RFID Jargon Watch

Brian Doherty | March 30, 2005

Forget you ever heard of radio-frequency identification chips--the feds and chip makers are trying to rebrand them as "contactless chips."

This Wired.com story reports this is in order to "dodge the privacy debate raging over RFID tags, which will eventually replace bar-code labels on consumer goods, said privacy rights advocates this week."

This seems dubious--general consumer and citizen awareness of the term "RFID chip" is still pretty low, and I suspect it's the concept more than the name that will alarm. Or, even more likely, for the most part if they decide it makes anything more convenient for them, neither the concept nor the name will bother most people a bit.

[Link via Rational Review.]