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Senator Leahy Calls for RFID Technology Hearings
securitas writes "Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy has called for congressional hearings into radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The comments were made Mar. 23 to the Georgetown University Law Center's conference on video surveillance technology during a speech titled 'The Dawn of Micro Monitoring: Its Promise, And Its Challenges To Privacy And Security'. Leahy suggested that RFIDs may require federal regulation to ensure the public's privacy rights. Leahy is quoted as saying that the combination of RFIDs, sophisticated databases, networks and the Internet means that, 'We are on the verge of a revolution in micro-monitoring - the capability for the highly detailed, largely automatic, widespread surveillance of our daily lives.' He goes on to say that, 'We need clear communication about the goals, plans, and uses of the technology, so that we can think in advance about the best ways to encourage innovation, while conserving the public's right to privacy.' (Leahy's RFID speech transcript)"
RFID is good technology, with a lot of potential and a number of legitimate uses. Unfortunately it can also put big brother in your pocket, shoes, shirt and pants. If they could do just three key elements in a law I think it could flourish without privacy fears and diminished abuse potential.
/will/ produce them) come about, they would become a neon broadcast flag to theives.
Only allow people to scan for RFID that match a white list of your own property or property in your care with your consent. Any reading not on a white list must be discarded. Once an item is sold it is no longer their property and must be removed from the white list - with todays pos tech this would be absurdly easy to implement. This would allow retailers and distribution centers to use it for their own logistical and loss prevention purposes. This would also keep people minding their own business - literaly.
IF an RFID tag is on an item it should be prominently labeled, and be removable without destruction, devaluation or vandalism to the item that is attached to. For example, someone here asked a bit back, why not just cot off the tag? Answer - some clothing is now comes tagless.
Make sure that warranties and returns do not require RFID tags in order to be upheld. Someone should not be required to keep an RFID tag on something valuable just because they may have to get warranty service on it someday. As more powerful readers (blackmarket
Hopefully, any legislation proposed on protecting privacy can be passed without goobering it up with unrelated riders...
He's calling for hearings. That means that the government is looking out for you. Right?
Or is the government just making gestures so that you will feel better while, they don't really do anything at all? Sorta like airport security.
Have you voted?
... investing in companies that produce aluminum foil and copper mesh.
Most people don't particularly care that they can potentially be tracked with their purchases. It's already happening now, and the world hasn't come to an end. Bar codes and their scanners hasn't made life worse for anybody.
It's funny to see slashdot, home of tech geeks turn into luddites over some things.
Slashdot Moderation: From positive to terrible in 2 "insightful" posts.
Wow, a congressional committee is now going to weigh in! In 5 or 10 years, I'm sure they'll have something interesting to say about today's situation...
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
This is a serious issue. The matter of someone being able to monitor everything people do will call into question all manner of legal issues and definitely needs thought before it is implemented.
The issue of what this tech can be used for has so many deep and penetrating details. If RFID tags are in your purchace goods and you check out but they remain active as you drive down the road, can the police access the data without a search warrant? How about a marketing company checking all of the goods and seeing your travels etc. What do we do about Identity Theft here? There are so many issues that need looked into. Doubtless even if we try there are many more we have not even thought of yet.
Civilized people are facing the choice between the individual becoming merely a tool or cog in the Commercial world of the Industrialists or if the Industrialists tools will work for the Individual. Making this decision out of ignorance is not wise.
Never Politically Correct ~ I prefer the facts If you don't like what I say, get a life, or comment yourself.
"We are on the verge of a revolution in micro-monitoring - the capability for the highly detailed, largely automatic, widespread surveillance of our daily lives." And in the next sentence says: "while conserving the public's right to privacy." If I know anything, it's that it can't be both ways...
ALL RFID tags MUST be PERMANENTLY disabled BEFORE a purchased article leaves the premises of the place it was purchased.
It would be a simple, one-sentence law that would solve the entire problem. Of course, our government would rather spend a billion dollars in pork barrel research grants in order to come to the same conclusion... I'm sure there's a Vermont think-tank that is pushing Sen. Leahy for this "investigation"
I doubt congress themselves would want to be watched and tracked all the time. Think of all the shady deals they have going on... now if they were tracked all the congressmen would be potentially screwed. They might be more concerned with big brother than /. users are.
