If the talking, seeing, all-knowing Sauron clothes weren’t enough, now we’ll have something else to contend with: Big Brother clothes.

Wal-Mart apparently isn’t happy with being the devil; now it has chosen to take the role of General Devil God. In other words, it will start inserting “smart tags” into its clothing sometime this month. These electronic tags will not be able to be turned off by buyers (though they can remove them) and they are, yes, trackable, meaning that Wal-Mart will now be tagging its victims like a wild animal species.

Of course, the retail giant insists that its actions are purely from a business perspective in order to track their inventory (rather than its wearers) and maintain their stock needs (which I don’t see how this concept is helped at all by the devices). The pilot system will start with jeans and underwear, presumably including more items as it continues.

By scanning the clothing items at the store, retail operators can tell which sizes need to be re-stocked, keeping shelves well filled and maintained. Of course, this kind of thing is pretty damn easy to do by human hand without the need to put human tracking devices on pieces of underwear—and with the rates that Wal-Mart hires people, it’s surely less costly as well.

Some privacy advocates say that not only is it wrongful to allow this technology to exist—letting people be tracked by such means, a tool that could fall into some pretty evil hands (though it’s already being manufactured by a pair of the most evil ones around, I’d wage)—but it could also lead to some pretty psycho tactics by criminals or marketers who could simply dig through people’s garbage to scan their stuff.

Several states are manufacturing personal ID cards that contain people’s personal information in a scan-able system as well (yours might be one if you live in New York, Washington, or several other states). Privacy advocates worry that these scanners might be able to garner information from the ID cards as well, allowing the company to access one’s complete personal information while shopping.

Nearly 4,000 Wal-Mart stores will be carrying this new technology by the end of the month. It’s time to start buying your trousers and knickers elsewhere, folks. Of course, many say that it won’t be long before other major retail giants will be using the same technology, leading me to one conclusion: be prepared to be tracked, or get a sewing machine. And maybe some cotton seeds.