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The Trouble with RFID
wintermute42 writes "Simson Garfinkel, author of Practical Unix & Internet Security along with Gene Spafford and Alan Schwartz,
has an article in The Nation on RFID tags. They're not just for tracking stuff. They can track you too."
This has been discussed. RFID-tags can be designed to withstand such treatment (shielding plus decoupling the antenna in overload situations). Besides, even if it worked it wouldn't save you: RFID tags will be embedded in things which you don't want to fry because you would destroy the useful function as well (_anything_ with electronics, your watch for example).
Just off the top of my head Its probably quite difficult. All the RFID chip is doing is responding to an outside pulse and using the pulses energy to respond back. You would need a fairly, powerful EM (electromagentic) source to fry the thing which aren't too easy to get access to. It probably wouldn't be too clever if you wearing it as well. (unless of course you believe that mobiles phone transmitters aren't bad for you either)
:-)
Interestingly though i doubt many RFID tags would stand up to a hot wash, plenty of water with detergent and a big motor as an EM source nearby driving it might well fry it... Dunno the thought just occured to me - anyone got any ideas how physically tough the chips are?
The best way would probably be to have a big magnet at home or maybe move to a house under a supergrid power line
There are things we know we don't know and things we don't know we don't know. - Donald Rumsfeld
My understanding, based on earlier articles that have been posted on this website, is that the RFID tags are specifically built to withstand these sorts of problems.
They disconnect their antenna if they sense a surge to protect their circuitry.
And it makes sense -- if you're using these for tracking merchandice, you wouldn't want some shoplifter taking the RFID equivalent to a tazer with them, shorting out the RFIDs, and then walking out with your product.
(personally, I didn't see anything new from this article than any of the other articles posted before on the subject. I don't think there have been particular suggestions of targeting window shoppers, but the general proximity issues have mentioned repeatedly before)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
This group, CASPIAN - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering has information on RFIDs including Auto-ID: Tracking everything, everywhere. The group is also against loyalty shopping cards for similar reasons.
Maybe now, but think down the road a few years. You have an RFID tag in your jacket, shoes, pants, cellphone, carkeys, and wallet. You walk by a sensor, and it ties all thoes things together.
Sure, you change clothes, but what about your phone? What happens when you wear the same pair of shoes with different clotes? The data warehouse ties that serial number in with your profile and builds a profile of all the items you own. There's not an easy way to eacape that.
I work in datawarehousing. We have a system that processes about a billion transactions a day. Each record is far mor complex than than a simple RFID and station ID. We also tie multiple records together into transactions. The scenaro above could be very real.
I talked to one of the runners last year about it and we were laughing over the story. we also have a lot of ham radio operators in the city who broadcast results as they're anounced; i'm wondering what's next with RFID. Will hardcore athletes just have permanent chips in their bodies? Or will they be embedded in the sneakers?
"I'd say 'Have a good time,' but arson is still illegal.
As a third-party public warehouse, my company is constantly looking at technologies to streamline the process of receiving, storing, and shipping material for our customers. Currently we receive inventory to our docks in two ways: 1. Material is received at the dock and put away in location by warehousemen. They record exactly what came in on a form and turn it in to the office staff who enter the information into the database. This relies on the warehouseman to count the material correctly, fill out the form correctly, then for the office staff to enter the data correctly. The system works, but there are many opportunities for data entry errors. One misread, miscount, mis-type and the data is bad. 2. Material arrives at the dock and barcodes are scanned. The data is uploaded to the system without any human interaction besides the original scan and a later check against the Bill of Lading that came with the load. Much better than the first method, but it comes with its own issues. For one, if the material is put into location, stacked high off the ground, reading barcodes for inventory purposes can be problematic. Also, it relies on a good quality barcode. A lot of our material arrives after long truck/train rides with the material rubbing and jostling against its neighbor resulting in many unreadable barcodes. RFID is the next logical step for us. For the material to cross from the truck/train to our dock and be read by an RFID reader without the warehouseman having to aim a laser at a possibly unreadable barcode would be nice. The customer would also be able to follow that particular RFID all the way from manufacturing through the distribution process. I understand privacy concerns, but in regard to the logistics industry I see RFID as a positive thing.