Just before taking off on a short flight (30 minutes) from Amsterdam to London, tech columnist Peter Cochrane recounts a story of how a passenger was caught smoking in the bathroom and was subsequently arrested. There were notices all over the terminal that smoking was not allowed, but the passenger, who Cochrane describes as a "miscreant [who] has the complexion, dress and look of a potential bomber." Cochrane, who notes that he flew out of Boston on September 10, 2001 and passed through all of the bomb sites in London early on July 7 of this year, admits feeling he may be on a "converging disaster timeline." In other words, he's suffering from a fit of paranoia.

After thinking about what happened with this passenger on this particular flight (he actually advocates that the "miscreant" be dealt with in a "Biblical style"), Cochrane thinks that RFID would be a useful technology to screen all bags, clothing, purchases, and belongings besides documents and passports.

It's actually not a bad thought to leverage RFID technology to supplement airport security. Possibly baggage tickets could have RFID tags implanted in them along with boarding passes. I'm sure there's a myriad of logical ways to use RFID in this instance. But paranoic overreactions like this will certainly drive privacy advocates and other RFID opponents to step up their efforts to keep the technology from ever hitting any kind of mainstream usage. Obviously, the passenger shouldn't have done what he did, but there's no need to go to extremes.