Evolution or ID?
It is helpful that they are starting to get an understanding of the implications. Here's to being hopeful that some decent privacy laws will be enacted.
I still haven't figured out what the big deal about "tracking people's purchases" is all about. I really haven't looked into this much, but I understand that the things can't be read from more than 5 feet away. I mean, if the government is within 5ft of my refrigerator monitoring my pizza bites, I think I have much worse problems than being tracked.
Lets face it, politicians only look at RFID as another form of "postage" for which to collect more taxes.
If the true intent of his "hearings" was to vet the technology, he would have industry experts and companies that are employing RFID today go before him and his council of elders.
What we will see (as so often is the case) is hand wringing and posturing to present this as "evil corrupt corporate" technology.
Never mind the 3M+ dogs that already have them imbedded in their necks.
Never mind the windfall afforded from instant package tracking and location determination it will provide.
Leahy and crew (ala "The Sopranos") are viewing this not with the public's best interest, but, with tax revenue dollars in their eyes.
Expect to pay 1cent per RFID tag in the next 2 years, but have to suffer under 35cents in taxes.
Everyday, death is becoming more appealing that taxes.
If everyone can look up *anything* at all about *anyone*, there would probably be a lot less abuse than there is now. It's hard to blackmail someone when the information is already publically available, and when the victim could probably find something that the blackmailer wouldn't want called to the public's attention.
As for identify theft, that's already a serious problem. We already need to find better ways to verify identity and authenticate authorization. Making all that personal data available to everyone probably won't cause an upswing in abuse; most of the people who would abuse having access to the data are already doing so.
Edward Burr
Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
personal RFID blockers/jammers, like a keyfob you carry that gives you a privacy zone by jamming the freq. in say a 3' dia. zone around you.
Imagine when companies begin logging other stores RFID information, to monitor what types of things people are buying... Most stores will begin carrying similar items to what they see rolling in the door from competitors. I see that has the potential to limit choice, stores don't want to inventory anything that's not "popular" on a nation wide basis.
:D
Now the salesmen will have another tool to bother you with. There is the possibility that they could monitor competitors products rolling in the door so they can come up and say, "So, what are you looking for today. I notice you bought that shirt at Dillard's, we have a similar item over here that's even better..."
I'd prefer the shit be deactivated totally at the register when I pay for it.
It is nice to see that some people in the government are paying attention to what's going on. I wonder what consumer rights group contributes to his campain.
A minor detail everyone seems to be totally oblivious too from the comments in the 3 or so posts about RFID I've read. RFID tags currently and for the near term are only readable at a max of 20', hardly a usable distance for tracking people.
One of my professors is working with Wal-Mart's RFID research group and has brought in some class 0 and 1 tags, and the smallest of the tags was about 1" wide by 4" long, not something easily missed.
I'm intrigued by the discussion surround RFID and retail. Most of the discussions I've seen surround concerns about retailers gathering too much information about their customers' buying habits. The other major concern commonly noted deals with third party tracking of the rfid device once it leaves the store. However, neither of these seem like valid concerns to me.
The ability to track a customer's buying habits, most retailers have that ability now. Bar codes uniquely identify a product. Unless you pay with cash (or a gift card at some retailers), the retailer has access to your name and some corresponding number (checking account or credit/debit card number). Those can easily be stored, RFID is not needed to accomplish this type of information gathering. In fact, many retailers use loyalty programs so that they can track cash and gift card purchases as well as credit/check. All of this begs the question: Is this a bad thing? If more information about your buying habits brings you lower prices, are you willing for your retailer to have that information?
As for tracking the RFID signals once they leave the store, I do not expect this to be a valid concern for long. For a retailer to use rfid on its products for anything other than loss prevention, it needs to be on every product. That means small and cheap, which in turn will drive the manufactures to make them with as low of a signal and as little storage capacity as possible to meet the retailer's needs. And, much like the security tags today, it is a simple thing to disable the tag once it has been scanned/read at the Point of Sale. This would even be preferable, therefore making it easy to scan for tags that are still active trying to make it out of the store (ie, shoplifted items).
