RE: Tagging & privacy in the age of global jihad

the nature of global commerce and mass markets being what they are, this technology is tantalizing and likely inevitable.

the technology will be abused. diligent efforts of the well-meaning nothwistanding, there will be multitude abuses, misuses, misunderstandings. The entire technology is an affront to liberty, which at times depends on anonymity.

But it will be ubiquitous. And outcry over abuses will be dealt with by 'neutralizing resistance' -- a PR issue.

Egregious abuses may be statistically negligable, but that only applies to the numbers. Not to the damage done to the victims of a ubiquitous tracking and id technology.

Alas, the wicked genie is out of the bottle. All that glitters is most certainly not gold.

If we argue that it's only neutral technology, all well and good. Then its ultimate effect lies in the judgment of the people and institutions that implement and interpret it. That is perhaps the biggest threat of all.