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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. ""
Last week I asked why. The cashier said it's because kids go in and steal them a lot, then come back the next day and ask for the money back (a pack of 8 is rather expensive, and they are easy to slip into pockets). So Waitrose watch the blades carefully and always check reciepts.
...than plain old CCTV? Alright, so it's a little unsettling to think of someone with a photo of you taking something off the shelf comparing it with other photos to see if you bought the thing... but odds are if there's a CCTV camera then they're watching you as you take things off the shelf then, too.
Hmm. Doing this without telling people, however, is certainly cause for objection... there should be a sign of some sort, I suppose...
I would imagine that legally it doesn't require anything more than 'CCTV in use on these premesis', since the camera would have been there anyway...?
Last time i bought some replacement electric razor blades (little round blades and screens) it cost $25.
Phibz
What happens now?
Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
You have to wonder why they don't just put them behind the counter, as with cigarettes.
Is it some kind of subtle lure? Do they fear the drop in sales resulting from the less control of POS presentation? How would that stack up against the losses from shoplifting?
Pack of four costs me US$8, pack of eight costs US$12.
When they're in stock. And they *are* placed at the checkout lines (though at the Ralph's where I shop, they're out so you don't have to ask for them, provided there are any left in stock), which has reduced shoplifting but the damned things are so popular that I've taken to shopping for the eight packs when I can and looking for replacements when I start in on the second cartridge of four.
The Mach3 has got to be one of the best examples of taking a common product and making a seemingly simple change that makes the product indispensible overnight. I picked one up a few months after they came out, and I can't believe I used to put up with other razors. Now if I use a normal two-blade razor, even one of the better ones, I tend to see shaving nicks all over the place. I know of a lot of women that use the Mach3 (or its successor for women, the Venus3) as well because it's less likely to leave nicks on their legs and under their arms.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
CCTV is used very widely in the United Kingdom and it is fairly well posted on signage going into to stores. But even outside of shop fronts in the United Kingdom entire high towns can be under CCTV. The debate was fought awhile ago here in the United Kingdom and because of IRA threats and a constant belief in any culture that crime is always worse than it used to be, people generally supported the idea of CCTV and recorded imagery used for security and police use.
But RFID adds so many issues, the fact is the rfid is unique and can be followed back to your residence if you have the right scanners so you now have a photo an item if this information is gathered elsewhere you can follow individuals and some facial recognition elsewhere and tie down a persons where abouts with other rfid purchases that may be worn, in theory at least. How close is that theory from reality and should the philosophical and political issued be discuessed now or later. I personally believe if this debate is not stated more clearly and in a broder context of these few products we see on the market the later systems we fear will be in place before we have a voice to do anything about them. But who knows the future is unwritten.
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said: "I drank what?" - Chris Knight (Val Kilmer)- Real Genius
...is that they can be "scanned" from a distance away.
I don't see why a picture is necessary. If someone has an RFID'ed item (say in their pocket), it should get scanned and charged for just like an item being held in the hands or resting in the cart. RFID SHOULD potentially eliminate shoplifting, with NO privacy concerns.
Imagine going into walmart and instead of each item being scanned separately, the cashier just aims the scanner at your cart, then you, and instantly everything is added to the total. No questions about what you may have slipped into your pockets because it just get's added. The scanner makes no value judgement.
RFID can be used to make life simpler, as long as we don't start using it to invade privacy.
- Pick-up some blades, making sure you are snapped by the camera.
- Move outside of the camera range
- Dump the razor blades somewhere else in the store
- Pass at the cash
- When you are stopped by store security, insist that they call the police to search you - only the police has the right to search you
- When the police has found nothing at all, sue the store for false arrest (the manager will perhaps make a counter-offer for free merchandise - I have an aunt to got herself a free mink coat this way after she was arrested by store detectives at Eaton's [Macy's equivalent])
- ????
- profit!
After 10-20 people do that trick, mabye the store will reconsider it's policy...Razor Blades, in my mind, fall somewhere around cigarettes and crack. I asked for a pack as a stocking stuffer last Christmas and was promptly told that things that sell for $25 deserve their own box.
100% Crunchier
Or what happens when a family are shopping and adult A picks up the razor blades, decides they don't want them and gets child B to return them. Then they get to the checkout and realise they do need them, so they get child C to fetch a new pack - and finally adult D pays for the goods.
That's really going to screw up any "photographic auditing" system!
RFID works on frequencies and power levels that are perfctly legal to receive and re-broadcast. Imaging walking around with a tiny device that constantly listens for RFID codes and randomly rebroadcasts the last 5,000 codes it's stored.
Another cute device but trickier to make might listen for RFID codes to start and jump in in the middle drowning out the last half of the code with random garbage.
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