Sneak is not one of those bed-wetting liberals who wrap themselves in tin foil before they go outside, to stop the RFID tags in their incontinence pads giving their position away to the government. In fact, Sneak reckons using RFID to monitor certain commodities is a wise move – for example high-value products or toxic waste.

However, even Sneak was a trifle concerned to learn that inconspicuous RFID tags are now being embedded in delegate badges at conferences, including the recent CA World and Intel Developer Forum events.

Corporate flaks bleat that the spy-chipped badges allow organisers to track which seminars went down well and which went down like rat poop in your Coco Pops, but Sneak is not convinced - unless the tags can measure boredom levels or detect snoring.

No, Sneak suspects something else is up. It’s just not clear whether the organisers think Sneak is extremely valuable or a piece of toxic waste.

14 Mar 2006