Slashdot Mirror
RFID Leaders Talk Privacy
An anonymous reader writes "RFID News has released a set of interviews with EPIC, VeriSign, CASPIAN, HP and EPCGlobal on RFID and privacy. From CASPIAN founder Katherine Albrecht: 'In most cases, asking how a company exploring item-level RFID tagging can protect their customers' privacy is like asking a fox how he can best ensure the safety of your chickens.'"
RFID is great and all, but until there is legislation preventing law enforcment from using/viewing the data collected by these companies, I wouldn't go for it.
Buying products with these tags seems like asking to be tracked. I know there are benefits to using them, but I'd rather not volunteer a public record of everything I do while carrying these products. It contradicts the spirit of the privacy rights granted in the constitution.
And other tech that disables the RFID tag at Point of Sale, how the heck is an organization using RFID supposed to prevent other organizations from reading the same tag into a database?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
OK, so you don't want to get fucked over by the 'evil' (I don't believe a technology can be evil btw, only its uses) that is RFID in the hands of corporates. Simple solution; don't steal stuff from Walmart. If you don't steal items with rfid on them, you won't get hassled. It's an anti-theft device, it's not like they're implanting them in your foreheads.
like asking a fox how he can best ensure the safety of your chickens.
Well, they are your chickens. You must insure that other predators don't eat them. You must keep them penned up and guarded so only you can eat them. You don't want to share those chickens do you? I didn't think so. You kill everything else that might eat them.
Let's see, RFID wise. My business owns that data on Job Blow. Other businesses should be able to use my data to their advantage that would be wrong. I need to have laws implemented so only my business can track my consumers. I need to buy or destory in the stock exchange other businesses that may compete with me.
From the linked article:
The blocker technology works by "spamming" any RFID reader that, without the proper authorization, tries to scan the tags
The only proper authorization is the authorization provided by *me*
Once firmly implanted beneath the scalp, behind the nape of the neck and/or in the palm of the hand, the RFID chip(s) will enable law enforcement agencies to instantly know your location without the need to task satellites or get involved in wasteful car surveillance. They'll no longer need to burst in to make sure you're in the hotel room with your mistress. They'll know you're in there with her. And since they'll instantly know your exact location, they can be much more respectful of your belongings when they break in (with a court order, of course) and rummage through your stuff. They'll know exactly how long they have so they'll be careful.
Now if they just legally abolish these cumbersome doors (that terrorists so often hide behind while plotting their evil deeds), why I'll be glad to have traded any semblance of liberty for perfect security.
Thank you, Big Brother.
their primary purpose is not anti-theft, but is inventory tracking and statistical analysis. The RFID tags are there when you BUY the stuff, and can (and will) be used to track you and the items you've purchased after you consider your interaction with the store to be done.
Its just like the supermarkets with their "discount cards". Which to get one you must give your ph#/name/address etc... (of course you can give bogus information). But now the supermarkets start tracking exactly what you buy and when you buy it....
If I buy a 5lb bag of bran.. should I get a call from the exlax salesman?
Do we have any evidence of that besides the raving of tinfoil-hat loonies? I haven't even heard a convincing argument why companies might want to track items after they leave the store.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Present examples like that when talking to retailers. They value their own "privacy". Mall operators hate it when you take pictures of store displays.
If you look at the examples that Albrecht from CASPIAN notes, you'll see from internal discussions by the industry that they already plan on this sort of tracking. They're just looking for ways to counter public pressure and present a positive spin on it.
They will as long as it isn't explicitly illegal because they believe that it will provide them with an enormous amount of information that they can mine to eventual increase sales and sales margins. That's their job. The fact that they are attempting to do this on the backs of our privacy doesn't enter into their conversations.
The tags work by retransmitting energy that they receive. In simpler terms, I'm saying "the tags don't have batteries." They have an antenna that is energized by the transmitters at the gates. They modulate the signal with the data contents of the chip, and rebroadcast it (typically at double the frequency of the received signal.) Since the strength of the signal fades with the cube of the distance, in order to read from a greater distance you have to transmit exponentially more power to read it from further and further away. Don't forget to double the distance measurement, because your transmitter has to send enough RF energy to power the chip circuit, which has to turn that into enough power to make it all the way back to your reciever. And no matter how much power you pump into these little chips, they're not capable of retransmitting more than a few milliwatts, which means that as the distance increases your receiver needs a bigger and bigger antenna.
The concern for privacy isn't that the guys with satellites are watching your every move from 90 miles up. They don't need to. They simply need to subpoena the store's RFID log to see who's been coming and going, and when. It's much cheaper.
John
And the inclusion in the soles/linings is from RFID industry sources. If the item is easy to remove/displace like the security patch, then it has little value for the sort of tracking planned.
If you bought any of the items on you with a credit card, or a membership card, or a "discount friendly" card, then the merchant can tie all of those items to you directly (even if you paid for the rest with cash). And they can use that information to create a profile of your purchasing habits.
Unlike the bar code, RFID could be bad for your health. RFID supporters envision a world where RFID reader devices are everywhere - in stores, in floors, in doorways, on airplanes -- even in the refrigerators and medicine cabinets of our own homes. In such a world, we and our children would be continually bombarded with electromagnetic energy. Researchers do not know the long-term health effects of chronic exposure to the energy emitted by these reader devices
(Emphasis theirs). Unless they give some numbers on how the reader emissions compare to the thousands of other sources we are being subjected to, that's just baseless speculation, with the old "think of the children" cliche thrown in to tug at our heartstrings. That's usually a good sign that someone doesn't have a real argument to offer.
Underloved Movies and Pub Quiz: donotquestionme.org