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Embedded Microchips In Virtually Everything
Microsoft CRM recommends a long AP article laying out the nightmare scenario of RFID chips in everything tracking not only things but people. The darker possibilities of a technology capable of enabling ubiquitous surveillance are not news to this community, but it's not so common to see them spelled out for a wider audience. "Microchips with antennas embedded in virtually everything you buy, wear, drive and read, allowing retailers and law enforcement to track consumer items and consumers wherever they go. Much of the radio frequency identification technology that enables objects and people to be tagged and tracked wirelessly already exists and potentially intrusive uses of it are being patented, perfected and deployed... [A director at FTI Consulting] said:] 'It's going to be used in unintended ways by third parties — not just the government, but private investigators, marketers, lawyers building a case against you.'"
So what do you do about it when this starts happening?
How do you put the genie back in the bottle? Live in the hills?
I expect that all the new "smart devices" will create a class division within developed countries, those who can program and those who can't. We already have part of it with Best Buy and other computer retailers trying to sell you at least $300 in extra hardware/software/support even though you don't need it yet the uninformed take the bait and end up spending money they don't need. Also, the same thing is happening with computer repair and support, if you don't know whats wrong tech support is more than willing to test every combination and then charge you for the privilege of fixing it along with any other thing that /might/ be wrong.
There is no "disagree" moderation, and troll, flamebait and overrated are not valid substitutes
All this means is we'll have to fix the courts so they follow their own laws and stop sending people to jail on coincedental evidence.
As soon as RFID chips start appearing in all of our items, the market for devices that destroy them without damaging the article itself will very quickly materialize. Honestly, if I can figure out how to destroy them easily, I may be in on that market.
And then they'll make tougher RFID chips, and we'll make tougher devices to kill them. And this war will escalate just like the Radar vs Radar Detector arms race. What are the cops using now? Negatively modulated phased arrays doppler assisted with frequency hopping? Exactly.
Aero
Please stop hurting America -- Jon Stewart
The RFID chips have a transmission range of 3cm, thats one freakin' inch. If you have a large antenna, you can get 30cm range (1 foot).
/. journal article on RFID chips and the need to adopt them.
Half the people I know use a key card to access/unlock doors at work. Those things have an RFID chip in them. How close do you have to hold those up to the reader? Yup, 3cm.
If you had a 6' satellite dish mounted on the back of a truck, you could theoretically blast out a signal strong enough to activate the RFID receiver and get it to reflect back a signal to the dish, but the weakness of the return signal is so minute that you still would not be able to hear the return signal past 10' away.
Sorry, but does the government really care if you have any more "hot pockets" in your freezer? These articles are more about scare tactics than reality.
Now, a concern that has been brought up is programmable RFID chips. If your can of Campbell's Tomato soup had a programmable RFID tag then a customer could program it with self replicating code and place it back on the shelf. Then, when the store took inventory and scanned the shelf, the "infected" can of soup would receive the energy pulse and reply not with the information the reader is looking for, but with a reprogramming signal that would "reprogram" the cans of soup around it with the self replicating code. Could you imagine a whole WalMart being quarantined due to an RFID worm outbreak?
It isn't really possible, the return signal from an RFID chip isn't even strong enough to power up an RFID chip next to it, but it is nevertheless fun to think about.
Read my
Joel Helgeson
Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
I won't buy anything that tracks me, just like i refuse to purchase software the requires it to phone home.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
RFID and related technologies will only continue to push us down the path we are already on. There are cameras all the place, we constantly give up our addresses and credit card numbers, and even our grocery discount cards are tracking our purchases. This isn't going to slow down or let up. The trick will be to understand and govern what is in place, not necessarily slow down the technology changes we're seeing.
There's little in the way of choice left regarding the use of this technology. It's too pervasive, in more sense than one.
How to Download YouTube Videos
You can effectively already be tracked via cellphones, electronic transactions, and all the cameras out there, both public and private. Not to mention al the people who see you.
