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RFID Industry Confidential Memos

An anonymous reader writes "Cryptome has learned www.autoidcenter.org (RFID flak) has made internal memos available for perusal at their site. Those RFID people sure have some interesting plans for the future. Who needs conspiracy theories, when you can hear it from the horses mouth? Weeeeee!"

10 of 617 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So when you walk into a store... by ArsonPanda · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some tags maybe built into the products that it would be impossible for us to remove them

    So just dont buy anything you're not willing to throw in the microwave for 10 seconds.

    --

    --I don't want the world, I just want your half.
  2. Not so bad by sweatyboatman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Other than some lingo, these memos (judging by the highlites) don't seem particularly bad. People are afraid of the health risks of RFID tags? Well, people are stupid. They're bombarded by radio waves every second of every day.

    Some people will happily ignore reasonable explanations and cling desperately to their paranoid delusion. These people cannot be convinced otherwise. Rather they need to be brain-washed to get that stupid idea out of their head.

    The "green tag" idea sounds like genius.

    But an RFID conspiracy seems a little far to jump. The technology is in its infancy. It's not in everything, the opposite is true. But rest assured that an RFID Tag Canceler is in the works to milk money from the privacy obsessed.

    I may get one myself...

    I wonder if there's a patent.

    -tom

    --
    It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
    1. Re:Not so bad by Farmer+Jimbo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I dont give a fuck about radio waves. I care about data being collected about me without my consent.

      Grocery stores give dicounts for those willing to have there purchasing patterns tracked.

    2. Re:Not so bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But an RFID conspiracy seems a little far to jump.

      According to their own memos, the RFID has learned people do not want RFID. And their plans are to bludgeon people into accepting them until they become to prevailant to resist.

      In this task, they've assembled a long list of people, including government officials.

      Also, they mention specifically the usefulness of leveraging apathetic people, such as yourself, in forwarding the acceptance tags. They know the kinds of personalities in this game, and have a strategy for each of them. Personalities like yours are a piece of cake. Some people are just born to wear the brown shirt.

    3. Re:Not so bad by homer_ca · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, supply chain tracking would be the honest, non-intrusive way to use RFID tags. I have no problem tagging pallets or even tagging retail packages because the packaging gets thrown out. But why are they worried about privacy advocates and scare stories in the news if they're only tagging pallets. The only reason to tag the product and not the packaging is to track the consumer after the sale just like an animal on those nature shows.

  3. Re:Microwave oven. by Pompatus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem with microwaving clothing would be the shorts I have on right now, for example. They have a metal zipper. We all know what happens to AOL cd's when microwaved (if you don't know, try it. 5 seconds does wonders).

    Be careful what you nuke.

    --

    ----
    Squirrel ... It's not just for breakfast anymore
  4. Re:So when you walk into a store... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It should be opt-in, not opt-out. Problem solved.

    The problem with opt-in is that nobody would ever opt-in. Even if you don't they will just say you did. Take all the opt-in spam I get. I never opted in for penis enlargement e-mail yet it says I did. Who are they to believe? The spammer said I opted in so I must've right? Yes, yes, I know, that's the point. Nobody would opt-in so the thing dies, but tell that to businesses. That's why opt-in will never be accepted by THEM.

  5. Re:They forgot something by Stiletto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Assess consumer reaction if press develop scare stories and develop best messages to pacify.

    This may have been modded "Funny" but it's actually quite informative. Of course us anti-corporatists have known this all along, but it's interesting to see these guys being so open and honest about their intent to "PACIFY" the "CONSUMERS". Look at any and all marketing today. It's all designed to pacify us in one way or another... to stun us, blind us, or numb our minds to what is really going on. The goal is to get us to be a bunch of nice passive cows, buying and believing everything we are fed.

    When someone brings up a concern, or protests the action of a large corporation or government, the powers that be go into spin mode, "developing the best message to pacify" the people.

    I'd love to see these Adolf Hitler try to run for president today. I imagine he'd hire these very same people to "construct a proactive framework to minimise negatives arising" and try to best pacify the pesky human rights folks...

  6. Re:Hopefully, the psyche will be turned-around... by Arandir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A corporation has no power but that which a government has given it.

    This is not the fault of corporations, but of governments, which have decided to offer up portions of their power to the highest bidder. One way they have done this is to charter corporations. This allows the ownership of companies to be diluted to the point of meaninglessness, so that the owners' accountability for their companies' actions are zero.

    p.s. This is not a US problem, but a world problem. The two richest women in the world are European heads of state with nationalized petroleum corporations.

    --
    A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
  7. Re:You didn't look at the pages closely... by heli0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "I know what the capabilities of the RFID systems are these days and there's not currently anything that could do what the alarmists keep saying is possible"

    According to this article the 500million tags that Gillette purchased "Alien Technology says its RFID tags can be read up to 15 feet away". And that is with the LEGAL readers the store is using. How far away can they be read with my illegal jiggawatt reader and directional antenna? How long will it take people to decode the 64-bit codes to determine which bits are brand/model/size/etc. and read the codes from great distances?

    They do not plan on disabling the tags when you leave the store either since one of Wal-Mart's listed benefits for RFID tags is "hassle-free returns".

    How long until I can point a directional antenna at your home and fire up my jiggawatt reader to determine if you have anything worth taking?

    --
    Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...