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Self service are not appropriate for many of the use cases. And they will be until you can pull your basket up and simply load the products onto the belt and it processes them without manual intervention.

I thought RFID chips were supposed to solve that problem. Some years ago I read an article about how Walmart wanted RFID chips on absolutely everything. I know there was a backlash due to privacy concerns (every RFID chip is unique and could be used to track you. See spychips.com). Not sure what happened after that.

I dislike the idea that credit cards and drivers licenses will probably all eventually have RFID chips in them. I also dislike the idea of grocery stores using shoppers discount cards to track people's shopping habits. I use an RFID blocking wallet, even though my credit card and driver's license probably do not yet have RFID tags in them.

A few companies have experimented with putting RFID tags into clothing for inventory purposes. Unfortunately, those passive RFID tags would then remain in the clothes when worn by customers. The uniquely identifiable serial number on each item in my clothing or wallet, would then make me trackable when going from store to store.

I prefer to do much of my shopping at the two grocery stores in town which do not use shopper's cards. The other store's database probably shows that I eat lots fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains, along with modest amounts of grass fed buffalo meat. It would also show that I prefer organic foods and low sodium foods, that I totally avoid transfats and GMO foods, and do not smoke, drink or eat junk food. Perhaps, I should hope that my health insurance company gets a hold of that personal information.

I am also dislike the idea of governments possibly being able to track everyone's daily movements by knowing where their cell phone is at all times.

Call me paranoid if you want. But, even though I am not a Christian believer, I would still definitely reject anything that might possibly be the mark of the beast. For instance, I would not ever accept having an RFID tag implanted in my body (or anything similar).

• The Spychips Threat: Why Christians Should Resist RFID and Electronic Surveillance
• Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID
• Spychips.com
• NoCards.org

GPS? No, they'll use RFID to track you, which is probably already in most of your clothes/shoes already. RFID has unique IDs for each chip. All they have to do is put scanners in doorways, next to cash registers, and they can track where you go, and connect the RFID in your clothes to your credit card and transactions. Not so different from the advertising in Minority Report, except they don't have to scan your eye.

IBM appears to have a patent on "Identification and tracking of persons using RFID-tagged items"

This has caused some people to refer to RFID as spychips.

radio-tagged IDs have the potential to allow "widespread surveillance of individuals"

Worse still, if it can be read once, it could be read twice, for instance to trigger their assassination e.g. with a bomb that would identify its targets based on the RFID (of the passport or any other of their belongings).

Moreover, remote-readable IDs could make it easier e.g. for kidnappers to single out the most promising victims from a crowd.
What obstacle would stop determined attackers from getting their hands on this kind of technology? Bigger and more thoroughly guarded things than simple hand-held radio tag scanners are probably being stolen from airports every day.

The radio frequency identification, or RFID, is an inherently flawed idea. It is a technological solution to a social problem that it created. It is a threat to our security, our privacy, our freedom, and now also our health! And this is not a just conspiracy theory. Some of the most respectable members of our society are protesting against RFID technology, including Bruce Schneier and even Richard Stallman. My only question is, how much more insult to our intelligence can we take as a society before we start actively protesting? Our freedom, our privacy, our health and our dignity is being taken from us and all we can do is complain on the Internet? Where are the protesting groups? Where are the outraged people desperate to change the situation? Where are the angry mobs? What else are we going to let them take away from us before we stop talking and start acting?

No, Wal-Mart is charging for a required service the Mfg./Supplier isn't complying with. Two dollars per Pallet is a fair price (IMHO) as they have to tag, inventory, and verify each non-RFID pallet that enters this one facility. That is an important point, BTW - this only impacts one Sam's Club distribution center. This is a reasonable business decision, much more reasonable than their previous position that untagged pallets wouldn't be allowed in their facility after a certain date (with no accommodation like the one reported being made).

IMHO, this will cause many smaller suppliers to simply abandon their RFID efforts and pay the $2/pallet fee - it will be much cheaper than an in-house effort.