In light of the obviously undesireable implications of having every detail available to any spook with a scanner, I imagine that we'll start seeing systems designed to detect and neutralize the tags. Given that they are designed to respond to scans they shouldn't be too hard to ferret out(until the RFID equivalent of port knocking comes out, of course). Presumably a variety of little arms races will be kicked off, between the cypherpunks and the feds, the counterfeiters and the corporations, etc.
The more interesting question, though, is what the reaction will look like on a social scale. Will RFID tags be routinely removed at point of sale, the way dye tags are, or will they be aggressively integrated into products in an effort to make them tamperproof? Will people at large see neutralizing RFID tags in items you own as a common, sensible, precaution, like shredding important documents, or will that be seen as the sort of thing that only hackers, criminals, and other shady characters would do?
It will also be interesting to see what sorts of uses the vast amount of ambient information will be put to. Obviously, the usual surveillance and marketing stuff will be pretty thick on the ground; but there might be some rather more curious things as well. I can just imagine the horde of social networking gimmicks that will spring up around the ability to detect the consumer goods carried by those around you. It'll be just like Zune Squirting; but ubiquitous!(Does anybody else miss the days when the future was going to have flying cars and robots?)
Wonder how secure facilities - the ones that won't let you bring in a camera phone or phone at all, and demand a list of all the non-volatile memories in the product you are selling - will handle this.
As that ultimately goes back to the feds, it's possible that the government, with it's own bean-counting directives towards COTS technology, may ultimately provide some kind of limit on what kinds of feature-bug "extras" are including in products.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
These things have a read distance of 3 FREAKING CENTIMETERS!
For the metric impaired 3 centimeters = 1.18110236 inches
The only way "they" will be able to track you with RFID is to
PHYSICALLY FOLLOW YOU AROUND HOLDING A READER AN INCH FROM YOUR ASS!!!!
You will LIKELY notice this behavior.
Now, if you wish to be concerned about "them" tracking you, check out
your CELLPHONE. The CELLPHONE PROVIDERS ALREADY keep location records on EVERY PHONE
for at least 60 days "Just In Case". They have no actual business reason to keep those
records, They just do.
How about being concerned about a real threat instead of a stupid made up one?
GGAAAHH!
Now i know how the Cashier scans Meggy without a bar code.
I have read that passive tags can be read from 1 inch to 40 feet.
And Active tags can be read up to a mile or more.
The range all has to do with cost and need.
With all tech reducing cost is only a matter of scale and time.
As with all things its also only a matter of time before malevolent use any tool or technology occurs.
So while I agree that Orwellian references to RFID technology are certainly overblown,
Dismissing the need for caution and prudence with any technology can only lead to big problems in the long run.
As you pointed out so well a soup can worm could shut the doors on a supermarket.
I think that this is a simple example of what could be the tip of a greater iceberg once truely talented indiviuals
start taking advantage of an embedded technology that is only bound to evolve.
Once it become part of the system it will be hard to get rid of.
Fortunately I have a disguise.
Game... blouses.
If you own a cell phone and often carry it with you everywhere you go, you can be tracked. You can even be tracked with your phone turned off. The government has been asking to track people even without sufficient probably cause(and probably doing it illegally since we know about it).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/22/AR2007112201444.html?hpid=topnews
I believe this was mandated in the 1996 Telecommunications Act for all cellular devices and has been implemented long since.
If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
What kind of passive tags can you read at 40 feet?
Hmm. How about the threat that there will be RFID tags that are designed to store data every time they're hit by a reader? That doesn't sound that bad, until you start seeing areas that are periodically flooded with reader signals. Now the tag is starting to build up a timestamped list of locations. Now someone brushes up against you on the sidewalk or in a subway, and your tag gives them all the information.
Huh, looks like they don't have to follow you around with a reader an inch away from your ass. Imagine that.
I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.
it's Maggy you insensitive clod, and $847.63 was apparently the esimated average cost of raising a child in 1989 for one month.
ubiquitous surveillance are not news to this community
Because a lot us are the ones installing those applications. Some suit with a genius idea will burst in and ask, "Hey, can you install that tracker....thing...what do we need to track our employees?" And they'll want the weekly report in two different formats and ad hoc custom reports, which they'll ask for at 4 pm on Friday afternoon and want you to send them on their Treo.
