Wired News reports that a consortium of retailers and consumer goods companies plan to unveil the replacement for the bar code next week. The upgrade will use a controversial radio technology that critics say will significantly expand the powers of retailers to track the whereabouts of their goods and the people who buy them. The Auto-ID Center at MIT will release the Electronic Product Code Network at a meeting of the center's sponsors in Chicago. With the EPC, retailers and suppliers will track not only product codes -- something bar codes already do -- but serial numbers for each individual item. Some of the tags can also send out signals when perishables reach their expiration dates. In addition, the group will demonstrate radio frequency identification tags that can be embedded in product labels. These so-called RFID tags can broadcast information about products, including their location, when exposed to a radio signal. With a quick scan, a retailer can take a complete, accurate inventory of its shelves, helping to cut costs. But critics of the technology say RFID tags would enable massive privacy violations by retailers, governments and crooks. Full article here.