And finally, let me be the first to link to proof, I say PROOF, that RFID is evil and will bring about the end of western civilization: Spy Chips, the book - seen to be a major motion picture from Tin Foil Hat Productions! Check out their other titles and press reports here.

No, Wal-Mart is charging for a required service the Mfg./Supplier isn't complying with. Two dollars per Pallet is a fair price (IMHO) as they have to tag, inventory, and verify each non-RFID pallet that enters this one facility. That is an important point, BTW - this only impacts one Sam's Club distribution center. This is a reasonable business decision, much more reasonable than their previous position that untagged pallets wouldn't be allowed in their facility after a certain date (with no accommodation like the one reported being made).

IMHO, this will cause many smaller suppliers to simply abandon their RFID efforts and pay the $2/pallet fee - it will be much cheaper than an in-house effort.

And finally, let me be the first to link to proof, I say PROOF, that RFID is evil and will bring about the end of western civilization: Spy Chips, the book - seen to be a major motion picture from Tin Foil Hat Productions! Check out their other titles and press reports here.

His new patent seems to be quite similar to what Katherine Albrecht had warned against back in October 2005 in the book "SPYCHIPS: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Purchase and Watch Your Every Move." She not only warns us about business tracking us with RFID tags but also mentions to other related technologies such as shopper's ID cards. I can't recall if she specifically mentioned cell phones and GPS devices or not, but she definitely discusses the idea of "targeted advertising" and various related technologies. She had also founded Spychips.com and NoCards.org as opposition to that general type of thing.

Perhaps the inventor might have also seen a couple of the examples of tracking and "targeted advertising" that were in the movie "Minority Report."

Back before he supposedly invented the idea, I had already purchased an RFID blocking wallet and started leaving my cell phone behind in my truck, before entering shopping malls. That was to protect my privacy against his not yet invented new idea.

• RFID Blocking Wallet
• RFID Blocking Passport Billfold

Walmart is using it to track inventory... read on http://www.spychips.com/

http://www.spychips.com/press-releases/flawed-cred it-card-security.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 23, 2006

CONSUMER WATCHDOGS DEMAND RECALL OF SPYCHIPPED CREDIT CARDS
CASPIAN Advises Consumers to Immediately Remove Cards from Wallets

Consumer watchdog group CASPIAN is demanding a recall of millions of RFID-equipped contactless credit cards in light of serious security flaws reported today in the New York Times. The paper reports that a team of security researchers has found that virtually every one of these cards tested is vulnerable to unauthorized charges and puts consumers at risk for identity theft.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a controversial technology that uses tiny microchips to transmit information at a distance. These RFID microchips have earned the nickname "spychips" because the data they contain can be read silently and invisibly by radio waves without an individual's knowledge or consent. The technology has long been the target of criticism by privacy and civil liberties groups.

"For these financial institutions to put RFID in credit cards, one of the most sensitive items we carry, is absolute lunacy," said Dr. Katherine Albrecht, founder and director of CASPIAN, a consumer group with over 12,000 members in 30 countries worldwide.

Researchers are showing how a thief could skim information from the cards right through purses, backpacks and wallets. This information includes the cardholder's name, credit card number, expiration date and other data that would be sufficient to make unauthorized purchases. They say the information could even be used to identify and track people, a scenario Albrecht and co-author Liz McIntyre lay out in their book, "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Purchase and Watch Your Every Move."

Despite earlier assurances by the issuing companies that the data contained in the credit cards would be secure, researchers found that the majority of cards they tested did not use encryption or protect the data in any way. The information on them was readily available to unauthorized parties using equipment that could be assembled for as little as $50, the researchers said.

"We cautioned companies against using item-level RFID, and they didn't heed us. Now the credit card industry is facing an unprecedented PR and financial disaster," says McIntyre, who is also a former bank examiner. She points to the astronomical cost to replace the cards, not to mention the potential financial losses, litigation expenses, and erosion of consumer trust.

Albrecht and McIntyre are calling on the industry to issue a public alert detailing the dangers of the cards they've issued, institute an active recall, and make safe versions without RFID available to concerned consumers.