The smart ones here will make millions selling counter-measures and running wild weasel missions for our clients.
And still no one here will be able to use all that technology to get a date with a real woman.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
does this mean I have to microwave my cloths?
A cheap passive tag bonded to a capacitor and an antenna could burst back a signal far away. Never underestimate cheap.
It is Maggie, you insensitive clod!
Micro-chipping people, yet another infringement on our rights by the gov't. Add it to the ever-growing list of violations:
They violate the 1st Amendment by opening mail, caging demonstrators and banning books like "America Deceived" from Amazon.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns during Katrina.
They violate the 4th Amendment by conducting warrant-less wiretaps.
They violate the 5th and 6th Amendment by suspending habeas corpus.
They violate the 8th Amendment by torturing.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting 2 illegal wars based on lies and on behalf of a foriegn gov't.
Support Dr. Ron Paul and save this great country.
Last link (unless Google Books caves to the gov't and drops the title):
America Deceived (book)
Privacy advocates could do a lot of good just giving away RFID erasers for everyone. Not everything with RFID embedded will survive zapping in a microwave.
Sponsor dry cleaners and laundromats to "debug" clothes with RFID found and erased, and give the customers the report.
I could see a great public demo of an RFID reader out in a park or at a busy intersection with a big display superimposing the tag#s over video of the people on whom they're riding. With an eraser and some pamphlets. In fact, that setup could probably sell enough erasers to finance giving away lots more.
--
make install -not war
So, how are you going to integrate this package into a electronic product code for say, a T-shirt or on a soup can? As distance increases you start talking about needing to store larger amounts of energy before you can send it back, which means a higher capacitance. You'll quickly get to electrolytic can packages. The fear in the article is that you'll be tracked based on these items, which means that the rfid has to be small enough to be unobtrusively left in many items on your person. The type of RFIDs that are best for these uses are tiny, flexible, and thus are not capable of "replying" with much energy, hence the very limited ranges.
RFID tags transmit incredibly weak signals. The only power available to them is what the tiny antenna can convert from RF transmitted by the reader. A simple battery-operated transmitter operating at the same output frequency(ies) as the tags can easily interfere with the RFID tags transmission making it impossible for the reader to decode its signal.
Also, reading the tags is really easy (and cheap). I bought a reader for $50 that uses a simple serial interface. I connected it to a PIC microcontroller, wrote some relatively simple software for it, and output IrDA via an IR LED so I can display the data on a Pocket PC.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
They can't track your phone when it's off. It can't be tracked if it's not emitting a radio signal. Maybe you think off means something other than off?
Lets all put tracking chips in us so its easier for Terminators to track us down and kill us after Judgment Day.
Windows is as solid as quicksand.
OK, so a lawyer is going to try and use it against me. Even after all the crap that gets through the legal system (ahem, OJ), I still have faith that the majority of that which is referenced above, would be construed as unlawfully obtained/entrapment/whatever. Especially at the highest court - there's smarter people than you or I there. Agendas perhaps, but the majority have common sense and understand the constitution better than you or I. Note I said majority. That's key.
China invented gunpowder=Hiroshima. Look right, look left, but mostly, look out! I have seen us get used to all kinds of evil. Where do they get those Blackwater kids?
They are also commonly used as an anti-caking agent in powdered drinks.
...let alone the fury of a 10 second Microwave Oven Massage (MOM). ...and there is allways the 60 minute defrost setting... 8-D
No RFID, nor like device will ever survive a MOM episode.
Nothing to worry about at all, that is, until after you nuke them!
I know a girl who recently had an operation to remove a chip put in her hand by an abusive ex partner. People are already doing this stuff, it's just hidden.
Posted anon to protect her privacy.
I hear metalized mylar is the latest thing in fashion!
I just read Slashdot for the articles.
So, it looks as if 'they' will be steaming ahead with the tagging of
everything/everyone possible, under the usual commercial interest BS.
