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."

Comments

I'm always unsurprised...

[smittyoneeach]

When people act surprised about information.

They're not just for tracking stuff. They can track you too.

No kidding. Life takes on a similarity to the chessboard. There are no surprises in chess, just players not quite working out all of the move combinations.

Re:Only if...

[wiggys]

And what if "your" too stupid not to spot the one they hid in the button of the shirt, or the sole of your shoes?

Tracking? No, more like targetting!

[31415926535897]

You're thinking about this all wrong. Take off your tin-foil hats, nobody really wants to 'track' you.

Now, what companies will really be salivating over is the opportunity to market to you. If they can track all of the RFID tags on and around you, they can know so much about you that they can tailor advertising to you specifically. Just like Minority Report, only not so cool.

Just think of it as value adding. You're adding so much value to the coffers of manufacturers and advertisers!

Re:Tracking? No, more like targetting!

[morelife]

The USA does have legitimate security concerns whether you believe so or not

You're confused - addressing national security concerns is good. Unless you remove constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and move closer to a police state in the process. No, do not take citizens' freedoms away or introduce processes that ease potential abuse.

You're confused - national security is not being served, and our reserves are being wasted. Your tax dollars and mine pal. Our borders are not any safer than they were pre September 11 - the Homeland Security department is doing a bad job. Even networks like Fox News are pointing this out. If you've ever travelled through Israel you'd realize American "security" is a joke.

Which part of September 11 did you like? All of it?

There is a part of your brain telling you that having the Patriot Act in its current incarnation is going to prevent another September 11. America's policies toward the Muslim world for years are what finally led up to our September 11. George W. Bush's alienation of practically every other country on this planet may eventually lead to another September 11.

Since I knew people who died in those towers, and since some of my best friends happened to make it out alive, from where I stand your question there is pretty stupid.

A lot of people don't like our freedom and way of life.
We didn't achieve this way of life by looking the other way when legislation like the Patriot Act appears. This is exactly the kind of shit the first Americans rejected the Crown for. Fucking wake up.

Slippery slope...

[John Seminal]

Indeed, such warnings might once have been dismissed as mere fear-mongering. But in today's post-9/11 world, in which the US government has already announced its plans to fingerprint and photograph foreign visitors to our country, RFID sounds like a technology that could easily be seized upon by the Homeland Security Department in the so-called "war on terrorism." But such a system wouldn't just track suspected Al Qaeda terrorists: it would necessarily track everybody--at least potentially.

What is that quote? Man is born free yet everywhere he is in chains

I do not like the idea of having every last bit of privacy removed. Between the new camera's my state is installing on highways, with radar guns, that send you a ticket in the mail, to having banks sell personal information to thrid parties so they can call me at dinner to offer me a great price on a satelite dish, this is getting out of control.

While some may say that government will never, ever use any technology in an illegal way, I would just say they have done it in the past. Nixon broke into the dem's headquarters. Other presidents have bugged the phones of political groups like the black panthers. And this current president has the "Patriot Act".

It scares me to think what government could do. 1984 is looking less like fiction and more like a prediction.

Not quite ready for prime time

[erick99]

I did a search on google news and read some articles about RFID. It was interesting to read that retailers, at this point, can only wish they had the tracking capabilities that RFID might be able to provide. I also read that some retailers have canceled plans to deploy RFID after getting firestorms of negative feedback from their customers. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. It's sort of a sociological technological showdown.

Happy Trails,

Erick

This subject already covered millions of times!

[Wonderkid]

RFID on slashdot many times. Solution to this problem is simple. Avoid holding actual personal details on a central database. Yes, lets track what people buy and where they go, but only as an alias. IE, last month, 1287 people visited XYZ store in New York and purchased ABC jacket and then 376 of those people left the state. No need to log WHO they were. Simple really!

Get a clue

[dabadab]

Technology is not the problem.
The problem is (as always was and always will be) how people use a technology.
RFID (or any other technology) is not necessary for a police state as demonstrated by many examples in the past.
You privacy can be (or most probably: was) violated without RFID too.
To protect your privacy you need a society that values privacy and have laws that express this. If you do not have that then you are swimming against the flow and your are doomed to failure, no matter if RFID is used or not.
I would like to point out Europe: there are privacy laws that basically say the following:

• Personal information can only be collected with your approval (or if mandated by a law)
• This information can only be gathered for specific purposes (of which you must be informed) and may only stored for a set period of time, which can not be unreasonably long.
• You can request access to the information about you and request correction or deletion
• Your info must be kept confidental and correct
• Your personal information can be given to a third party only if the above requirements are fulfilled

If you have such laws (and have them enforced) then there is no need to fear RFIDs - but if you don't have them, RFIDs should be the least of your worries.

Re:Only if...

[zelphior]

Just throw everything you buy from Wal-Mart in the microwave for a few seconds. I'm sure the RF static from the microwave should be enough to fry any circuits in your clothes.

Re:Anyone with two feet and perhaps access to a ca

[4of12]

Here's an idea for a new community project: Mega RFID Vest Library

Go to the dump where multiple people are throwing away RFID-laden products. Snag the lil suckers off discarded food products, garments, appliances, liquor bottles, baby food.

Sew them onto a vest.

Lots of `em.

When you walk through the scanner you'll be ...... 246 different people.

Then, trade vests with others in other cities, other countries!

Some great new product opportunities

[pesc]

There are some great new product opportunities in the new RFID-enabled world.

RFID Super Scanner - Scan your surroundings and your stuff for RFID tags. Pinpoints the location exactly.

RFID Mega Zapper - A high energy directed radio energy impulse designed to fry the electronics in your RFID tags. Great fun for vandals in stores! Smack your enemy's wallet!

RFID Spoofer - A programmable device that returns the RFID code of your choice. Great for making a copy of you luxury car key! Or your neighbours. Have fun in stores after Zapping (TM) a RFID tag and replacing it with a Spoof(TM)!

RFID Data Miner - Build your own database of RFID tasks. Now you can do your own surveillance and track people. Also good in parking lots when you want to know what RFID code to feed into your spoofer for easy access to that nice car.

RFID Jammer - A fun little DOS device that emits radio frequences to blind RFID readers.

RFID Database Feeder - This device emits thousands of new random RFID codes every second. Great for filling the databases of those eager RFID code collectors.

I think most of these tools can be built easily and are not science fiction. If they can be built, they will.

Seriously, do you think RFID techniques makes the society more or less vulnerable for attacks?

every last bit of privacy removed

[dpilot]

Some are quick to say that the US Constitution guarantees no right to privacy.

But IMHO, the US Constitution embodies the 1793 State-of-the-Art of distrust of Government and other concentrations of power. That's the whole reason that there are three branches with checks and balances - mistrust of the institution of government. No matter how trustworthy those in power may be today, there's no guarantee that the next batch will be so. Checks and balances were put in place to provide trust - through mistrust.

Had the Founding Fathers been able to foresee the capabilities of electronic surveillance, they would have codified Privacy into the Bill of Rights. Instead, they did what they could, focusing on late-18th century concerns.

Had the Founding Fathers known of the potential concentrations of power known as multinational corporations, they would have codified some sort of separation of Business and State. Instead, they focused on what they knew, separation of Church and State.