InfoWorld provides a couple of realistic "nightmare" scenarios in this article. I've read and partially agree with RFID advocates who debunk more extreme scenarios, such as ones that require monitoring people from afar (the physics doesn't work), or building a large-scale mesh of readers (too expensive), but what have they to say about these?
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/02/13/07OPreality_1.html
http://www.aimglobal.org/technologies/rfid/resources/articles/jan04/0401-roispy.htm
Posted by holtzman at February 14, 2004 08:08 AMThat the government would have to spend $1T to carpet the country in RFID readers is a flimsy strawman.
We've already seen numerous examples of the government's soliciting or demanding information from the private sector, e.g., the diving shop records requested right after 9/11, or the Las Vegas hotel records requested this last holiday season.
Think of the potential "mesh" being the sum total of all deployed RFID readers, some of which might be government-owned, some of which might be permanently collaborating (e.g., one could imagine an incentive program where banks which allow doorway readers to be piped directly to FinCEN get additional services in assessing potential customers) and others of which are used through requests or subpoenas for previously-captured data.
We're documenting various surveillance and privacy scenarios around RFID at http://www.stapleton-gray.com/surpriv/