If you're against this, the only option available is to legally 'mess'
with the system as much as possible, using any weakness you can find.
(That is, until they make it illegal to mess with the system in any way)
So, what to do, A couple of examples to be going on with
1. EMP: If you're worried about hidden RFID tags in your (non-electronic)
possessions, invest in building an EMP device and then pulse the living
hell out of the little darlings..it tends to make them fubar.
Chapter 25 of "Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius" looks like a place
to start, or Chapter 12 of "More Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius"
Bear in mind, these books *are* glorified adverts for the Author's US company
and supply business (e.g. many of the designs in the books feature components
that only his company supplies), but they'll still point you in the right
direction if you have any electronics skills..anyhoo, must get back to
dismantling this microwave oven...
I have to add, to those of us in Britain, even though the books pointed to
above are legally available to purchase here (from amazon.co.uk and others)
read the wording of Section 57 and 58 of the Terrorism Act, read up on how
the police are using this act as a 'carte blanche', then wonder how long it'll
take then to criminalise the deactivation/destruction of RFID tags themselves,
or, more likely, the possession/construction of an EMP device.
Seriously, just thinking about this, on a legal point
who owns the RFID tags in your clothing/goods anyway?
I point you to the example of 'your' store loyalty card, which probably has
something like 'Remains the property of escoTay' on it's reverse.
You purchase the item, but do you purchase/own the RFID tag it contains?.
IANAL, but, like a loyalty card, it appears the RFID tag *may* remain the property
of the store/whoever, you damage/tamper with the tag by EMP/Whatever - instant
possible charge of criminal damage to someone else's property.
2. Database Poisoning: Start a mass media campaign aimed at educating people
about the dangers of these things, and, Importantly, how to identify and
remove/disable them, set up 'clearing houses' for the gathering and distribution
of these liberated tags.
Once started, then like the 'loyalty card' efforts, set up a national/global
movement to 'poison' all their databases e.g the old 'glue the RFID tags to
cockroaches and release them' thing, swapping tags nationally/internationally
etc.etc.etc..
Think of the possibilities,
checking through their combined RFID scanner logs, the security services software
discovers a "potential terrorist" pattern of activity, and 'Flags that Tag'.
The tag ID has been on at least 10 international flights to dubious destinations
in the past three months, two massage parlours, visited several islamic bookshops,
been in close contact with other 'known' suspicious RFID tags etc etc (you get the
idea).
They do a check in the global master database, it's a can of (insert brand of your
choice) baked beans, ah, Identity theft as well, they can see the newspaper
headlines "Islamic terrorist masquerades as can of baked beans in attempt to try and
destroy our freedom loving way of life (you will believe this, or else..)", they then
get the software to show the latest position of the tag (which lamp post reader it
tripped last), and dispatch their goon squads..
Oh what larks, eh.
Range is defined as the maximum distance for successful Tag-Reader communication. Read range difference will vary and can be very-short, short, or long.
Very Short Range: approx. up to 60cm (2 ft)
Short Range: approx. up to 5 m (16 ft)
Long Range: approx. 100+ m (320+ ft)
High-frequency (850 MHz to 950 MHz and 2.4 GHz to 2.5 GHz) systems, offer long read ranges (greater than 90 feet) and high reading speeds. High-frequency systems are used for railroad car tracking and automated toll collection.
"GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 51230 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; Setec Astronomy)"
As someone mentioned earlier there will be a market for devices that will "brick" the RDIF
chips in products pretty quickly. At the moment I know a few people who have US passports
that put them in a microwaves for 5-10 seconds rendering the chip useless.
As for having RFIDs around you and not being able to control the information they let out
or the presence they bring to attention, a simple device that continually transmits random
id's or ones recorded from your local walmart etc could be just the trick to create an
overload of information processing for any system. These devices can be easily thwarted.
No need to panic at this point in time. More important things to worry about such as the
proposed trusted computing platform.