All this is not to say there are no privacy concerns here. However, I think too much attention is placed on the retail use of RFID and not enough the other potential uses. Can anyone imagine DL's with embedded RFID? How about the RFID tag in my employee badge? These are the areas that I see real potential for abuse. At a retail store, if you don't want to be tracked, just pay with cash and don't use loyalty. You're data falls into the "other" bucket. If you don't mind being tracked, use your credit card, get your airline miles, your loyalty discount, and save a bucks.
If you would like to be a leader with a large following...drive slowly down a windy two-lane road
Assuming that the item you have purchased is metallic, and will fit in a microwave oven, and you don't mind a bit of char where the rfid tag is, why not just stick the item in the microwave oven for a second or two? Won't that destroy the rfid tag?
-- SKYKING, SKYKING, DO NOT ANSWER.
"The RFID train is beginning to leave the station, and now is the right time to begin a national discussion about where, if at all, any lines will be drawn to protect privacy rights"
Personally, I don't care if RFID's track my every move. I'm looking forward to their ubiquitous existence which WILL happen no matter what anyone wants.
What does concern me is if RFID's are closed in their architecture. RFID's should be open so that any reader can read any RFID tag, which will probably happen anyway in order for them to become as prevalent as barcodes.
Ruby on Rails Screencast
I'll lay money on it that they outlaw personal RFID blockers/jammers
Should such things become available, they may focus on regulating them to restrict their ability to interfer with other systems. Personal radio systems are allowed for things such as Bluetooth, and, of more relevance, devices, ranging from in-car hands-free cell phone units to homekaraoke mikes, that make use of the otherwise heavily regulated FM frequencies.
Any regulation may limit the effectiveness of the devices, but I would expect clever designers to come out with things like wallets, purses, backpacks, briefcases etc. Of course, I am still looking for a foil lined baseball cap, but I am sure that they are out there.
I've finally got around to changing my sig
Or even better reprogram all your rfid tags so that they think your carrying a car tyre (or three) or an engine block or a refrigerator. (Will battleships have an rfid tag ?)
dammit, I meant to say, is NOT, I repeat, NOT, metallic. =D
-- SKYKING, SKYKING, DO NOT ANSWER.
Wal Mart can buy off Leahy out of petty cash.
If you like taking everything you buy and running it through a microwave, yeah.
May we never see th
Yes! Each customer will be subjected to a blast of MICROWAVE RADIATION at the door, which will safely destroy the RFID tags without harming the products they're attached to! An ingenious solution! Whaaa?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
There is a bill in California right now that sets out to address consumor privacy concerns. NPR also talked about this in the morning. I agree w/ poster #1 with the potential benefits of RFID and despite my liberal and consumer advocate leanings, I am in favor of them. Clearly, however, policy needs to be set for how they will function both in and out of stores/warehouses. Should they be deactivated when leaving a store? At first I thought yes, but then other potential uses are quashed. Suppose your refridgerator could give you an instant inventory? That kind of thing is something i'de like to have someday. A middle ground was proposed by RSA to have a bag that temporarily blocks RFID until you get home. I don't know how good that will work for all situations, though. Like it or not, RFID is coming. The benefits are just too great to ignore. The question is, how will it be regulated? Now is the time for consumers to lobby for legislation dictating how RFID can be used!
Have a Happy.
...the public's privacy rights.
Translation: We want our cut.
If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.
Agent 1: Reading target now. Oh... Oh my God... He's wearing a shirt from the gap and pants from Old Navy!
Agent 2: That... son... of... a... BITCH!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I've always said I don't mind RFID tags as long as there are no laws mandating them.
1 578&cid =8657013
I would probably choose to buy the product without a tag. And when I buy products that have them, I remove them.
But what concerns me is a law (and I could see this happening) that forbids anyone to remove RFID tags. That would scare the crap out of me. But up until that point, I'll handle the tags myself.
