Richard Stallman Accosted For Tinfoil Hat

Found on Slashdot on Friday, 18 November 2005
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Bruce Perens posts in his blog about an amusing encounter between Richard Stallman and United Nations security at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. It seems that RFID technology, which Stallman opposes for privacy reasons, was used in the identification badges for the conference. From the blog: 'You can't give Richard a visible RF ID strip without expecting him to protest. Richard acquired an entire roll of aluminum foil and wore his foil-shielded pass prominently.' During a keynote speech, Stallman also passed around the tinfoil for other to use as well. It seems that UN security was not amused, however, as they would not let him leave the room for some time.

Way to go! Getting flooded with RFID tags everywhere isn't exactly my idea of the future. As soon as this technology is added to passports (as planned), I'll happily follow Richard's example and tinfoil it.