Wal-Mart Cancels RFID Trial

EABird writes "CNet is reporting that Wal-mart has announced that they have canceled the RFID trial they were planning. Unfortunately, it looks like they are canceling it to focus on the use of the same technology in the warehouses and distribution centers instead, and waiting for the cost to come down before using the RFIDs in the stores."

Comments

big deal if they use it in warehouses?

[alen]

Most of retail theft is by employees, what is the problem of wal mart protecting their products?

Re:big deal if they use it in warehouses?

[MAXOMENOS]

Most of retail theft is by employees, what is the problem of wal mart protecting their products?

Part of the problem is that RFID tags can also be used to track your products after someone buys them. It creates another means for someone to invade your privacy.

In practice, it's not such a big deal if you can disable the RFID tags after purchsing the product. There's no guarantee the store will do this (it may be in their best interests *not* to do this) and telling people how to do this themselves will probably violate DMCA, not to mention state and local laws.

Not cancelled, just delayed...

[dspyder]

It will happen eventually, the cost/benefit is just too great to be ignored. With the volume that Walmart handles, it will only be a matter of time before the upstart cost will be acceptable for Walmart. Once they say do it, you can guarantee that all the manufacturers will play along, and then every other store can take advantage.

On a related note, I work at a hospital that is starting a barcode initiative on drugs. We only just now had the power to convince the drug companies that they need to supply us their drugs in individual doses, prelabeled and barcoded.

--D

Good decision by Walmart.

[notque]

Unfortunately, it looks like they are canceling it to focus on the use of the same technology in the warehouses and distribution centers instead, and waiting for the cost to come down before using the RFIDs in the stores.

Personally, I think it's a much better idea to use the technology in warehouses and distribution first. Hell, I can't beileve they'd even consider moving to a full scale store deployment before a long bit of testing in warehouses.

I think this is a smart move by Walmart, regardless of the precieved failure that may come by such bold claims, and then a back down.

RFID

[magicsquid]

In other RFID news today, Wired is reporting that the EU may implant RFID tags into the Euro, basically eliminating the anonymous cash transaction.

For now, the cost is too high to put in smaller denominations, but I'm guessing that with the huge numbers of bills, the cost will eventually no longer be a deciding factor.

You can check it out here.

Transport & logistics

[Malfourmed]

I'm surprised RFID hasn't made bigger (or perhaps more public) waves in the transport and logistics industry. Embedding RFID tags in con notes or container labels could potentially dramatically cut the cost of handling and tracking freight.

Further - being attached to something that's generally disposed after receipt - the technology doesn't raise the same level of privacy issues as it does when used for consumer/retail purposes.

Simple answer(s)

[burgburgburg]

Any "successful" use of RFID technology (even in the warehouse venue) will lead to an increasing likelyhood of their inclusion at the store level. Since there are a large number of legitimate privacy issues (even acknowledged by the organization behind RFIDs) that have not remotely addressed yet, further usage of RFIDs is in general a negative.

You're comment "How would you know?" points out a big part of the problem. RFID tags can be/are hidden very effectively (including manufactured INTO the soles of shoes). As it stands now, destroying the RFID tag (assuming you can find/get to it) is the only way you can be sure that it will not continue to allow you and your purchases to be tracked. (Microwaving doesn't work since it would cause the chip and your items to catch fire). Without clear legislation mandating the removability of RFID chips post-purchase, the marketplace (which is notably non-privacy minded) and what they think they can get away with will decide the continued usage of these tags. And that's unfortunate.

Re:RFID

[Anonymous Canard]

In other RFID news today, Wired is reporting that the EU may implant RFID tags into the Euro, basically eliminating the anonymous cash transaction.

To eliminate anonymous transactions they would first have to ask for ID before either giving change, or accepting cash. Identifying the bill doesn't identify the person who holds it (notice that all US notes carry a unique number as well; ooh! they are watching us!) If you want to theorize that the data could all be collected and used for central tracking of the flow of public money then you'll have to admit that the same thing is possible for any serially numbered printed bill (indeed serial numbers have been used in the US to trace criminal money laundering operations.) The EC just wants to make their bills harder to forge.