The distrust between privacy advocates and big business is creating a solution where there's no problem, as RSA begins offering technology to disable RFID tags. (The picture is from a California medical group offering patients information on medicine.)

As The Register reports, the Blocker Tag is a cover applied to a passive RFID tag at a register that keeps the tag on an item from signaling to a radio. RSA demonstrated this on drugs. The prescription bottle tag couldn't be read after the blocker was applied.

But let's consider this example again, from the point of view of potential patient benefits.

Drugs need to be taken regularly to be effective. A lot of older people (and even some younger people) forget to do so. Some older people, in order to "save money," even "forget" deliberately.

This is important information. It's important for the doctor, and also for the patient. Shouldn't forgetful patients be able to find out if they did take their meds? Shouldn't doctors with elderly patients be alerted about "pill-cutting" before it becomes life-threatening?

An RFID tag can hold a lot more information than a bar code. It can hold the date, the doctor's name, all sorts of vital information. There are applications waiting to be built from this, life-saving applications, but they won't be so long as the distrust between patient and medical system holds. They won't be built if the tag is disabled, either.

Lawrence Lessig often writes of the difference between the "West Coast Law" of computer code and the "East Coast Law" that is put into the law books. RFID and privacy should demand strong "East Coast Law."