"This recall has to be very clear and very directed since consumers may not know their cards contain RFID tags," says Albrecht. "The industry has repeatedly resisted calls to clearly label the cards. Rather, they've given the cards innocent-sounding names like 'Blink.'"

CASPIAN is advising consumers to immediately remove the credit cards from their wallets and call
the 800 number on the back to insist on an RFID-free replacement card. The group is cautioning consumers not to mail the cards back or simply throw them away due to the risk of their personal information being skimmed.

Today's New York Times article by John Schwartz can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/business/23card. html?ref=business

A research report detailing the findings can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/business/20061 023_CARD/techreport.pdf

Don't forget the RFID tagged world that we are heading into. Companies such as Wall-Mart and several government agencies have been pushing hard to add RFID spychips to everything that we purchase. Soon we will be wearing RFID tagged clothing and shoes. Our wallets will have RFID tags in our charge cards and passports. We will be driving around in cars with RFID tags in the tires and elsewhere.

Each and every RFID tag will have a unique serial number and we will secretly be scanned when entering stores. Upon checking out our RFID tagged items we will show them our shoppers discount card and pay by charge card where our personal information will be updated in various computer databases. Who knows what personal information will then eventually be shared with credit agencies, advertisers and the governemnt.

As we drive around the country hidden scanners in highways will secretly log our movements at key points. And of course all the young people proudly carry their cell phones everywhere. I have heard that cell phones regularly transmit which cell tower they are closest to even when they are turned off. Only removing the battery or perhaps placing it in a Faraday cage would stop that.

If I understand correctly the USDA wants animal ID for all animals in micro-farms for every sheep, chicken, goat or other animal. That would most likely involve using RFID Tags to track your food. Perhaps they are afraid that that someone could actually buy their food from somewhere in cash without big brother having a record. There is an organization called NoNAIS that is opposed to those proposed rules.

Marketing researchers and the police will be able to inventory the contents of our garbage cans with hand held scanners without even opening the lid.

I think he "got chipped" a few years back as a publicity stunt. The stock's name is ADSX, sooner or later it's going to shoot up. It's heavily news driven.

Also, SpyChips has a lot of information on all forms of RFID, bit more paranoid side of things.

Hey numbnuts ... this chip idea is for the illegals crossing the Mexican border. Not for the legal immigrants. You didn't even have to RTFA to know that as it's right in the goddamn article summary!

Nowhere in the article summary, linked article nor the Silverman transcript does it say it's for illegal immigrants.

If you read any of the above then you'd notice that it's a proposal for guestworkers coming in from Columbia and Mexico, additionally to have their tags verfied at their places of employment. There would be no real obstacles stopping this from expanding to immigrants from other countries.

What I'd like to know is: who's going to pay for all of the RFID readers deployed in the field and the communications infrastructure to verify the tags with the Department of Immigration?

http://www.spychips.com/

This is what various intel agencies and police forces, both here and abroad, will end up using to both identify and track people.

It's a given.....and I certainly would NOT trust anyone in the present administration with such tools.

"Albrecht and McIntyre, who are Christians, also have religious concerns about RFID chip implants. In their latest book, "The Spychips Threat: Why Christians Should Resist RFID and Electronic Surveillance," the pair explain how plans by global corporations and government entities to broadly deploy RFID could usher in a world that bears a striking resemblance to the one predicted in Revelation, the last book of the Bible."

If the facts are accurate - and no one seems to be disputing them as yet - then their motivations aside, they've provided an important service to privacy watchers. It's interesting to see Christian activists approaching the issue with fact-based investigative reporting rather then just Scripture.

I'm not understanding the point here. If you inject the RFID chip, you can theoretically track your users wherever they go. But you can't ensure that access isn't being granted to someone who has an RFID chip in their wallet. You are making it slightly harder to steal the data, but you're not making it any harder to clone the chip.

What's the security benefit to injected RFID?

BTW, this is the original article.

"RFID: a pathway to your soul?

