RFID: The New Big Brother ?

Makarand writes "The possibility that we could be tracked not because we have a microchip implant but merely because we wear clothes, eat and carry objects around is real according to this article on C|net news. A technology called RFID (radio frequency identification) consisting of miniscule microchips the size of a single grain of sand that listen to a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID can make this possible. Most RFID tags use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response and hence can be placed anywhere imaginable. Retailers are adoring this concept and soon everything more expensive than a Snickers bar will sport RFID tags making tracking possible through our own personal possessions. The privacy threat comes when RFID tags remain active once you leave a store and currently the RFID industry seems to be giving 'mixed' signals about whether the tags will be disabled or left enabled by default."

Comments

Lojack for Dogs

[Lizard_King]

I believe that the majority of recently born puppies have a tiny microchip embedded in the back of their necks for similar purposes. I was shocked when I first heard of this practice (about a year ago), but I hear its quite accepted among dog owners. I can see the benefit for pets... ...but for humans? Scary.

Re:Lojack for Dogs

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Yeah. For pets, there's someone (the owner) who has a legitimate reason for wanting to know where the pet is at all times. For adult humans ... there is nobody who has a legitimate reason for wanting to know where I am at all times. Not my employer, not the government, not my family -- nobody.

My only real hope about the proto-Orwellian age in which we find ourselves living is that it will spark a massive backlash, and create a privacy movement comparable to the civil rights movement of the 50's and 60's, or the labor movement of the early part of the 20th c. Not just among the folks at the EFF and the ACLU, who come off as a bit fanatical to most folks, but something broad-based. (NB: I'm not calling the EFF and ACLU fanatical -- I support both organizations. But a lot of people think of them as "those nutjobs." I suspect that may be about to change ...) Because that's what it will take to keep Orwell's vision from coming true.

I think there may be early signs of this. People may say that it's okay for the government to infringe our privacy in one way to "fight terrorism," or the RIAA to do so in another to "fight piracy," or some huge business to do so in still another for "market research," or whatever ... but if you can get people to think about it all at once, they realize what a Big Brother monstrosity our society can become, without our even noticing until it's too late.

Re:Lojack for Dogs

[Prior Restraint]

If I were a parent I could also maybe see it for my kids (young kids, not necessarily teenagers).

Might I suggest that it shouldn't even be done then? What happens when little Billy reaches his teenage years and his parents have long forgotten about the chip that it turned out they never needed? Depending on how young he was, he may not even know it's there. I find that very disturbing.

Good for the environment

[CrazyJoel]

If you find a Snickers wrapper on the ground you could read its RFID and track it back to the person who bought it and fine him for littering.

cool

[tps12]

This is actually just what I've been wishing for. You know when you've misplaced something in your house (my favorite pencil, for a recent example from my own life, though "house" is maybe being charitable), and you spend hours tearing everything apart and then it turns out that it's just lying there somewhere in plain sight?

I always wish, both during and after such a quest, that I could have just whipped out a tricorder (or device of a similar form factor) and scanned for whatever I'm missing, and it would start beeping or blinking on the screen or whatever. It would save hours of time for all but the most type A people.

It would also be a boon on the golf course. And for finding your kids when they wander off at Disneyland. Really, all I can think about is good applications of this technology, so bring it on!

What?

[autopr0n]

The submitter is acting like this is the first time He's heard of RFID. The idea has been around for years and they're only now getting to the point where they're going into.

RFID tags need to be printed on paper, so unless you have something like a magazine you'll be able to get rid of the RFID tags just by removing the wrapper or sales tag. Duh. It's not like these things are going to be attached to everything permanently just while they're in the store. It's basically a replacement for the barcode.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you think they're for TRACKING YOU? haha.

No. They're for easily detecting large amounts of bundled cash at places like border crossings, package handling facilities, and airports.

Lord. My brother used to work on the theft prevention systems they use at stores -- you know, the little magnetic strips on clothing and other goods that would set off the alarm if not deactivated first. This is not considerably different from RFID or the mylar strips in bills.

Actually, it's the same technology, and FWIW my brother-in-law is an exec (and former engineer) at Sensormatic, and I am fairly familiar with the technology.

Do you have any idea how easy they are to defeat? Bend the strip and you change its resonant frequency. Put two strips up against one another. Wrap them in tinfoil. Any one of a half dozen other methods.

It's not going to be any more foolproof than any other SINGLE technology. It's just a tool in the toolkit. You don't necessarily HAVE to know the exact resonant frequency anyway... just sweep and look for a suspicious signature return. By the way, do you know a lot of coke dealers who routinely deform and/or shield their money in aluminum foil when they stuff it in the trunk of their car? Ever see the stacks of money the DEA displays after big busts? Did you think that they carefully unwrapped and/or smoothed and stacked into into neat bundles before they took the picture?

