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Bar Codes Inventing A Major Invasion Of Privacy

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by Kevin Maney
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Jun 26 2008 12:00am EDT

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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