Retail consultant Kevin Coupe of MorningNewsBeat tells us the average American household spends $1,500 a week on necessities -- along with a whole lot of useless junk. (My paraphrase.) When you combine all those households, American Demographics reports that Americans spend more each week than the entire annual gross domestic product of Finland. That's a lot of spending.

Kevin Coupe thinks it's great, since "this level of spending has helped to keep the U.S. economy relatively healthy" (though he acknowledges that much of the spending is done on credit cards, contributing to our crushing debt load). He also praises the skyrocketing growth of the U.S. population as "another healthy sign." (Hey! Yeah! Let's make more consumers! Then Americans can consume every last thing on the planet!) But the real jaw-dropper is this advice he gives to marketers about the bloated spenders. In addition to capturing their money, Coupe suggests going straight for their souls.

He writes:

        These are our customers. Understanding them is the first step in serving them. And that means understanding them in fundamental ways... It means going beyond demographics.... Demographics is the study of what makes people the same. Psychographics is the study of what makes them different, and ultimately, we believe, is a better tool for figuring out a pathway into consumers' souls.

Our souls? We'll charitably assume he didn't really mean that. But RFID coupled with our personal data would be the ultimate marketing tool. Coupe explains:

        We've become a culture that is able to generate enormous data on almost every customer we have....It is time for the knowledge-based retailer to serve the knowledge-based society. Some technologies, such as RFID, will make this easier...(Think of the powerful, knowledge-based marketing engine that Wal-Mart will have once its RFID efforts really get traction, and it owns banks and can issue credit cards/smart cards to its customers.)

Yes, indeed. I think of the "powerful, knowledge-based marketing engine" now gaining traction every day. But do we really want Wal-Mart owning banks and tracking people around the store with spychipped credit cards? And more importantly, do we really want them having an RFID pathway into our souls?"

From http://www.spychips.com/blog/index.html

Taken from http://www.spychips.com/blog/index.html :

There are two glass encapsulated RFID tags pictured above. One is intended for human flesh, the other for the scruff of your pet's neck. Which is which?

Answer: The chip pictured at the top is VeriChip's VeriMed chip that former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson would like to see implanted in all Americans. Directly below the human chip is the animal chip marketed by Schering-Plough under the "Home Again" brand name.

There's no visible difference between the chips. They look the same, and they're both manufactured by subsidiaries of VeriChip's parent company Applied Digital Solutions. The whitish substance on the end of the chips is an anti-migration coating called "biobond" that encourages tissue growth so the chip doesn't move around inside of the animial--human, feline, or canine.

There is a technical difference between the chips that you wouldn't see with the naked eye. The pet chip contains a 9-digit number while the human chip contains a 16-digit number. I asked VeriChip spokesman John Procter why the human version contained 16-digits. His reply: "flexibility." He said the company wanted to ensure there would be enough unique numbers available for all the people it envisions chipping. Yikes!

Note: The VeriChip corporation tries to ease consumer fears by referring to the chip as being "about the size of a grain of rice." The rice in the photo above is long-grain rice--the longest grain I could find in my pantry. As you can see, the VeriChip is much larger.

From http://www.spychips.com/ - just one of many examples:

Q: Is it true there are plans to put RFID chips in Euro banknotes?
A: Hitachi has been working with the European Central Bank on the idea of putting RFID chips into Euro banknotes. This would eliminate the anonymity of cash by making it trackable. In essence, it would "register" your cash to you when you get it from the teller or take it out of the ATM. Euro banknotes could be RFID tagged as early as 2005. See: "Euro Notes May be Radio Tagged" at http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t295-s2135074,00. html for details.

Because there are NO police state type shenanigans happening there..

Problems such as 911 and avian flue have been used as excuse for giving up much of our privacy. Are we heading towards a future much like the book "1984"? What would someone like Hitler have done with RFID technology? No one would have been able to blend into the background and hide from him.

