RFID Spychips! Grocery Store Surveillance
Privacy Storm Over RFID Chips by Mike Banks Valentine
American consumers
RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification and is a term
that will become increasingly well known as usage of the new
technology becomes pervasive. There is no question that the tiny
chips, which enable tracking of physical goods from the assembly
line to warehouse to retail outlet to checkstand, will replace
the barcodes previously used for that purpose.
Some RFID chips are tiny, they are nearly indistiguishable from
dust in many cases. Photo link:
These dust sized RFID chips are capable of transmitting their
own SKU (Sales Keeping Unit), the same info currently encoded in
barcodes, distances of up to 20 feet to an "RFID Reader". But
that's not all these diminuitive little chips can do. They are
capable of sending a unique serial number that can identify the
item it's embedded in - down to it's date and location of
manufacture. Barcodes were limited to carrying information that
identified classes of products. RFID carries information
equivalent to the product DNA, while allowing a number for every
item on the planet!
When that item passes an "RFID reader" at the manufacturer's
door, the tracking system knows the item has passed out of the
building. Another reader signals that it has now passed into a
train or plane to be shipped to a warehouse, where another
reader tracks arrival and storage information, then successive
readers know it passes to truck, grocery shelf, retail check-
stand and out the door. All of this can now be accomplished
without opening containers, leading to huge cost savings
throughout the "supply chain".
Privacy issues don't arise until consumers link that chain.
Walmart is now REQUIRING their 100 largest suppliers to use RFID
tags at the pallet level. Meaning that those tags are currently
in use to identify and track groups of products as they arrive
at the Walmart warehouse up until shelving at the giant
retailer. Some products, such as Gillette razors, had been
testing individual item tracking up until final sale and removal
from the Walmart store. Privacy advocates slowed that practice
by launching a boycott of Gillette.
If the privacy concerns over tracking of a single product
through the store to sale caused slowing of implementation of
this technology, what can we expect when EVERY product is RFID
tagged? There is no doubt this is coming and not in the distant
future, but within the next 5 years or so. The US Department of
Defense is now requiring ALL vendors to use RFID technology and
embed tags in products sold to the US military by next year.
Clearly there will be little or no outcry from military and
government personnel about privacy invading technology since
government is rarely expected to respect privacy "in-house". But
if all military vendors are compelled to use RFID chips in every
item used in every one of the millions of supplies sold to and
used by the military - by next year, 2005 - then there is little
doubt that the entire US goverment will soon implement this same
policy for all items purchased by Uncle Sam and used by
government employees.
More and more giant retailers like Walmart are requiring
suppliers to use RFID technology. The German chain Metro Group,
which operates 2300 stores in Europe and Asia has demanded the
same of their suppliers. Metro Group has gone even further with
RFID to operate what they call the "Store of the future" where
shoppers needn't remove items from shopping carts to pay for
them. They simply pass by RFID readers and all items will be
tallied and paid for. Metro stores provide RFID tagged "loyalty
cards" to consumers that identifies those shoppers by reading
within purses and wallets as those consumers enter and leave any
of the 2300 Metro stores.
Business Week Article on Metro
Future Stores Protest
Target Stores announced this month that they too, would be
requiring suppliers to RFID tag at the pallet and case level by
2005.
Privacy loving Americans may not stand for the "Big Brother"
implications of a system like that used by the German retail
chain. An anti-RFID web site has been launched by privacy
advocates and named "Spychips" for the ability of the chips to
track consumers and link their buying habits to other personally
identifiable information.
A recent piece by technology commentator Jeffrey Harrow has a
chilling description of how RFID technology might betray
consumers movements and link their buying habits in a huge
database. Harrow is a consultant and analyst of emerging
technology. He often comments on privacy implications related to
implementation of emerging technology.
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Harrow paints a harrowing picture of RFID readers.
"The issue is that these many sensors . . . would also note the
passing of your car key's unique ID; the unique ID of your
driver's license, and even the unique ID of each and every
dollar bill in your wallet. ... And if all the chains' main
computers and those of smaller stores made this mass of random
information available to say, a Marketing firm, or to other
stores along your path (for a fee, of course), or to a
government organization upon demand, then a very detailed
picture of "You" - your travel habits, your spending habits
(remember those individually tagged dollar bills?), almost
everything about you, could be mixed, matched and dissected in
ways that you might, or might not, agree with. This might be the
ultimate "data mining" warehouse."
Harrow Technology Report
RFID is publicly discussed only by technology enthusiasts like
Harrow and a few privacy advocates concerned about the
implications of that "data mining warehouse". But as those RFID
chips supplant barcodes over the next couple of years, we'll be
hearing from privacy advocates when the Big Brother implications
become clearer to consumers. Mark your calendar for early in
2005 and prepare to weather the coming storm of privacy concerns
that could reach hurricane proportions.