As usual, they only work against the idiots, which so happens to be 90% of your criminals.

So you agree with me after all? You were sounding rather condescending there for a minute.

And, of course, your rampant conspiracy theorists who don't actually have any bloody clue how reality works.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

Defense

[tiedyejeremy]

Topless Bars and Horsetracks will likely be the first places to devise RFID shields, offering safe havens for their customers!

Another way to go.

[Absurd Being]

Coat yourself with hundreds of thousands of the little tags. A chaotic radio shout in reply to a sensing whisper should make the devices less than usefull. Bury these buggers in information.

Re:Another way to go.

[Dun Malg]

Also, note that the only people who are going to build receivers that do this are people who are INTERESTED in tracking you. Having a jamming device like this is going to advertise "I have something to hide" to anybody who looks at the logs. (Not that this SHOULD be the case, but the fact is that it will be - just like sending PGP'ed email while that isn't the norm

Indeed. As a signal intel analyst in the army, the fact that a certain TYPE of encryption was being used was often more important than the content of the message. When an East German armor regiment sent out a message using a code way too sophisticated for your average east german comms soldier, you knew there were Soviet Army bigwigs there with their OWN comms guys. "Intelligence" folks work at all different levels, so you have to be careful not only of what you say, but also what you DON'T say, and also WHEN you say it...

They are in your tires now...

[swordboy]

RFID Tires

Imagine the possibilities... There's a video on that site for anyone willing to dig. I'd rather not slashdot it (28 megs). This technology was initially used to ship and track tires as a replacement to the old bar codes, but now, the boys in the tinfoil hats are detecting RFID activity on the freeways and border crossings...

Auto manufacturers are programming the VIN number into the tire at assembly. It is only a matter of time before this becomes a requirement.

Re:They are in your tires now...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm...
Embed a number of chips in different levels of the tire tread, and as the chips stop responding, you can determine tire wear.

The car's computer will simply refuse to run the engine once tread depth goes below the legally accepted minimum. If your tire store pays the fee to be in Ford's Database, the cars will conveniently stall when passing your establishment, forcing customers to re-tire with you or pay a hefty towing charge.

No problem...

[Trevalyx]

Just routienely carry something that reflects the signal back with ID's all across the board. These things are the size of a grain of sand? Ok, a credit-card sized device composed of millions of the grain-of-sand device should create enough noise and complication to be a fairly effective way to combat this.. Issue new ones every now and again, with some various verified ID's mimicked, perhaps of government officials who think this sort of thing is a good idea, and viola.. Too much obfuscation in the system to be effective.
Er. Patent pending, patent pending, patent pending..

Um... what's the big deal?

[Wakko Warner]

Wow, so someone will know I'm wearing Timberland boots, Dockers pants, Oakley sunglasses, and an Izod shirt.

They won't know my name, address, phone number, age, social security number, sexual preference, number of pets, or marital status.

So what the hell's the big deal? Or are we all just being slash-paranoid?

- A.P.

Re:Um... what's the big deal?

[eaolson]

So what the hell's the big deal? Or are we all just being slash-paranoid?

Perhaps I'm just old fashioned, but the big deal in my book is that this sort of thing is none of their damn business!

I would be highly offended if some clerk came up to me and asked, "Hello, Sir, welcome to S-Mart, and may I ask what brand of underwear you're wearing today?" The fact they they're trying to do so surreptitiously makes it no less inappropriate.

so what?

[Anonymous Coward]

buy clothes for a friend and swap them. Any association from purchaser to RFID tag is lost.

Even better, get your clothes marked as yours, commit a crime, and drop your clothes in 3 different cabs/busses as you change into your other set, kept in a metallic wrapper. Police follow 3 red herrings as you escape.....

Time to come up with a Jammer

[teamhasnoi]

The more *useless* these are, the better for citizens. The more *useful* they are the better it is for government, big buisiness, and unscrupulous employers to completely misuse them.

Like I want an 'Enron' to happen with a company that controls distribution and/or access to these.

I suggest a hi-watt jammer to make the use of them impossible.

The knowledge of my whereabouts is copyrighted, and I have every right to disable, interfere, block, divert, or otherwise impair the unauthorized distribution, display, storage, or reproduction of this copyrighted information.

God, I hope they don't put these in tin foil. What will I make my hats out of?

Re:Yikes

[no reason to be here]

That passage infact has to do with the Roman emporer Nero and certain laws he enacted regarding the sale and trade of goods. If you calculate the numerological value of Nero's full name according to numerological practices of the time it adds up to 666.

using these to stop terrorism

[Lord Ender]

This help me with an idea I have been kicking around. Suppose every Isralie citizen and tourist carried one of these with them at all times in the public. In public areas, computers with, basically, webcams use video to locate where people are, then radio recievers use these RFID tags to triangulate where people are. If the cammera sees a person where the radio does not, that is a person who is not authorized to be there. This person would then be photo'd and checked against known terrorists or questioned by the police, as he might be a suicide bomber.

