Recent Blog Posts
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MSNBC.com "Knows a Trend When It Sees One"
Nov 23 20094:11 pm EDT -
Windows 7 Spin May Be on the Money
Nov 23 20098:44 am EDT -
Mapping Company Raises Millions
Nov 20 20094:09 pm EDT -
Facebook Valuations Are All Over the Map
Nov 20 200911:30 am EDT -
The Future of Tech, 2010 Edition
Nov 20 20099:13 am EDT -
Automatic Pancake-Making Machine Attracts $2 Million in Capital
Nov 19 20094:53 pm EDT -
Apple Talk of Microsoft's Annual Meeting
Nov 19 20091:27 pm EDT -
There Is Still Hope for the News Business
Nov 19 200911:50 am EDT -
The Google Phone May Be Near
Nov 18 20094:10 pm EDT -
Amazon Grocery Service Goes Mobile with iPhone
Nov 18 20099:13 am EDT
Links
- Engadget
- Pandora
- GigaOM
- USA TODAY Tech
- Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog
- Somewhat Frank's tech conference list
- BuzzTracker Tech
- The Long Tail
- Tom Foremski
- Roger McGuinn's Folk Den
- John Battelle's SearchBlog
- Mark Cuban's blog
- SciTech Daily
- Romenesko
- Kevin Maney's site
- Steven Johnson
- Marc Andreessen
- TechCrunch
- Fred Wilson
- paidContent
- Spiedies, mmmm
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?
