Discuss the functions and ethics of identification and tracking computing technology embedded in everyday products.

Comp1017

Digital Technology’s

Assignment 1

Question

Discuss the functions and ethics of identification and tracking computing technology embedded in everyday products.

The major functions of the identification and tracking computing technology is to increase efficiency, reduce data loss and free up staff positions. The technology will also be able to track certain products for there life time.

So a good example of this type of technology would be Auto – ID technology, so with this type of technology each particular object will be embedded with a chip, which will be able to communicate with either the customer or the manufacturer. Other products that come under the term Auto – ID technology would be barcode scanners, smart cards and voice recognisers. Also radio frequency identification would also come under the term Auto - ID technology and this is the product which I am going to talk about in this essay.

When a manufacture is producing his products on all of his products he would add a Radio frequency Identification tag, which will contain product codes, each tag should also contain a radio antenna, the chip itself is about as big as a grain of sand and costs less then a penny, so the cost of this technology would not cost the company that much.

Then the cans will be packed into boxes and loaded onto Lorries and taken across the country, as the Lorries leave the warehouses the chips stored on the cans of coke will be activated by the radio frequency identification unit which will be positioned above the door as the lorries leave, this unit will send radio waves to all the chips in the cans of cokes powering them all up. Once the chips are powered up then each will chip will start to send its electronic product code back to the main computer, again this will be done threw radio waves.

All information given off threw the radio signals will be used and all the information will be stored on a database, so when the lorry reaches the distribution centre, the centre all ready know how many cans are going to be received because of the technology, this information will be able to be sent any were in the world, so the workers will know which crate of coke goes were or to which lorry.

When the coke leaves the distribution centre it again passes threw some RFID sensors which will update the records on the database, so ...

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When the coke leaves the distribution centre it again passes threw some RFID sensors which will update the records on the database, so again the shop will know what stock is coming in and how much of it there will be.

Also the shops can also use this type of technology for shop stock control, each self will have a RFID scanner, so if a customer was to take three cans of coke from the self, then the shop owner would no the three cans had been taken from then self and the shelf needs to be restocked, so this could save money for the shop as they wouldn’t have to pay any external company to complete the stock control.

Also the link may also be direct to the distribution centre, so they know how muck stock needs to sent

Another way that this technology could advance the way we shop, this would happen be installing RFIDs on the exit of the shopping mall, so instead of waiting in cues you can gather all the shopping you require and then go home, because there are tags inserted in the products and when the customer leaves the shop the sensors will pick up the products and send a bill to the house of the customers.

Another example of a electronic tracking system would be an electric tagging system for criminals. This works by the criminal having an electric tag on his ankle, and certain boundaries will also be tagged and if the criminal was to move out of that area, then a message would be sent to a signal monitoring station.

Also using a global positioning satellite, people would be able to view certain criminals at any time, and if they were to get to close to a potential victim then a message could be sent to the police, so they could make the address before the crime took place.

When talking about the ethics of the technology used, you must look at both sides of the story their will be both good and bad points, the first points I am going to talk about are the bad points.

Customers may be put off the technology, if a tag stays alive for up to 10 years then a manufacture could find out were a particular customer lives by tracing a particular tag, and then the customer might be very cautious with everything that he buys in the future, and is this morally correct for a company to know were you live whether you want them are not.

Also would it be morally correct for a customer to buy a product, and there to be tag installed which the customer as no idea of it being there what so ever.

You have also got the cost of the equipment that would be required to make this process correct, which would cost thousand or even millions of pounds and is this money justified when people’s privacy is on the line.

Also as well as the cost of the equipment there would also be cost of the staff to make sure that the system is running well and to answer any questions on any trouble shooting.

Also with this type of technology when customers are shopping they may get carried away with their shopping and they may not be able to afford the payments for the shopping.

There are also good points to the argument, although the customers may be cautious of maybe being tracked they will also have the advantage to system, they will not have to wait in any cues, and also the shops will be gaining a lot of advantages from the new system like less staff hiring, eliminate human error and there should also be less stealing from the shop.

I think that the public would much prefer this type of technology to be used for other uses, if the public was to know that the same type of technology was to be used by the police for tracking purposes. I think that the public would believe that the ethics of human tagging was correct and it would be used in a humane way.

But if you look at it on the other hand, then the tagging may be classed as inhumane and treating humans as animals, giving humans boundaries of time and the place were they are aloud to go.

The public may also see the introduction of human electronic tagging bad idea because it gives a second chance to criminals, so they can come out earlier of prison and be let back into society.

So in my concussion to the argument I would agree with the arguments against the tagging process, I think that the public are being miss lead into the process. The public need to know about the tagging for it to be justified, maybe if the company were to change the way they manufactured their chips, it would make them better if they had a limited life. Also if the company were to advertise their chips, letting the public now about them, as they might not be as cautious about using there products, But with respect to the shopping technology which lets you walk out of the shop with out paying and you get sent a bill to your home address, I am completely agree with this type of technology because I think it would revolutionise the way in which we shop to this date.

I agree with the process of the human electronic tagging and the ethics behind that type of technology, depending on which crime has been committed, and if it was a smaller crime then these criminals would be allowed to be moved out of the jails and put on this electronic tagging system, which would free up jail space for the bigger criminals.

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