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Benetton Says No to RFIDs ... For Now

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the its-only-a-matter-of-time dept.

securitas writes "In a dramatic reversal of Benetton's previously announced plans to embed RFID tags in all of its clothing, the retailer has responded to customer privacy concerns and canceled its plans to go ahead with the project. Wired News and ComputerWorld also have stories on this stunning turn of events, which RFID manufacturer Philips is undoubtedly unhappy about. Benetton says it 'reserves the right' to use RFIDs in the future."

4 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. If they can be destroyed easily.. by 1337_h4x0r · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why not let them put them in? If some company makes an "RFID Neutralizer" that blasts them with 3000 watts like in a hair dryer type of configuration, buy your clothes, take them home, spray them, you're done. This thing should be easy and cheap.

  2. Not really that surprising by idfrsr · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Obviously there are huge privacy concerns with RF tags, but the other side of the coin is that such a system does have lots of benefits for the retailer.

    The trick will be finding a way to accomplish those goals will maintaining the privacy of the customers. Perhaps some sort of decaying device that after it ages for a certain period it physically ceases to work.

    --
    "The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away" -Tom Waits
  3. What's the paranoia about? by joeflies · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I've seen the demonstrations of RFID and I think it's light years ahead of what's going on today. Who would have thought that with today's computer systems, we are still seeing manual labor produce laborious and erroneous inventory reports. And stores experimenting with self-checkout, like Home Depot and some grocery stores, are largely counting on the honor system instead of computers. Libraries are stil trying to work out the problems with self-checkout.

    Of course, I reserve the right to remove the tags after purchasing it (much like the alarm sensors put in CD/DVD cases nowadays), but while it's in the store, I wouldn't mind at all. The only groups I would have thought protesting this technology are the union workers doing inventory control now.

  4. DRM (Dryer Rights Mangement) by Dr.+Bent · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Couldn't you design the RFID tags to disable themselves when the clothes are washed? Maybe have some kind of heat sensitive material that would disable the tag (or just melt) when it got hot enough, or wet enough.

    I suppose "Dry Clean Only" presents a problem tho...