I can't see how else Israel will stop suicide bombing unless they only allow their own citizens in public areas, and this method would not be too expensive. And as much as I care about privacy, the situation there is life or death, and so more important.

Re:Simple enough...

[mcrbids]

This would actually work!

I used to own a computer store, and we had problems when we had a "flaky" motherboard that would boot but was unreliable, and was still under warranty.

The distributor would set it up, see it do something, and send it back to us. To fix this, we'd put it into a microwave oven for 3 seconds before shipping it back.

That'd cook the chips on the motherboard without leaving any visible sign of problems. It would then show no signs of working, and they'd give us a whole new motherboard, and everybody was happy.

Worked for RAM chips, video cards, sound cards, modems, etc. although we had the most trouble with motherboards.

So why is this "funny"? Should be "informative"...

Re:Now let's not get carried away

[Lumpy]

and if they are NOT deactivated when you purchase it it will foul up all their "plans" for automated purchasing that detects what you have in your cart as you pass through.. Hmm. I see you are buying a pair of levis 1 pair of red-heart BVD's, a set of 13DDD nikes, and a 3X budwiser t-shirt with a bright yellow jacket and a gallon of milk. that will be $147.96 please...

"I'm just buying a gallon of milk! what the hell!!!"

if they dont deativate them at purchase... it will mess up all of their plans.

RFID and shoplifting

[Phoenix]

The biggest problem that I see is the simple fact that the first and most logical use of the RFID tag is in shoplifting prevention. Granted that it would be a great way of tracking and ensuring that some klepto doesn't bugger off with as much merchandice as they can get thier gurbby hands on, but if they are debating whether or not the tags should be disabled after purchase there could be problems arising here.

Say I buy a winter coat from Walmart in the fall. Then near the end of winter I go back to buy a windbreaker for spring's warmer weather. Am I going to have to keep a recipt in my pocket to prove that I bought the jacket?

Or I go and buy a PDA from Circuit City then come back a week later and buy a printer (using the PDA as my check register)...how do I prove that it is now mine and not lifted?

Sure some of you are going to say "the security tags get removed at checkout" or "The RFID signature will be removed from the database and will not exist anymore to bother you", but consider... ...how many times have you bought a DVD had it 'cleared' of the security tag only to get beeped at the door? ...what if you buy something, thier computer crashes and they have to pull fro ma backup from the previous day? Won't the RFID tag be in the database again?

Good idea, but I'm too familiar about the quality and the ability of the people who try to implement it. Some of these people can't pour sand out of a boot with instructions on the heel.

Phoenix

How long

[heikkile]

How long can it take until we geeks can buy a little scanner to locate and read those chips? Possibly find various geeky uses for them?

Nothing's so bad that it can't be used for some good...

It may interest you to know..

[fistynuts]

..that this is exactly the kind of technology currently being implementeed to make U.S. airports a 'safer place' - unique RFID tags are being attached to passenger bags at check-in so they can't get lost, be switched for other bags, get put on the wrong plane etc. At least that's the theory.

DIY EMP Generator?

[Anonymous Coward]

How big an EMP generator do you need to fry such a radio chip within 10 feet?

Read Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness In the Sky". One of the secret weapons is a cloud of chips similar to the ones described. Each chip is a low-res imager, microphone, memory, GPS-type locator, and router. Power is provided by a once-a-second microwave pulse. Once released through the space station on a gust of air, they stick to things and people, and build themselves into a routing mesh. Administrators of this network can then eavesdrop on anyone, anywhere...

And buried in this surface functionality are extra layers of usefulness hidden from the people who originally deploy them...

Spoofing for fun and profit

[ka9dgx]

I predict that a large amount of spoofing will arise before long... it'll be easy enough to detect the interregation pulse, and respond with your own info, or jam it, or listen along with the intended receiver.

This thing is going to be hacked more than anything else before.

--Mike--

Jamming?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no FCC licensing for this stuff, afaik. So if it's using unlicensed frequencies, it's legal for anyone to transmit same, right? And since these are passive devices, the return signal has to be awfully weak - same principle that makes a military jet capable of jamming a large ground-based radar. So it should be possible to (a) transmit your own rfid "queries" and see what comes back, or (b) transmit a weak signal that is still plenty strong to drown out any rfid tags in the area.

I'd rather have legislation mandating tag deactivation when they leave the store, but am I right about all this?

Drivers Licenses...

[jhines0042]

Imagine that your state requires you to carry a drivers license that has an RFID chip in it that returns your SSN when it is scanned by the police from a nearby police car.

I don't think that that technology is too far fetched.

