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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."
So how feasible is a "zapper" that will render RFID's useless? The idea is you come home and run your new purchases throught some sort of scanner...and poof! Normal merchandise again.
Any EE types that are familiar with what it would take to do something like this?
In Soviet Russia RFID tracks you. Wait... that's not right is it?
What happens if you collect about 1000 RFID devices
and carry them around with you. Will the readers
be able to read that when you pass by a scanner?
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!
I'm a triathlete and runner, we've been using RFID to track athletes for years. The main company doing this is Champion Chip. It's a small plastic device that you attach to your shoe or put on an ankle strap.
The tracking lets them do severl things. First, they get accurate timing and immediate results. They can also track where you've been to make sure that people haven't cut parts off the course. Some people are too creative, a few years back a women hopped on the subway for part of the Boston marathon, but she went "too fast", they got suspicious and reviewed the surveillance cameras in the subway.
The latest cool thing was in Ironman Hawaii. They had video cameras setup on the course and the chip strapped to your ankle let them know your location all day. Then, you could order a personalized DVD with video of your race. Pretty cool idea, though I didn't personally buy one.
Some may see this as big brother, or a harbinger of things to come. Some of us, however, have been happily tracked by RFID for years - voluntarily! I wouldn't want this to be 7*24, without my permission.
Alan.
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:
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.
Real life is overrated.
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!
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Has anybody ever thought of making a RFID tag detector? Something that simply emits whatever RF it takes to trigger the tag and listen for a response. (It is not necessary to decode the response, only to note that it is present.)
With such a device you could scan your things and locate and remove the tags.
It shouldn't be too hard for the hardware hackers out there to come up with something like this.