I read an article in the Washington post today concerning the future of everything. While some might call this crazy talk... I am going to endorse my neurotic/paranoid side and state: Ubiquitous RFID tags(or some similar device) seems to be an almost inevitable and unavoidable future. And this snippet from the article sums things up nicely:
I agree with Katherine. I hope that Katherine and her friends will be able to stop this monster... sadly I think they will eventually be overpowered by corporate interest.
This situations will not just be contained in store, it will be in every aspect of our lives. While part of me is excited at the idea of cool widgets and the techno magic that accompanies them I am 100% scared crap-less about the complete loss of privacy. So, I have taken it upon myself to offer the best possible solution for dealing with this unavoidable future.
Definition: The ownership of chips. The ownership of a chip is determined by who is in personal possession of the chip. For instance if an item is sitting on a shelf in Wal-Mart, the owner is Wal-Mart. When a customer purchases said item all ownership of that item and the RFID chip is transferred to the customer who will now have complete control of the RFID chip.
1.) All RFID chips must have the following access levels: PUBLIC, PRIVATE and PROTECTED. These access levels can be modified by the chips owner and only by the chips owner. Any attempt to modify a chip that you do not have have ownership of or express permission from the owner to modify should be considered illegal and punishable. I am assuming that it will be easy for people to set permissions on their RFID chip through the use of ubiquitous devices such as their Blackberry/iPhone/(next big thing).
By having permission levels on RFID chips it would potentially eliminate many of the privacy issues while maintaining some of the useful functionality. At the same time if we ever reach a state of ubiquitous RFID tags imagine how easy airport security checks would be! Simply set all of your RFID tags to be public or protected(and give permission to be read by the security scanner) and you can walk right on through. If you have any sort of unsafe item on you it will show up... granted you might be able to sneak in something with out a tag or with a fake tag or a tag that has been tampered with. But that is a different problem, maybe there will be some sort of global authentication system/authority to make sure that the tag matches the item and is not providing false data about that item.
2.) Chip technology must be maintained in the public sector and as open source. This issue so greatly concerns our privacy that the only way anyone should ever feel comfortable about this technology being used in the publics best interest is if it is open source and openly policed(monitored?) by the public. There will never be a company that I would trust to maintain a technology this intrusive and not attempt to use their power over it without devious intent.
There is of course the possibility that companies might still manufacture proprietary impostor chips... but hopefully consumers will have the ability to easily sniff out impostor chips (global authentication of
You can buy a long range reader TODAY from http://www.iautomate.com/r500sp.html for $499.
.. an eeepc, one of these and you have a very portable long range sniffer hidden in a briefcase.
.. unless you're astroturfing.
Range 450 FEET. Note the bit in the web page about tracking PEOPLE.
Check it out. It can be buried in walls and is handy-dandy small. Size 3.3in x 1.6in x 0.7in; weight 1.6 oz. Power requirement 12VDC - 14.5VDC, ±30mA -- it'll run off batteries, no problem.
Let's see
Google is your friend
Notable in the comments on this story is what seems to be missing. Deep outrage.
Previous generations of Americans - of all political leanings - would have been deeply offended by the idea that governments, or anyone else for that matter, had the right to snoop into a free citizen's private life unless a judge had determined probable cause, meaning it was likely the person was a criminal where the court would authorize an investigation likely to lead to that citizen losing his freedom or at least some of his property through a court trial and fine.
However, in the last ten years or so, there has been a remarkable change, where what used to be mainstream offense at such an idea is now marginalized as the loony fringe. Television shows have been party to this brainwashing, as they feature law enforcement shows where the federal, state and even local police go into databases and almost instantly know a lot about ones personal life. We watched one the other night where they organized a search party of the locals, and ostensibly to protect the people, took names of each volunteer. Then the TV show has the police and the feds discussing the personal profiles of each volunteer... this one has debt problems, that one has sexual deviancy... none of them convicted criminals, but each forming a detailed profile of that citizen. The show ostensibly was placed in Washington State not East Germany before the wall was torn down.