There is a "loss of privacy" pattern in recent years. An example is the plans to use RFID tags in most consumer products. Wallmart and various other companies as well as the U.S. military and federal government agencies have been pushing for increased use of RFID tags. There are plans to use inexpensive RFID tags in every item that we buy. The RFID tags would have a unique serial number for each and every single item sold. The passive type of RFID tag does not use a battery and would continue working for many years afterwards. It is mainly intended for inventory control. In a few years we will quite likely be wearing shoes and clothing which have hidden RFID tags which can be read from several feet away by anyone. We will also quite likely have RFID tags in items in our wallet such as our drivers license, charge cards, shoppers discount cards, and passports. There are also proposals for RFID tags in our tires, license plates and possible requirements to be embeded elsewhere in our cars. There has even been a proposal to embed RFID tags in postage stamps in the U.S. I don't know the details but, perhaps tracking all our mail would would be intended as a way to protect us from terrorists who send us packages with explosives or letters with Anthrax.

Many cars in the Houston area have toll passes hanging from their mirrors which have active RFID tags. Houston has over two hundred miles of freeways with "Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI) stations every five miles along the road. Big brother is watching.

I won't go into all the various privacy issues associated with RFID tags. But, if anyone is interested, the entire first chapter of a "Spychip" book is avialable online from the publisher at http://www.lfb.com/index.php?stocknumber=PV9017. There is also a RFID spychips organization at http://www.spychips.com.

People are already tring to figure out how to deactivate RFID tags by microwaving them, slicing them or zapping them with static electricity. If RFID tags ever become common I will search out the few stores that still sell RFID tag free items. Should I be less paranoid and be more trusting and less suspicious of my government?

I have have almost finished reading "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID". It describes how Wallmart, Procter & Gamble, Accenture and other large companies plan to have RFID chips in everything we buy. They would be used for inventory control, automated checkout and other purposes, but passive RFID tags would remain active in our clothing and other items for many years afterwards. Before long we will all be walking around with RFID tags in our shoes, clothing, drivers licenses, cards in our wallet and on our shopper ID cards.

Each and every item sold would have a unique serial number. The stores who sold those items to us would have a record of who owns them in their computer databases. They would record who purchased them when we use our shoppers ID card, charge card or wrote a check while paying for them. Since 1987 many companys have been using data aggregators to share information about our purchases. In the future, every time we walk past an RFID scanner at a store we would be recognized and and there would be a record of our having been there. In the movie "Minority Report" there are several examples of RFID technology being used to provide targeted advertising.

Some motorists already have toll transponders attached to their windows to pay tolls. In Huston, if you have a toll tag, you are unkowingly beaming a unique ID number to roadway RFID readers that are placed every five miles along some of their freeways. The Federal Highway Administration has a proposal to require all cars to be spychipped before coming off the assembly line. In their proposal, the spychip would be accompanied by a GPS receiver and an 802.11 wireless device to upload real-time location data as your car passes roadside "hot spots". It is slated for rollout between 2008 and 2010. The FCC has also reserved a radio band for applications like that.

Passive RFID devices don't use batteries so they keep working for many years. When you throw out your RFID tagged clothing and other items they can still be read from several feet away from your garbage can. Market researchers have expressed an interest in covertly driving by garbage cans and scanning their contents from several feet away.

Many Christians are uncomfortable with RFID technology because of what it says in Revalation 13:16-17 about the mark of the beast. They feel that the implatable versions of RFID chips might be what the bible is refering to. Implantable RFID tags are already being widely implanted in pets and have been implanted in a few bar patrons at at the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, Spain and the Baja Beach Club in Rotterdam, Holland and in the Bar Soba in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Amika nightclub in Maimi Beach, Florida. A soon to be released book is called "The Spychips Threat : Why Christians Should Resist RFID and Computer Tracking".

Those are just a few examples of the privacy issues with RFID. I am not totally opposed to all uses of RFID but believe that all RFID tagged items should have label that says that they contain RFID tags. That way consumers can choose to avoid them if they want to. Here is on organization that oppose RFID tags:

I just had to go search for more info on RFID implants because sooner or later bills will be proposed by somebody that they be introduced, initially on a voluntary basis....

