It’s bad enough that Wal-Mart is everywhere in the economy: largest importer of goods from China; driving other companies like Toys-R-Us to the verge of bankruptcy by driving prices down, down, down, chirping on the television with those misleading ads talking about the Wal-Mart paradise for communities and workers; and, of course, paying workers poverty wages. Now, Wal-Mart will be inside your home–maybe eventually tracking what you do with everything you buy in the store.

Starting January 1, 2005, Wal-Mart’s top 100 suppliers will be sticking radio-frequency identification tags on every item. These RFIDs will first be put on items headed for distribution centers. You worried about having a bar-code implanted on your forehead? Well, this is the next step towards that corporate utopian concept. Eventually, these RFID tages will end up on every item you buy. So, when you walk out the Wal-Mart store (well, shame on you for doing that in the first place), a remote device will be able to tell where you put in your house every item you bought there.

George Orwell, where are you?