When I put computer systems into police departments in the 1980's, we were told that the software had to purge and absoletely delete all records on a person arrested if they were not charged, or found not guilty. Hopefully that is still the law. However, what we are seeing with stories like the Microsoft story is a slow process of softening up the public, of dimming public opinion so the ordinary guy in the street figures its normal for the police or corporates to snoop into the private lives of ordinary citizens. This is called a police state folks. Land of the free? Freedom means being left alone until you cross the boundary and break the law. Only in dictatorships, police states and authoritarian regimes do private citizens come under government surveilance.
In such places, life dims.
Reading these sorts of stories, life is dimming now, I fear.
If you are offended by officials or corporations spying on private citizens who have done nothing wrong, you must speak up now, while they are still softening up the rest of us. If you don't think you have the power to do so, look at the open source movement.
"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men." Samuel Adams
Read the last line again, folks. Then go back and re-read the Microsoft story.
Like many other technologies there are also positive aspects.
Think about it, RFIDs need to be made cheaply. Sooner or later we will have printable microcontrollers costing a cent each, including a radio interface and a solar panel.
You could do extremely subversive things with those, like building a wireless meshed network which is virtually untraceable by governments and large cooperations. You would just need to glue your little computers to lamp-posts and they would relay.
Purchase things with cash. That way, they know that somebody bought that 50 pound bag of kibbles and bits, but not who. If they ask for id when paying cash, I think you can come up with a plausible bit of BS to get by.
A friend of mine was in charge of the latest release of Gamma World, for d20 Modern. One of the suppositions they made was that, before the Crash, technology had advanced to the point where even AI was so cheap that it was added to absolutely everything, for no other reason than that they could. Hammer? AI. Light switch? AI. No one even thought about it; it was just done. It was funny, but also kinda scary, because ours is a civilization where I can definitely see that happening.
This reminds me of that, and may be the first step.
Soylens viridis homines es
"When I put computer systems into police departments in the 1980's, we were told that the software had to purge and absolutely delete all records on a person arrested if they were not charged, or found not guilty."
Eau d'yeah, that reminds me of an occasion when I spent some time sitting in the back of a LAPD patrol car, (handcuffed for my protection). I did get to see a lifetime list of all my police contacts (spurious allegations, no convictions) on the in-car computer, including all my juvenile contacts. I asked the officer what it was doing there and he stated he had no records of any of that, then he claimed that it would be incorrect for any non-convictions to be listed, and that I had not seen any such list. Now I am a bit worried that some zealot is going to pull me over some day, see that list, and decide that my time of beating the charges and being released is over. I have personally witnessed that sort of thing before. And telling the court that a cop is lying doesn't seem to gain much traction.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
Do you think that the logs from your security system won't be able to tell someone exactly which door you triggered at exactly which date and time? Your movements are being tracked. It's just that right now, nobody cares.
While Christmas shopping with my mom, we purchased our items and left the store. As we were leaving the security system announced that apparently someone had failed to remove the inventory control tag from an item. We looked around to see who was making off with store goods, but just saw normal holiday store traffic. We made our way through the mall and entered another store. We heard that store's security system asking a customer to return to the cashier to have the inventory control tag removed. I remarked that it must be a busy day for shoplifters. We made our way through the store to a side exit near our parking spot. Again the security system tripped. This time, we were the only ones using the entrance, so it was obvious that one of our inventory control tags was the one causing the problem. My point, we were tracked by different stores. Our progress through the mall could have been monitored. We definitely had our photographs taken by the store security cameras. Were it not for the security system announcement giving us the opportunity to have the tag removed, we could have been tracked without our knowledge.
Now there are plenty of places where controlled access points exist: stores, subway stations, airports, sports arenas. If sensors were placed in these places, movements could be tracked from place to place, and from city to city. If they put RFID sensors in cell phones, instead of the radiation sensors they were talking about in another story, someone could track you through crowded streets. Your own phone could give you away.
Right now there are three things protecting us. First and biggest, nobody cares. Second, the systems are not integrated (although my trip through the mall shows that many stores already use the same system). Third, right now we can ditch the RFIDs. They're attached to the shoebox, not the shoes; to the price tag, not the item. Once the RFIDs are embedded in the item, we lose that capacity.
