Friendly reminder many manufactured goods also have RFID stickers within, used to track/trace parts during factory assembly. These are active and readable at all times by systems like this - irrespective of if the devices are powered.
https://www.zebra.com/us/en/products/mobile-computers/handhe...
I turned on the RFID scanner and did a leisurely stroll through a local Walmart Supercenter.
I read nearly 6200 unique tags over 39,000 times in the span of a ~20 minute walk in the store. Every single tag has a unique serial number and a unique serialized EPC GTIN.
https://i.ibb.co/994NJfgJ/photo-2026-08-16-13-14-52.jpg
RFID/EPC enabled merchandise is going to be a huge trackpoint for passive RFID scanning moving forward. Walmart attempted this back in the early 2010s (and failed because it cost so much) and now that tags are pennies a tag, they can finally force suppliers to roll it out (starting with apparel, then hardlines over time).
even most watches people have now broadcast bluetooth MAC (and maybe ANT+ id)
and that data is never ever going away, there's no warrant and no law to regulate it
they still have tracking data for everyone who visited Epstein Island decades ago (which is even more crazy that no-one was prosecuted out of hundreds)
https://www.zebra.com/us/en/products/rfid/rfid-readers.html?...
Although, as I understand it, Flock itself is mostly just looking for Bluetooth, BTLE, TPMS Sensors, and Wifi devices.