---------
Is Karma really that easy?
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10
It's not the size of your RFID that matters, it's how you use it :)
Scenario:
customer goes to $CLOTHING_STORE and buys an item
RFID tag is disabled on purchase
customer makes an extremely subtle mod to the item (writes a small 'X' inside the garment using invisible ink, etc.)
customer returns the item
customer [or agent thereof] comes back to the store, finds the marked item, and shoplifts it
alarm doesn't go off because the RFID was already disabled
This is not a perfect plan, of course. The RFID tag might be read-only (but could be disabled some other way). The store will almost certainly have other anti-theft measures - like cameras - in place. I guess it would only work if the other types of hardware dongles were discontinued.
PS I was not about to number the list and put "N) Profit!" at the end. This is a pre-emptive 'shh'.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
RFIDs are a wonderful antiterrorist tool. They allow tracking of any individual, any currency bill he owns, any means of transport he uses. How can anyone oppose the use of such technology ? A day will come when every child will be implanted with an RFID chip, and a remote-disable spinal tap at birth, and all law and order problems will be moot. I just hope America has the wisdom to use this technology first: I don't live there.
This is not a signature.
The last words of a big pussy. Grow a spine, wimp. My wife's grandmother survived a concentration camp. You come talk to her about all the horrible oppression you face. She's a tough old broad who'd probably grab and squeeze your nuts to make sure you even had any.
Just think of all the ways you can screw with "data trackers". I can see it now - big batches of random RFID tags auctioned off on ebay. People walking around with little foil bags of RFIDs, periodically pulling a few new ones out, and putting others back in.
Look, here, someone's just walked past with an 8000# stuffed hippo. Wait, here he is with a Ford F150. Wait, there he goes with a Harrier Attack Jet. Think of all the fun you could have. Especially with stores and security guards. You have RFIDs that code to their products, they hual you in for "shoplifting". Whoops. You sue - big bucks. :D
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
It's our battle to fight, if we care about our freedom. Without the support of the people, a well meaning politian like this one will not get very far, since he or she will be going against the machine. Support them. And speak your mind to others. The govenrment was for us, not for big business.
Yes, but only if you were given the choice to remove it.
In a worst-case scenario, industry players or a policy to enforce the so-called "homeland security" could induce the creation of a federal law enforcing the use and maintenance of such tags, so you can function in society (people already has spoken of tattoos or chip implants under the skin).
Sounds very "mark-of-the-beast"-type of talk, but this reasoning also sounds strangely reasonable nowadays, given the governmental abuse of terrorist threats to curb civil liberties (not only the US -- see Europe as well) and the pressure from retailers and marketers in general to increase revenues at the expense of consumer privacy.
I'd also dare to say that's the consequence of objectifying people - when one starts to think of people as walking organic food processing systems with unpredictable behavior, tagging comes as an option to keep an eye on them, claiming that it is for the "common good"!
I don't think the Supreme Court has ironed that right out yet.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
I think it's a good thing that our elected officials are starting to discuss things of a technical nature BEFORE they're widely used. Does anyone remember any other technologies that were examined beforehand? I don't.
Ban the damn things. Or get a few hacks out so we can alter what they send. That could be fun. How about a jammer that covers that frequency range?
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
I wrote a paper last summer about environmental ethics and technology for a sociology graduate class. Environmental ethics and technology? What could be the connection? Our environment and how is becoming overrun with technology for technologies sake. RFID if a fine example of the slow building of a technological mountain that we will not notice until it is too late. The fact is that technology will enframe most people so that they do not notice it anymore -- MTV generation. For example, who remembers life with only 3-channels of UHF programming, or no condensation-trails from jets in the sky? Now there is a generation that knows only 100+ channels of programming. This will happen with RFID in the next 20-30 years and RFID will be everywhere. A new generation will be born that won't know, or care even if you tell them - generation gap.
Most likely congress will ban RFID readers as a criminal device because people will be worried about criminals reading their homes/cars and corporations will worry about bad data being introduced into there systems, so no personal RFID readers/scramblers/decoders/whatever... -- these will be made illegal due to PRIVACY/BUSINESS concerns.
