RFID Tags on Mach3 Razorblades Snap Your Photo

peteo writes "Think RFID tags are harmless? Look at how they are being used in the UK: "At the Tesco Cambridge store, a camera trained on the Gillette blade shelf, and triggered by RFID tags, captures a photo of each customer who removes a Mach3 pack. Another photo is taken at the checkout and security staff compare the two images to ensure they always have a pair" According to the spokesman,"there are certainly not any privacy concerns" in relation to these tags. He adds that there is plenty of in-store signage indicating the supermarket's use of CCTV cameras. ""

Comments

Re:Buh-wah?

[Anonymous Coward]

What's funny is how you will see the blades on sale at Flea Markets. Gilette says that the blades can only be sold with a proper vendor licence. So where do the blades come from.

It's a big problem everywhere. I worked security in grocery stores for a while, and there were weeks that they lost thousands of dollars in these blades.

The next biggest item for shoplifters.... big packs of chewing gum. Go figure (actually, another big flea market item)

Gillette UK Customer Phone number

[Erik_]

As per the back of a Gillette Mach3 box :
Questions? Comments? 0800 174543 (UK Only)

Re:Scenario

[sql*kitten]

What happens now?

If you read the article, you'd know the whole thing is supervised by human operators. It isn't a case that a machine automatically matches faces and raises an alarm. Presumably one of them would simply ask.

Complain to Gillete

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to be a Gillete user but stopped using their products right now! I informed them of that via their customer service site at http://gillette.custhelp.com/

Why not jam them?

[MemoryAid]

These tags work on unlicensed portions of the frequency spectrum, so why not jam them? The Alien Technology site gives the frequencies they use: Alien Technology

Admittedly, the 2450MHz band is the same as WiFi, so most of us would be opposed to jamming that on general principles, but it looks like the 915MHz band is what is being used more often. The Alien Technology tags for 2450 look really big and expensive.

It should only take about a watt or two with a bandwidth of 26MHz in the low band or 56.5Hz in high band. (These numbers from the FCC web site:FCC frequency spectrum PDF Some sort of pulse modulation would probably help the jamming, too.

Heck, you could probably take the RF shielding off an appropriate-speed laptop and walk around with it as a first iteration of the design. I remember the old Apple ][+ used to jam channel 6 pretty well.

Re:Why not jam them?

[ftzdomino]

Apparently it's not quite that simple:

http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:7prnEPBlP0E J: theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/JuelsRivestSzydlo-TheBl ockerTag.pdf+rfid+jamming&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

why 3?

[Anonymous Coward]

In the video on cryptome, the designers demonstrate this technology and if you buy more than three it creates a theft alert. why three? do they have something against people who buy in bulk?

A clean-shaven terrorist

[yerricde]

Yes, I have seen a clean-shaven terrorist. Here's a big picture of him.

The solution:

[MattRog]

The best shave is with an open razor.

It's a lot of fun, too. Not to mention a lot of time and effort -- but if you have the time the results over electric and the Mach 3 are nothing short of fantastic.

Re:A losing battle against facial hair...

[draziw]

Shave after shower, use gell, side of face, sides of neck, under lip, over lip, center of neck. over lip and center of neck go last so the hair can get more softening time.

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