While drivers licenses might be a bit tough for people to swallow, imagine requiring them in all US passports? Then customs/immigration would be able to track anyone while they were inside of the designated security zones inside of airports. Great for tracking terrorists!

Anyone want to patent this to keep it from ever being used?

Similar tech to famous Russian spying device

[tdrury]

It sounds like the RFID technology is similar a
famous Russian listening device.

This device was totally passive, but when hit with a specific RF frequency (via a very directional beam) it would reflect the beam back but modulated by the sound in the room. The Russians could demodulate the signal and get the audio back. They hid the device in a carved wooden Seal of the United States that they presented to the US Embassador to Russia who proudly hung it above his desk. The Russian were privy to all conversations that took place in his office.

After a while the American figured his room was bugged so they sent in technicians to find the bug. The Russians weren't stupid - they knew when technicians arrived and simply turned off the directional RF carrier beam. They would turn it back on when the technicians left. Finally the Americans got smarter and all left but one who hid in the office with RF listening gear. When the Russians turned the RF carrier on, he detected it and figured it out it was embedded in the Seal. It was quite a scandal.

Re:Simple enough...

[Greeneland]

I recently finished a server for a client that involved managing RFID tags. They have extremely short range, so anybody wanting to track you would probably prefer something that can support a greater distance.

A serious, non paranoid application???

[dallask]

I think this is a great idea... but it would need some further development to make the product stronger... hear me out.

Imagine if we could shrink down GPS to this level, or at the very least, to the size of the pet microchip. Would you be opposed to having the chip implanted into your childs clothes and personal items in order to find them in case of an abduction??? or to keep tabs on them in general?

I wouldnt.

Re:Simple enough...

[sql*kitten]

Microwave clothes before wearing.

Or indeed, everything. If they can put it unobtrusively into a Snickers wrapper, what's to stop them putting it into the bar itself?

Missing the point . . .

[Jaywalk]

The author completely misses the point of the technology. Retailers love these things because they're a big step up from scanning. You walk through the store throwing stuff into your cart, then you walk through a checkout scanner that scans the whole cart and gives you a total. Swipe your credit card or feed a few dead presidents into the slot and your gone. No lines, no cashiers.

But if that's the case, you can't use the system to track the RFID chips after the sale is complete. You don't want the scanners telling you about the pants the customer bought last week, just the stuff he's buying now.

put the crack pipe down, and pull up your pants

[Anonymous Coward]

Time to come back to reality, little Timmy. You're taking a movie, which wasn't that great to begin with, and confusing it with things that actually happen.

Fine. Down to your level we go... You think Minority Report is bad? Holy shit, check out Nemesis!! They can suck you right out of your vehicle with those 'transporter' thingies, even if you're moving!! Whoa, and if you really piss off the Hitler-mustache-wearing, baby-fucking Americans, they'll call up their British bitch and have him send James BOND after your ass! Dude! Yer goin' to HELL!

Scary AND TRUE

[dark-nl]

People are putting locator chips into their children already. There's a whole business growing up around it. I think these have been mentioned on slashdot before, but I can't find the story.

Here's an article and press release about the company doing it. Fortunately they have it patented, which should impede progress in this direction for a while.

Gillette to purchase 500 million RFID tags

[nycview]

RFID is present technology not new technology, it's already in products available today.


Gillette Confirms RFID Purchase

Update: Gillette has confirmed that it will purchase up to 500 million RFID tags from Alien Technology.

Jan. 7, 2003 - The Gillette Company confirmed yesterday that it has placed a major order for RFID tags from Alien Technology. Neither Gillette nor Alien indicated how much Gillette would pay for the tags, or the terms of delivery. Alien's Pounds Still, the announcement is a milestone of sorts because it is the first commercial order for products that incorporate the Electronic Product Code (EPC) developed by the Auto-ID Center. It is also the first multi-million dollar order Alien has received.

RFID Journal broke the news that Gillette planned to purchase 500 million RFID tags on Nov. 15 after Gillette VP Dick Cantwell told a private meeting of the Auto-ID Center's board about the company's plans (see Gillette to Buy 500 Million EPC Tags). Cantwell said then that Gillette would buy 500 million EPC tags from Alien.

However, Gillette's press release indicates that it may purchase may fewer than half a billion tags. It says: "Gillette will begin testing tag technology through its supply chain by placing RFID tags in select products for the US market. If successful, up to half a billion tags could be placed on Gillette products over the next few years."

Tom Pounds, Alien's VP of marketing and business development, told RFID Journal that there are terms and conditions that would allow Gillette to order less than 500 million tags. However, he added that Gillette has committed to purchasing "a significant chunk of that total."

Gillette plans to use the tags with smart shelf technology that was also developed for Gillette by the Auto-ID Center. The smart shelves, which have built-in RFID readers, will be tested in stores in the US and UK beginning this month, as part of the third phase of the center's field test.

mCloak