Educational Media Reviews Online

Tagged follows technology enthusiast Mark Stepanek, who wants an implanted RFID chip to use for keyless entry, his story interrupted by individuals speaking for and against RFID use. Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags use a small passive sensor which supplies unique information to a reader. He searches for a chip and someone who will implant it, having a surprisingly hard time with the second part. The film talks to individuals in many areas who express diverse opinions: experts in criminal justice, privacy, a veterinarian, Bruce Schneier of Wired magazine, Scott Silverman, CEO of Verichip company, which makes RFID tags, the author of the book RFID Toys and a "consumer advocate," who is opposed to their use in humans.

One of the critical political questions of our time is how much privacy is good? Security advocates demand greater surveillance of individuals, with closed-circuit television cameras in public places and other technical measures. Civil liberties advocates call for more privacy and individual autonomy, sometimes fighting new technology and its uses. How societies balance these two competing desires is an ongoing battle. The last few decades have seen unprecedented growth of technologies which can identify and track individuals. RFID tags in library books enable quick and accurate checkout and inventory. Retailers use them to track items in shipments and storage, reducing the cost of transport. Food animals can be followed to trace tainted meat back to its source; a police officer's life was saved by provision of critical medical information while he was unconscious.

Amil Graafstra, author, says, "It's all about consent." Katherine Albrecht, consumer advocate asks, "What's the potential of this technology, and do I trust the people deploying it to stay within bounds?" And Kevin Haggerty, University of Alberta, surveillance technology expert says that RFID use in humans is inevitable in the next decade. Differing good reasons to use and not use RFID collide, from identifying first responders in disasters and soldiers stand in opposition to the individuals' right to be free from unnecessary surveillance. Many other technologies are compared to RFID, such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi used for surveillance and the use of fingerprinting at birth. There is no technical discussion about RFID and how it works and how it can be abused, which makes it easy for audiences to focus on non-technical issues.

This National Film Board of Canada film poses a great many questions and answers none. It is designed to provoke discussion. It is suitable for a single class period, with a 28 minute running time. Warning: there are two scenes of an RFID chip being implanted, with a rather large gauge hypodermic needle, one in a dog and the other in a human. Is RFID a threat or a toy, a private good or public evil? Our future will rise out of public desire and debate, and this film encourages a dialog.