Back in July silicon.com reported the following: "Tommy Thompson, the Health and Human Services Secretary in President Bush's first term and a former Governor of Wisconsin, is going to get tagged. Thompson has joined the board of Applied Digital, which owns VeriChip, the company that specialises in subcutaneous RFID tags for humans and pets. To help promote the concepts behind the technology, Thompson himself will get an RFID tag implanted under his skin." http://networks.silicon.com/lans/0,39024663,391505 25,00.htm/

December 2003 - Subdermal RFID chip provokes furore http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/12/04/subdermal_ rfid_chip_provokes_furore/

October 2004 - FDA approves computer chip for humans - nice pic of an implant next to George Washington... http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6237364/

This article was followed up in November 2004 http://slate.msn.com/id/2109477/
Verisign thoughtfully provide a method to save you getting your child swapped in the hospital. "The number of total switching incidents is as high as 20,000 per year in the U.S." But don't worry. In this case the tag is not implanted... http://www.verichipcorp.com/

...unlike the VeriKid service provided by the Mexican distributors of verisign technology: http://www.solusat.com.mx/index1.html http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60771, 00.html

Although RFID implants have their detractors...

http://www.spychips.com/
http://www.notags.co.uk/page26.html
http://www.rfidconcerns.com/
http://www.shire.net/big.brother/digitalangel.htm
http://whiterose.samizdata.net/archives/cat_identi ty_cards.html
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/02/impl anting_chip.html

...they seem to be popular with body piercing fans: Amal Graafstra Gets an RFID Implant http://www.bmezine.com/news/presenttense/20050330. html
And the odd geek or two: http://www.x11.net/wiki/index.php/My_RFID_Implant He has mp4 video footage of the implanting procedure. It doesn't sound like he will want to remove this implant anytime soon - OUCH!

The Mexican Government - "Mexico's Attorney General required the Mark of the Beast in a 160 people. Thousands more are now planned..." http://www.tldm.org/News4/MarkoftheBeast.htm

And the European Parliament! "Brussels: 'Implants to track people are OK'". http://management.silicon.com/government/0,3902467 7,39128836,00.htm/

"Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely" Lord Acton (1834-1902)

The FDA's concerns on VeriChips are cataloged here http://www.spychips.com/reports/verichip-fda.html, and include chip dislocation (your little silicon buddy may wander on you) and issues with electromagnetic effects (if you think cell phones are a health issue...).

So it not only lets the government (and/or aliens, communists, etc.) track you, it gives you cancer too!

Most of the traffic analysis stuff mentioned above is already being done at the loyalty card level. Your purchase history is already tied to your merchandise, and those items are already being bundled together for market research. Tracking individual serial numbered items is simply a matter of adding a column to an already very large database. And believe it or not, It seems far too unreliable to be useful as described doesn't matter. Even "mostly reliable" is good enough for marketing purposes. So what if we mistakenly send out coupons for diapers to a childless 70-year-old bachelor? Most of those coupons will end up in the hands of parents, and do their jobs.

And for the most part, traffic analysis is "unobtrusive". How many customers question why they received a coupon for discounted diapers? Do any of them give a thought as to how it was possible for the store to know they needed diapers? The vast majority of people will say "who cares, as long as I get 10% off diapers!" Also witness the success of loyalty card discount programs at places like Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, and almost every low-end supermarket chain. And Barnes & Noble and Best Buy both make customers PAY to join their loyalty programs! There just isn't likely to be enough backlash to cause a problem.

I think it *is* safe to assume that they'll avoid anything that would raise a really big stink.

Sorry, that one's completely off the mark. Look at Target. They kicked the Salvation Army bell ringers out from in front of their stores. Cutting a popular charity off at the knees at Christmas hardly seems like a "positive PR strategy" yet the third biggest retailer in the nation did it anyway. National backlash? Target's same store sales for December are up 3-5%. Ordinary people don't care about corporate behavior. Privacy wonks like Katherine Albright who do care about stuff like this are typically spun to the media as 'kooks'. For evidence of this spinning 'plot', see this article.

