A billion little pieces : RFID and infrastructures of identification / Jordan Frith.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

RFID and the infrastructural imagination -- Infrastructures of identification -- Understanding RFID technologies -- RFID and the Internet of Things -- Data traces of identification -- Surveillance and the mobility of bodies -- Conclusion : the future of identification infrastructures.

"RFID (radio frequency identification) has been deployed in the billions to track objects through the global economy and is used to manage and monitor public transportation systems, store identifying information in biometric passports, communicate sensor information about infrastructure and food safety, power contactless "smart" cards, and provide essential identification functions for the growing Internet of Things. RFID tags can be as small as a grain of rice and sown into clothing or embedded in packaging--even inside animal and human bodies. They are found in credit cards, key fobs, car windshields, your T pass, consumer electronics, the walls of tunnels--and yet, most people are unaware of their presence. This book will be the first to look at RFID as an invisible suite of mobile technologies that makes up an integral piece of the development of networked infrastructure, mobile payment, and the global economy. Frith takes on the subject from multiple angles, including the history of the technology, industry, its role in the Internet of Things, big data, surveillance and privacy concerns, and mobile infrastructures"--