What flavor of crack do you think these guys are smoking?

From an article on BBC News:

Air passengers ‘could be tagged’
Electronically tagging passengers at airports could help the fight against terrorism, scientists have said. The prototype technology is to be tested at an airport in Hungary, and could, if successful, become a reality “in two years”. The work is being carried out at a new research centre, based at University College London, set up to find technological solutions to crime. Other projects include scanners for explosives and dirty bomb radiation.
Dr Paul Brennan, an electrical engineer, is leading the tagging project, known as Optag. He said: “The basic idea is that airports could be fitted with a network of combined panoramic cameras and RFID (radio frequency ID) tag readers, which would monitor the movements of people around the various terminal buildings.” The plan, he said, would be for each passenger to be issued with a tag at check-in.
He said: “In our system, the location can be detected to an accuracy of 1m, and video and tag data could be merged to give a powerful surveillance capability.”
The project still needs to overcome some hurdles, such as finding a way of ensuring the tags cannot be switched between passengers or removed without notification. The issue of infringement of civil liberties will also be key.

No! You think so? Gee, what’s wrong with treating all of your passengers like criminals, and/or cattle? The fact that this can appear in a major news outlet without irony or links to George Orwell books is both scary and wrong.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. wil

    Beyond the obvious Orwellian connections, I am confused as to how this would fight terrorism. If the 9/11 hijackers were ‘tagged’ it wouldn’t have prevented anything.

  2. Maxine Dangerous

    I’ll only submit to being tagged if they take me down with a tranquilizer gunand then rub my tummy while feeding me berries after I wake up. Oh wait. That’s right. I’M NOT A BEAR. Jeez.

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