Furthermore, privacy protection is also not as easy to implement as you seem to imply. Just because my stores promise not to track your personal info doesn't mean X-mart will respect that promise. And if my tags can be read at an X-mart, well, there you go. As for the AutoID industry, they're recommending "spin control" rather than "technology control." AutoID magazine had an article on how to "sell" RFID to your customers. Industry is pushing hard to get RFID out there for all the non-privacy reasons.

law enforcement applications -- well, I'm all for that.

So, do you also think that the MPAA should be able to backtrack a ripped DVD to a specific original purchaser? (If so, you're braver than I am, that's kind of an unpopular viewpoint on slashdot these days.) Anyway, unique item tagging makes it possible. Ordinary screened non-unique barcodes don't.

Whether you agree or not with tracking people to this level, RFID provides the tools to enable a surveillance state.

Only if you require everything to be tagged, and make it illegal to remove or deactivate the tags.

No law against deactivating or removing tags needs to exist. Most criminals we apprehend are actually far too stupid to cover tracks like that. TV cop show criminals are just as made-for-TV as the TV cops themselves. Most real world crooks are exceedingly stupid.

Before it gets unleashed on an unprepared public, there are serious questions we need to answer, like "how much are we willing to let oursel

You may be correct.

I think we agree more than disagree.

My point is that regardles of the legal details the end result is that if you don't have the number and the card you are a non person. If the legal details are not in place now, wait for patriot III.

Next comes the chip...
NSF report on merging humans and technology. The hive mind is mentioned. (PDF)

They want to chip us all. These things can do more than identify you. The new models can track you and RECEIVE transmissions. Don't take the chip.

not only that. I'm sure there will be a market for these "RFID-fryers" once RFID use becomes widespread. If you take a second to look at the story about the METRO Future Store, and you ignore all the paranoid rhetoric but you pay attention to the layout of the RFID readers in the store (here) and the account of the RFID deactivator (here) you'll recognize that the people running the store would be perfectly happy to keep track of every tagged item you bring into the store as well as what you take out. Yes, this is a story about groceries, but they partner with other RFID-using companies. And if the tags are woven into the fabric of your clothes, and they can tie your clothes to you, you can bet that every store you walk into will be able to offer you a personalized shopping experience. Whether or not that is a desireable outcome is left as an exercise for the reader.

But anyhow. In the future where every store in every country has RFID readers at the entrance/exit doors, and individuals can buy RFID readers for less than $100 and use them to read the make of your clothes and the limits on your credit cards from the seat behind you on the subway, the only way you'll be able to protect yourself will be to deactivate the chips yourself. The appliance will be like a microwave- every house will have one, and you'll pop your purchases in it for 30 seconds after you bring them home, to burn out the circuits on the RFID chips.

Can I buy one of these today? If not, (I've always wanted to do this):

1. invent simple push-button RFID burn-out appliance
2. build prototype and sell it
3. ????
4. PROFIT!!!!

not only that. I'm sure there will be a market for these "RFID-fryers" once RFID use becomes widespread. If you take a second to look at the story about the METRO Future Store, and you ignore all the paranoid rhetoric but you pay attention to the layout of the RFID readers in the store (here) and the account of the RFID deactivator (here) you'll recognize that the people running the store would be perfectly happy to keep track of every tagged item you bring into the store as well as what you take out. Yes, this is a story about groceries, but they partner with other RFID-using companies. And if the tags are woven into the fabric of your clothes, and they can tie your clothes to you, you can bet that every store you walk into will be able to offer you a personalized shopping experience. Whether or not that is a desireable outcome is left as an exercise for the reader.

But anyhow. In the future where every store in every country has RFID readers at the entrance/exit doors, and individuals can buy RFID readers for less than $100 and use them to read the make of your clothes and the limits on your credit cards from the seat behind you on the subway, the only way you'll be able to protect yourself will be to deactivate the chips yourself. The appliance will be like a microwave- every house will have one, and you'll pop your purchases in it for 30 seconds after you bring them home, to burn out the circuits on the RFID chips.

