags just broadcast their identification information far and wide, and attackers are able to make use of that information for other, more nefarious purposes. For example, a lot of late model automobiles have wireless pressure gauges installed in the tires so that your car will know if your tire is getting flat. People have figured out how to hack this, either using the data to identify and track a particular vehicle, or using the wireless connection to inject malicious code into main automotive computer systems.

RFID is quickly gaining a foothold in mainstream society - people often don't know the word, but the technology is present and used in numerous industries, so it's just a matter of time before people can buy consumer grade RFID readers that allow you to detect which products or items in your home are emitting identification information.

Bigger problems will arise when RFID starts to become part of our identification systems. Some Canadian provinces are already offering "enhanced" IDs and driver's licenses that comply with US Customs regulations and supposedly make it easier for people to travel to the US. The risk is that as we become reliant upon electronic systems to identify us, it becomes easier to use electronic systems for fraud and identity theft. We start trusting what the machine tells us about someone's identity, rather than using our human capabilities to assess whether they are who they say they are.

There is another, rather pervasive risk, which is that we'll all just be tracked, everywhere, all the time, and in direct relationship to the objects around us, that are also tracked. This is an issue that we see coming to a head in almost every way we use technology today: as systems grow ever more advanced, the capability to track human behaviours grows apace, and at some point, there will be a pushback from consumers concerned about privacy ramifications.