Digital Media Buzz > Tag, You’re It: RFID Technology Grows Up

Tag, You’re It: RFID Technology Grows Up

Next Page « 1 2 3 »

High-tech helper
The RFID-tagging technology, already used extensively in the supply end of industry, is increasingly being implemented for everything from store security to targeted marketing.

The tiny computer chips vary in size, but can be as small as a grain of dust. The chips, which have miniature antennae, can be active or passive. Active chips have batteries and can be read for greater distances; passive chips gather reflected radio-signal power from the RFID reader, often called an “interrogator.” Chips have varying amounts of memory, but all can contain enough data to record an Electronic Product Code that can uniquely identify each item to which is affixed.

Applications for the chips range from benign to beneficial to frightening. Critics have described the technology in literally apocalyptic terms, because of its potential for surveillance by governments or others. A rice-sized RFID device designed by Verichip has been approved by the FDA for human implantation, and has been used in some high-profile cases.

For targeted marketing purposes, however, advertisers can make a good case for a win-win proposition with the consumer.
At the TOP Food and Drug chain in the U.S. Northwest, the RFID-powered TOP Connection program is front and center of the grocer’s relationship with customers at four locations.

TOP Connection is the high-powered next generation of loyalty card programs. Traditional bar-coded loyalty cards gather great amounts of data on individual users’ buying habits, and can use this data to generate relevant coupons. Loyalty cards generally offer special prices for members.

TOP, which hasn’t historically used loyalty cards, now offers a suite of services and a personal shopping web portal to those who have signed up. After filling email verification, new members fill out three pages of personal information on the TOP website, opening up their own mini-site. They receive a RFID “loyalty card” as either a key fob or a sticker that can be affixed to a cell phone, with a unique encrypted ID number linked to their registration information.

One of the benefits of registration is a low-price guarantee. If an item goes on sale within seven days after the customer buys it, the system automatically adds the difference in price, plus a 1-percent bonus, to the member’s “wallet.” Users can also be alerted by phone or email in the case of a recall, or if they receive a credit.

On the website, members can create an online shopping list while reviewing coupons and the latest advertisements. They can also search a library of recipes and add some or all of the ingredients to the shopping cart. Users currently must print out the recipes, but the system is prepared for the future installation of RFID readers that will allow printouts at the store. Users can also access their purchase history at TOP.

Back to the future of the Web
In a seminal 2001 article in Scientific American, Web inventor Berners-Lee described a future in which all data would be linked together in a universal database that included not only personal computers, but all electronic devices. In describing the impact this “Semantic Web” (a.k.a. Web 3.0), he discussed “digital agents” that would know everything about a person. The digital agents would know the user’s location, his habits, his medical conditions, his preferences — and would constantly provide him with options for daily life.

While the coding discipline Berners-Lee advocates to achieve this digital Nirvana isn’t widespread yet, the world is moving in many ways toward the future he envisioned. And the digital personal agents he described are already here, in various stages of growth and developing constantly. Behavioral targeting by an outside commercial enterprise is just the flip side of the personalized digital matrix directed by the individual. From relevant advertisements to personalized advice to customized content, all have the potential to benefit each of us.

But there is also potential for abuse if consumers are not well-educated in their choices, and given clear benefits in return for their personal information.

Next Page « 1 2 3 »