Can I buy one of these today? If not, (I've always wanted to do this):

1. invent simple push-button RFID burn-out appliance
2. build prototype and sell it
3. ????
4. PROFIT!!!!

not only that. I'm sure there will be a market for these "RFID-fryers" once RFID use becomes widespread. If you take a second to look at the story about the METRO Future Store, and you ignore all the paranoid rhetoric but you pay attention to the layout of the RFID readers in the store (here) and the account of the RFID deactivator (here) you'll recognize that the people running the store would be perfectly happy to keep track of every tagged item you bring into the store as well as what you take out. Yes, this is a story about groceries, but they partner with other RFID-using companies. And if the tags are woven into the fabric of your clothes, and they can tie your clothes to you, you can bet that every store you walk into will be able to offer you a personalized shopping experience. Whether or not that is a desireable outcome is left as an exercise for the reader.

But anyhow. In the future where every store in every country has RFID readers at the entrance/exit doors, and individuals can buy RFID readers for less than $100 and use them to read the make of your clothes and the limits on your credit cards from the seat behind you on the subway, the only way you'll be able to protect yourself will be to deactivate the chips yourself. The appliance will be like a microwave- every house will have one, and you'll pop your purchases in it for 30 seconds after you bring them home, to burn out the circuits on the RFID chips.

Can I buy one of these today? If not, (I've always wanted to do this):

1. invent simple push-button RFID burn-out appliance
2. build prototype and sell it
3. ????
4. PROFIT!!!!

i didn't grace that page more than a cursory glance

here is a neat story about RFID misuse, and the political fallout which led to one store changeing it's policy. This is just the kind of stuff the tinfoil-hat crowd has been warning us about for years: centralized database with personal information and your purchase records tied to a unique db key. They give you a "loyalty card" which contains your unique db key coded into an RFID. The RFID is readable from 5 feet away and can be scanned without your knowledge or consent, multiple stores subscribe/contribute to the db, and NONE of them tell you about the RFID in the card when they give it to you. I particularly enjoy the x-ray pic of the RFID tag inside the credit card :-!

yeah, this is OT from the patent question, but it's nice to see the tinfoil hat folks get something right for a change.

Duh. That's consumer groups. Sorry.

While it does clear the bar code field, it still keeps the unique item ID, meaning that item can still be tracked and still be linked to you forever afterwards.

I agree with the writer, claiming to deactivate the tags without actually doing so is not only deceptive, but is far more harmful that not doing it at all, as it creates a false sense of security.

I knew that privacy advocates were fans of Katherine Albrecht's CASPIAN project, but I had no idea that she had the RFID industry this scared.

"Katherine Albrecht has some sort of weird thing in her mind that helicopters might descend and follow you, I mean, how low are these things going to fly?" said Shearer. "I don't understand it basically. She has a particular view, that she's doing God's work and is going to protect us from the globalisation of retailing."

It's been a while since I really scrounged through the CASPIAN sites, but I don't recall reading anything about "helicopters might decend" (and Google seems to agree with me). And a large number of folks in this country think that "doing God's work" is a Good Thing, and would take offense at "God's work" being used as a negative epithet.

They even try to say she's "anti-retail". What the heck does that mean? If anything CASPIAN is pro-retail, trying to preserve the ability of non-registered human beings to buy staple goods at a fair price. What's anti-retail about that?

If the RFID industry thought Albrecht was on the fringe, they'd ignore her. When you see IBM's mouthpiece painting Albrecht as a rabid conspiracy theorist, you realize they know she's not on the fringe anymore. And they're scared.

The open question remains: if the chips are so innocuous, why is the RFID industry so scared of this lady?

This picture says it all

Q: Can I microwave products to kill any hidden RFID tags they might contain?

A: While microwaving an RFID tag will destroy it (a microwave emits high frequency electromagnetic energy that overloads the antenna, eventually blowing out the chip), there is a good chance the the tag will burst into flames first. The difficulty of destroying a hidden RFID chip is one reason we need legislation making it illegal to hide a chip in an item in the first place.

If I microwave my clothes, will it destroy the RFID's???

Yes, but it will probably set your clothes on fire too.