Sure, right now it's just a barcode. But it would not take much to change that barcode to a Universally Unique IDentifier, readable from multiple, integrated systems.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
I still pay cash on most items. Its really no ones business what brand of bread i *personally* choose. My 'discount' card is linked to a long address off a short peer.
Sure, its not much, but its something.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
"Programmable" in this case means it can be programmed with a given response. Not that it is a computer executing code.
Like ROM is programmable, or a CD, or a sheet of paper. It contains code, but does not execute code.
While it's certainly possible to put a little computer in an RFID application, the added cost would price them out of the inventory control business. Ingredients: water, tomato, 8051....
It won't be that long before genetically engineered food programs the little bugs in your gut to produce tiny RFID devices coded to your DNA and excreted in your....err excretions. All the raw materials are there. This will be used to maintain ownership records on marketable products that YOU crap after consuming industry subsidized food.
Yes, there are RF-ID tags that can be read at long distances. One example is the cited one with a range of 450 feet. That requires a tag, http://www.iautomate.com/t800.html, which is 85x70x9 mm big and requires a new battery every 5 years. Hardly something you easily conceal in a new sweather och a pair of shoes.
There exists two types of RF-ID tags: passive and active. Passive are small and cheap, and have very short read ranges (inches). Active a large and bulky, and requires batteries. But these can achieve ranges in the hundreds of feet.
I would be very, very surprised if one could not make a satellites capable of tracking RFID tags. --And I would be only somewhat less surprised to learn that there were not such detectors already commissioned and in orbit.
These kinds of patterns, including all types of social control and plans for the human population, have progressed much, much further along than most realize. The public is scurrying about all akimbo worrying about elections, when to actually undo the web of control and general darkness would require a fight of monumental proportions against entrenched and corrupt forces of industry and military powers, staffed by countless thousands of people who not only like the power and money proffered by the current system, but who fear with Gothic instinct any movements which they feel would bring them even one step closer to having that perceived security removed from their lives. People would and do kill to maintain a distance from the things they fear most; Poverty and powerlessness in a world filled with sharks. And as erroneous as this fear is, they will kill you rather than face it. This is why I don't think anybody really has the wherewithal to win against the forces which Bush and those like him represent. --Most of the manipulation which keeps the slaves enslaved is subtle and unseen, but if people step up and rock the boat beyond a certain threshold, then the beast will not refrain from working in the open. Kennedy and MLK were examples of this, and one can see from evidence all around us that the dark forces have only become more powerfully entrenched since the Sixties.
I don't mean to destroy morale among people, but it is important to recognize the reality of the situation before one can hope to devise a means to navigate it successfully.
-FL
And you thought those "Do not remove under penalty of law" tags on your mattress were a joke? In my country, your mattress tags you.
Insightful and funny are really the same thing, except one has a punch line.
Even my tin foil hat?
please... let me sleep... a little more... yay, no longer annonmyous coward.
My favorite quote from the article is:
"Heady forecasts like these energize chip proponents, who insist that RFID will result in enormous savings for businesses. Each year, retailers lose $57 billion from administrative failures, supplier fraud and employee theft, according to a recent survey of 820 retailers by Checkpoint Systems, an RFID manufacturer that specializes in store security devices."
So, a company who makes RFID chips does a study showing the businesses lose $57 Billion every year? That sounds as reliable as some of the Business Software Alliance statements on losses from piracy. To call this self-serving would be an understatement.
That's all. You know what to do.
Short answer: Shoplifting prevention devices.
Longer answer: Don't assume that in the future the salesperson 'deactivating' your tags actually does so. (S)he will merely reprogram the tag from 'set off the burglary alarm' mode to 'tracking' mode, so competitors' shops, turnstiles, stairwells, gates etc. can track you whenever you wear the item.
The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
Addition:
(1) I don't mean those bulky plastic 'cases' hanging from the sleeves of shirts in the '90s, those are ancient history.
(2) You could be tracked anywhere you have to pass through a narrow space. Two 'coupled' antennas facing each other, where you have to pass between them, can theoretically double the distance at which the tag can be read.