Overall technology needs a gas tank to keep running: coal/gas to power the PC's; RFID and your stuff in a databse to fuel the MBA's !
Even if RFID is only used on money you will still be tracked. The granularity of tracking is increasing at a scary pace - maybe there is a "moore's law" somewhere in here - so where will it end? Most currency in the world will use RFID and some say that there is a U.S. 20 bill that will be cirulating shortly using RFID - so bill #434566 withdrawn at bank #12 by Joe Smith and bill #434566 used to buy CD ABC at music store XYZ.
Story on NPR today and it does seem that the people representing the privacy side are acting nervous and the business side is confident that they will have their way. And finally there is the relentless tide of consumers who don't give a crap and that is another possible way that RFID will become ubiquitous with a 10% discount coupon attached.
Just some random notes on RFID.
Think of it this way, If you go to the Mall and walk into Abercrombie, and buy a pair of shorts today, then if you took that pair of shorts to the GAP and tried to scan the bar code, you'd end up getting an 'error' code of some sort. Why? Because GAP doesn't care about Abercrombies stuff and they don't KNOW what the code is. Why doesn't the GAP know A&F's code, and what item that code represents? because It's a proprietary network!
Everyone needs to remember, these companies are not interested in the 'open source' world and 'sharing' information the way the /. community is (or big brother).
If all of the companies who are going to start using RFID tags decided to share the exact details of what each code means/represents in a mega database with the government, then yes - it's time to dawn the tinfoil hats... But until the day that these RFID tags are carrying more than just an ID number and arn't encrypted, you should be safe.... All the person with the 'scanner' will know is that someone came in wearing products with XXX_ID and YYY_ID'd items.
Leave it to the guys at 2600 to go around and determine what the ID's represent and then publish the lists...
Just because there's a recommended maximum amount of TV for a day, doesn't mean that the child should watch that much (or a little less) every day. Heck, I'd make the arguement that a kid shouldn't watch any TV, most of the time, and that's not restricted to most of the time in a day day, but more like most of the week. There's tons of other things to do, like ride bikes, play in the yard, swim, participate in organized sports, play games with friends, school, homework, read. Heck, where's the time to watch TV?
As for the "drastically changing your life", it wouldn't be that much, you'd just have to carry more cash than you do now. The extent you wish to follow the rest is your "individual choices and rights". You don't have to give up anything you don't want to, which was my basic point. Heck, you could even hire someone to buy things for you.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
I swear. RFID tags can be one of the most enabling technologies in history, automating zillions of tasks that otherwise slow down economy and society.
I for one have no problem being on record for things I in fact did do and places I did go, and it's lot like that's a real threat anyway. I'd make the database myself and sell it if anybody would pay enough to make it worth it.
As I see it, there is NO SERIOUS DOWNSIDE to RFID, it's not GM foods, it's not guns, and it's just information. Nobody gets physically hurt by tiny radio tags. They're not even especially bad for the environment.
What we need for RFID is NO LAWS, not lots of them. The Internet will be the medium your big brother nightmares are shipped over, but I don't think anybody seriously thinks we needed to pass laws in the 80s slowing down the game because of that. Why do we suddenly need to do so now with another super enabling technology?
And politicians wonder why voter turn out is low? They waste their time and my tax dollars on stupid hearings and debates. Why don't they do something about the patiot act and dmca first? Those are much greater invasions of my privacy than some little electronic tag that will let stores know what kind of jeans I bought.
Always check the temperature of the zipper on those new pair of jeans after microwaving but before wearing. A garment with red-hot metal teeth on the crotch would be no fun at all.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Does anyone here know if Senator Leahy is a man or a woman? What kind of name is "Leahy" anyway?
Oh this makes me feel really good...Leahy, a communist looking out for me, and even acting like if he will actually understand the technology if a hearing is held. What a bunch of BS! Just another lame reason for the federal government to interfere in the market where it doesn't belong!
Something is definitely wrong here.
A politician wants to learn about new technology and its implications so that intelligent policies can be put in place?
Excuse while I watch that pig fly by....
