Wal Mart RFID

Over the past few days I have been seeing a lot of discussion about the new RFID system that Wal Mart plans on implementing in some of its inventory. What interests me about these discussions is that for the most part I have only encountered people who believe that this new system will be used as tool for Wal Mart to collect the private data of its customers. At the face of it I think that these claims are wild fictions created to malign Wal Mart. In this article by Anne D'Innocenzio, she talks about being able to use the system to read new drivers liscences that use RFID tags to transmit data about the person and about using the system to track customer purchases after the tags are thrown away. I don't believe that either of those will be a problem for this system because as with the government issued passports that contain RFID chips people should be taking measures to block those radio transmissions because those tags are easy to read and anyone can pick up the tools necessary to do so. I don't believe the tags on the clothing being thrown away is an issue because as with most retail anti-theft measures, the devices are removed and disposed of in-store. Now that being said I hope that this new system allows Wal Mart to better serve their customers in a variety of ways. The biggest reason I believe Wal Mart is implementing this measure is to cut costs because according to this article in 2002 retail inventory theft cost $31 billion in the U.S., and who do you think pays that cost the retailer? no it is passed on to the consumer so if this system can reduce the amount of retail theft, which I believe it can because it will allow store managers to more easily track merchandise in-stock, then Wal Mart will be able to pass their increased savings onto us, the consumer.