Friday, June 23, 2006

Watch where you pour that thing, Sonny.



Whenever I begin to think that our government is on the verge of Big Brotherhood, somebody in Corporate America decides to remind me that most businesses already have that strategy.

AllinVegas.com reports on a alarming addition to employer surveillance.

"Treasure Island (TI), a Las Vegas hotel and casino, has installed a system utilizing RFID to track the amount and type of liquor its bartenders pour. The new system, the Beverage Tracker, was supplied by Capton, a San Francisco-based provider of liquor-monitoring technology. The system has been in operation at two of the hotelĂ‚’s bars for the past month and will soon be added to two more."

I had heard of a device that limits bartenders from over pouring drinks, but this kind of tracking is getting out of hand. How much control are you wiling to cede to an employer for your paycheck? If you think this kind of monitoring is just for low skill low wage work, think again. The technology for absolute surveillance will be here soon. I expect a deafening silence to greet humankind's surrender to total monitoring. That's why I call my site the Silent Totalitarianism.

It should be readily apparent to even the most partisan Republican that corporations have the desire to do so, and the market justifications ready to enable them.

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