"Provided by the management for your protection."
The circuits are hardcoded. They cannot be reprogrammed anymore than a light switch can be reprogrammed. They are simply a series of digits burned into silicon, hooked up to an antenna.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
If I buy a lot of Twinkies, will someone use this information against me when I try to buy life insurance?
If I buy a lot of cough syrup, is some doctor going to call me, or is the DEA going to knock on my door?
If I buy 50 copies of catcher in the rye and a semi-automatic rifle, are the men in black going to take me away?
Granted, some of this can be tracked now, but if we make this easier, do I need to think about what message I'm sending before I buy anything?
I remember the uproar on CueCat a few years ago.
Give a slow barcode reader to everyone and then watch them use it.
What prevents a 2nd year EE student from publishing a circuit or code openly on how to read and decode the tags? Is this a DCMCA reverse engineering threat?
Could the Prism wireless chipset which has been hacked already under Linux hit RFIDs with the right signal to get a return signal as a result?
Hopefully Congress will force as a concession that RFIDs strings be freely available I think like ISBN numbers. UPCs I think you have to pay the Databases or license the decodeing algorithm especially ones related in manufacturing and parts cataloging and not Point of Sale IDs. IE the stuff that doesn't get read by a check out scanner.
Big Brother cometh
Sen. Leahy thinks that using Windows Explorer to browse around a shared Windows file server and read publically shared documents is hacking. At least, it is when those documents are highly embarrassing to the Democratic Party. In all fairness, his Republican counterpart (Sen. Hatch) is just as clueless, though at least Hatch means well. Leahy's vicious.
I really don't think the politicians are going to be of much help here. Keep them out of the loop and keep them from making RFID countermeasures illegal.
just think of all the gadjets (both real and fake that people will buy... jammers, readers, signal modification kits.
Every beggar will NEED to know who is walkin' by with a pocket full of $20s.
Every shopaholic's spouse will want to know when they're trying to sneak their purchases into the house.
All of us w/ lead-foil in our hats will want to be able to disable or alter the signal (without making the big black mark that we saw on the $20s last week).
A sharp circuit designer could have a field day. I will probably be trying to pass old modem cards as anti-RFID protection kits, just wear one around your neck and the government will never know what you're doing
Can someone say Minority Report?
How long before telemarketers get ahold of a way to track you, so they know where to call to get in touch with you?
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
I just noticed that if you add a couple of "A"s and rearrange the letters it spells AFRAID. Need more?
The data will, of course, be encrypted. But you can buy off-the-shelf RFID scanners today which have a range of about 50 feet, so even if you can't tell that someone has brown eyes and blue hair you'd at least be able to tell that they were carrying an American passport from quite a decent distance away.
One of those readers connected to a small microcontroller which counts how many unique RFIDs have been seen during the last few seconds wouldn't be too hard to build, and would give you a reading of how many Americans are currently in a 50 foot radius.
If the output on that microcontroller is connected to an explosives detonator, then you have a bomb which will only go off in the presence of Americans. Perfect for airports, taxis and foreign embassies! Set the "American Density" (unique counts in a 50 foot radius) threshold to a value which gives you optimal yield for the application at hand; small numbers for a taxi, large numbers for an airport concourse.
Note that I didn't come up with this idea; It was discussed on RISKS-DIGEST a couple of months ago.
IBM had a stand at a technology conference I attended last month where they were showcasing their RFID technology solutions. I mentioned this to one of their people, and suggested that we could call the explosives an "IBM Bomb", since it'd be enabled by off the shelf IBM technology. That wasn't really fair because IBM isn't the only vendor doing this stuff, but it was funny to see his sales pitch stop in mid-flow as he thought about the PR effects
I think the US has larger issues it needs to consider than the effects on the retail industry and privacy. Like it or not, US foreign policy has lead to a world which features various groups scattered across the planet who want to kill Americans. RFIDs in passports give those groups a way to distinguish between Americans and non-Americans at a distance, which doesn't strike me as a particularly clever idea in the current political environment...
- mark
-----
I tried an internal modem, but it hurt when I walked.
