Recent Blog Posts
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A Big Fat Geek Survey
May 25 20123:56 pm EDT -
Phasing Out Instagram
May 25 20122:27 pm EDT -
UberConference Is Victorious!
May 24 20121:49 pm EDT -
Ark Floats, Olive Branch Unseen
May 21 20126:30 pm EDT -
Teach the Internet to Forget
May 21 20124:39 pm EDT -
Microsoft Patent Begs the Question:
Who Needs Developers?
May 17 20123:30 pm EDT -
Mozilla's Monitor-Me-Not
May 17 201211:38 am EDT -
Google's Brain Gets Humanized
May 16 20125:30 pm EDT -
Pandora Demographics Aim Wedding Proposal
May 16 201212:19 pm EDT -
New York Techies Get Mappy Way to Job Hunt
May 15 20122:50 pm EDT
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Bar Codes: Inventing a Major Invasion of Privacy
Kevin Maney is amazed: Bar codes were introduced just 34 years ago today. Which seems amazing, because few technologies are so ubiquitous. UPC bar codes track everything and, while hardly anyone thinks about it, are probably the greatest invasion of privacy ever. You scan a membership card or use a credit card to pay, and the store can link everything you bought to your name.
And these days, we have the pleasure of automated check-out lines, where you scan your own stuff and a computerized voice loudly announces, "Move your anti-fungal cream to the conveyer belt."
Great moments in UPC scanner history: The first President Bush being "amazed" by scanner technology in a grocery story. Or was he?
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