The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
What I find so very interesting, and always have, is the "lack" of information being provided by these surveillance systems.
What is more concerning in a secured environment? The 999 objects that you can track visually and with RFID in a given area, or the ONE object you cannot track.
This is what has concerned me from the beginning. If all the sheeples around me are not fighting back and forcefully taking their privacy back, then I will certainly show up like a big red target on the security software that is running.
These software/hardware packages are becoming amazingly sophisticated to the point they analyze behavior of people and objects in the room. AI in the future is not some geeky pie-in-the-sky concept here. Genetic Algorithms, or step evolutionary algorithms are already here and incredibly impressive. Forget fuzzy logic and heuristics, these programs embody all of those methods and constantly improve.
The 100th gen of a Backgammon AI could barely beat a mentally challenged kid moving the pieces randomly. The Billionth Gen regularly defeated world champions. It's been awhile since we heard about the Chess AI machines, but the last I heard it was barely a draw.
So what happens in the future when you represent a big black hole of information walking around? What does that look like on a security interface?
Some rather sophisticated people talk about defeating/hacking/programming/deactivating RFID units around them, some in an automated fashion. Heh Heh.
So what if there was a literal application of that term, Black Hole? Can you imagine what the picture would like if there was a void in the security environment, that was interacting with other objects, AND deactivating/modifying other RFID like devices?
Different way to think about it, since maybe RFID is more of a threat to those that would attack it, then accept it.
Burn those little RFID devices to a crisp, I say. Sure, I can't fit my car in the budget model (not that it would probably even run after getting a nice jolt) but I can see putting my clothes in one as soon as they come from the store. That tales care of the "everything I wear" part of the surveillance. Now how do we take care of the remainder?
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
You go to radio shack and buy a metal foil wallet. It has an outside pocket of nylon for rfid cards you don't care about. Or it has a pocket on the inside so you just open the wallet and wave it at the reader.
Or if you are really ticked, you make a transmitter that listens for RFID triggering transmissions, and responds with a blast that knocks the RFID response detector off line. (wear your metal underwear.)
If you used multiple antennas you could in principle get a bearing on the source, and useing phased array transmission blast just the source. How practical would it be to build this into a brief case?
Put it in the back of a pickup with a fiberglass canopy. Knock out every RFID detector along your route.
(Ok, ok, So you need a welding generator as a power supply. So shoot me.)
Third Career: Tree Farmer Second Career: Computer Geek First Career: Teacher, Outdoor Instructor, Photographer.
If you can make reprogramable rfids ...
You're walking down the street, wearing a bunch of reprogramable rfids. The lamppost pings you and the people around you. Your receiver picks up responses at random. Reprograms your chips to imitate those around you. For the distance to the next lamp post, you become a mishmash of the people around you at the last post. Next post it happens again.
Of course now you can be tracked by the duplicated signals. You are a disturbance in the order.
Or you have a normal identity, and a false one. Get aboard a crowded bus. As you step off the bus, you switch to your false set of rfids.
Or you seek out other people who are wearing by chance reprogramable rfids. And you duplicate your ID onto them, so the RFID tracking system has 30 copies of you running around, and none of them are you. Do this a lot when you have nothing to hide, so that you are tagged as a shit disturber, but harmless in the system.
Third Career: Tree Farmer Second Career: Computer Geek First Career: Teacher, Outdoor Instructor, Photographer.
Privacy would not be a problem if we consumers were allowed to track ourselves and had complete ownership of our private data.
It would then be great if you could harness your own profile data to personalise every bit of digital content you get in contact with, from web browsing/searching, to mobile usage, to the adverts you see on TV and out in the street.
Corporations invest so much money into CRM systems, yet you only get the benefit of 'personalisation' from each company, whereas if you had your own data silo you could interface with everyone out there.
I'm glad this vision is shared by others. Doc Searls already coined the term VRM (Vendor Relationship Management) and started a community around ProjectVRM.
I still think the biggest challenge is to convince the corporations out there that they can trust such a paradigm-shifting concept, and as a result stop trying to invade our privacy.