First off, RFID tags use radio frequencies, as their name suggests, meaning that they can be read without needing line-of-sight (which in many cases can be a good thing to have, esp for inventory control), like a barcode needs. Furthermore, with a barcode, one can just deface it or slap a piece of tape over it, and it becomes "inoperable" (this can be a detriment for barcodes - how many times have you had to wait for a cashier to type in the barcode when it wouldn't scan because of one reason or another?) - you can't easily and quickly do this with RFID tags.
Secondly, RFID tags can be small - very small, and embedded into the product (between layers of cardboard, in the rubber of shoes - there are already RFID tags in most new tires made today) - removing them or disabling them will be either difficult or impossible after you have bought the product, unless you want to detroy the product.
Finally, barcodes are "open" - anyone can get the spec for a barcode, build a reader, and use them easily - no such thing is available (yet) for RFID tags. In fact, I would be willing to bet that they would only license the spec (like the DVD-CCA) to keep ordinary people from using the tags as they see fit (lots of neat applications could be made if you knew how the tags worked).
Your argument about the corporations sharing the codes/meanings/databases with the government is a moot point - in case you haven't noticed it, the government is the corporations, for all intents and purposes. Government has been bought out, and bows to the corporate machine, giving it whatever it wants or needs, while passing laws favorable to the corporations. Every once in a while a law passes that is favorable to the proles, but this is more so that the proles don't get wary and wise up, and start questioning what is really going on. The corporations are what is really controlling this planet - the governments currently exist only to keep the populace from knowing or understanding what is really going on - a security blanket to shield them from the truth.
Finally, you ignore the fact that if a person is wearing/holding enough RFID tags in various articles on their person, then a profile of them could be made fairly easily. Since those same numbers would be stored in a DB matching the products serial to who bought it (via credit card information, or a SpeedPass-like buying system), a name could be attached to that profile. As more data is collected, the person could be easily tracked from place to place, building up a roadmap of who he visits, who he talks with, etc. This data could be seen as useless, but data on those people would be built up as well - allowing the profiling of groups and possible "organizations" of people (then we get into network theory, 6 degrees, etc).
Lastly, part of the fear is the databases themselves with the personal data - which the individual has no access or control over. Pick up a copy of Database Nation sometime and read it. Then you will understand...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I have in front of me something I found outside the door of my house. I have no clue how it got there.
It is a sticker, with a barcode on it. The number in the barcode reads "79797 97979" - obviously a repeating number, thus it isn't a real barcode (most likely). It still has the backing paper on it (thus, it wasn't ever used), and it looks like someone cut it out with scissors.
Looking on the oposite side of the barcode (ie, the backing side), I can see a reddish line around the outside edge - peeling away a corner reveals this "line" to be metallic in nature (looks like mylar or foil). There is also a metallic spiral (silver under the backing) that leads to the center of the label - whereupon is a larger red metallic square. The red silver traces also lead to that square. The center, where the square is, seems slightly thicker. There is a number "80" printed in the metallic silver next to the red square, between it and the spiral.
Now, this thing has to be an RFID tag of some sort - although it may be a simple one. The strange thing is it appearing outside my door, overnight, in an unused condition - that, and by the appearances of the number (ie, repeating 79), that it is a test or demo tag.
Has anyone seen these before? Does anyone have any comments, etc?
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
wouldn't you rather get "targeted marketing" that could save you money, instead of random marketing for crap you don't use?
I'd rather get NO marketing. If I feel like shopping, I'll go to the store. My experience with Targeted marketing is that it never really guesses what I actually want when I want it. I find store fliers are more effective because I can brows for what I need. They can also spark my interest in things that I don't need. All this AI predictions as to what I will buy next are always wrong so far. At best I get offers on things I've purchased already and hence don't need, moreover, the discounts are not very good. Therefore, Targeted ads are obnoxious.
wow, one hundred and eighty seven comments at threshold one, so far and not one of them mentions revelations.
you know where the best place for RFID tags are placed, on humans, in order to take advantage of body heat?
the back of the hand and the forehead.
targetted bomb, anyone? classification of people as cattle?