RFID AND THE END OF PRIVACY

[Jcrowley]

RFID AND THE END OF PRIVACY, By Deniz Yeter
March 29, 2007


Wal-Mart, Target, IBM and the Department of Defense plan to chip, track and catalogue everything manufactured on planet Earth.

he widespread use of RFID tags on merchandise such as clothing would make it possible for the locations of people, animals and objects to be tracked on a global scale - a privacy invasion of Orwellian proportions. - US patent application 20020116274 for IBM, filed February 21, 2001. (1)

Imagine a world where everything is fitted with an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) spychip, containing a unique ID for each of the same product to differentiate it from others, and tracked in real time. It sounds far-fetched, but that is exactly what RFID companies like Accenture and the Auto-ID labs at MIT have been trying to do since 1999.

They're now backed with funding from over a hundred major corporations (2) including some big names like Coca-Cola, Kraft, CVS, Proctor and Gamble, Kelloggs, Best Buy, Home Depot, and even the US Postal Service.

http://carolynbaker.org/archives/rfid-and-the-end-of-privacy-by-deniz-yeter

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. uh, find them, and throw them down sewers

duh!

[Jcrowley]

2. Oh

"Around 20 million credit cards now have RFID placed within them without the knowledge of the consumer," she informed me. She said there is no sure-fire way to protect your information short of "cutting up your credit cards."

and

"Michelin Tires has begun to place RFID in all their tires," beginning in 2004.

Gonna be some clogged sewers. Then again maybe we could start a business for identifying these chips and extracting them from tires.

:crazy:

[CrazyOrangeCat]

4. Michelin Tires???

Damn.

Damn.

Damn.

[bryant69]

3. I read that as Reid and the end of privacy

Kept waiting for it to mention Senator Reid.

It's hard to know how to take this, because a certain element of this just makes sense; it is the logical next step. A bit like cloning I suppose; I can have all the reservations about it (and I do), but it seems like it will happen anyway.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[AndyTiedye]

5. What Happens to an RFID if You Put It In The…

or the or the

[napi21]

8. From what I've read, microwaving will fry the chip. It's supposed to be

one of only a few ways to destroy them. The other two include crushing it or puncturing it. Of course removal works, but you have to find it first!

[Dogmudgeon]

6. I think RFID is swell

It will be the ultimate system-jammer's opportunity of all time.

NOTHING will be safe. Within a few years, it will be possible to steal any item from any store, mess up any corporation's "customer" tracking database, and utterly mangle any attempt to implement police-state measures, all with a cheap "palmtop"-based setup.

The police and military, half of which are already disgusted at being impressed into Gestapo duty, will go back to old-fashioned espionage, criminalistics, and intelligence, by TALKING to people. Privacy can be maintained and enhanced with clever jamming, as well. RFID is a weak-assed technology, period.

I am with Carolyn Baker on her concerns, most of them, certainly. But she (as most anti-RFID activists) is too little aware of the possibility of RFID to be the Achilles' Heel of the Technological Surveillance State.

I'm not an electronics engineer, but RFID technical information is easy to find on-line, and it's a revelation to read through. If anyone seeks to use RFID as the means to total social control, they will soon be in the dock at the Hague ... or carried to the nearest tree.

--p!
I don't approve of violence. Just jamming.

[Swamp Rat]

11. AND, RFID info will likely be more useful on the black market.

Electronic mercenaries, hackers, etc. can sell the stolen info to rival companies, among other things.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

7. Um, interesting article. I'd hate to to have to figure out where

the "tracking stations" are located, although it would be infinitely worse to be the Tire and T shirt tracker.

BTW, they've been working on this for ???? years. Maybe time for a new project.

:hi: to all nearby traffic cameras, security survelliance systems and server traffic monitors. MKJ

[papau]

9. RFID's allow bombs near sidewalks specific to a given person - a reader is $20 so

use the reader to set off the bomb when the right RFID walks by.

[dysfunctional press]

10. someone has their tinfoil hat screwed on too tight again...

"I told her that with only four readers I would be able to track her entire 60-mile trip to our interview..."

considering the fairly minuscule range from which the rfid can be read- they would have to be extremely well-placed readers, that the target would have to come within very close proximity to.

these things are no more scary than a barcode. but then- there were some mental deficients that were scared of the implications of those, when they came out as well.