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July 23, 2010
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The retail giant Wal-Mart will place radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags on underwear, jeans and other consumer items, according to several news reports, including one today from the Wall Street Journal. Companies have long used such "smart tags" to keep track of the inventory of goods going through the supply chain, but the move by Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, to put them on individual consumer items marks a (not unexpected) shift toward something that privacy advocates have long feared.
That’s because RFID tags, which can be read at a distance and hence surreptiously, can provide a lot of personal information even if it does not carry it per se. Katherine Albrecht, a privacy and RFID expert who has been following the issue for years, described in a special privacy issue of Scientific American just how the tags pose new security risks to those who carry them, often unwittingly. Here’s an excerpt:
If the idea that corporations might want to use RFID tags to spy on individuals sounds far-fetched, it is worth considering an IBM patent filed in 2001 and granted in 2006. The patent describes exactly how the cards can be used for tracking and profiling even if access to official databases is unavailable or strictly limited. Entitled “Identification and Tracking of Persons Using RFID-Tagged Items in Store Environ ments,” it chillingly details RFID’s potential for surveillance in a world where networked RFID readers called “person tracking units” would be incorporated virtually everywhere people go—in “shopping malls, airports, train stations, bus stations, elevators, trains, airplanes, restrooms, sports arenas, libraries, theaters, [and] museums”—to closely monitor people’s movements.
According to the patent, here is how it would work in a retail environment: an “RFID tag scanner located [in the desired tracking loca tion]… scans the RFID tags on [a] person…. As that person moves around the store, different RFID tag scanners located throughout the store can pick up radio signals from the RFID tags carried on that person and the movement of that person is tracked based on these detections…. The person tracking unit may keep records of different locations where the person has visited, as well as the visitation times.”
The fact that no personal data are stored in the RFID tag does not present a problem, IBM explains, because “the personal information will be obtained when the person uses his or her credit card, bank card, shopper card or the like.” The link between the unique RFID num ber of the tag and a person’s identity needs to be made only once for the card to serve as a proxy for the person thereafter.…
A tracking infrastructure will become increas ingly fruitful to marketers as more people begin carrying, and even wearing, RFID-tagged items. At present, tens of millions of contactless credit and ATM cards containing RFID tags are in cir culation, along with millions of employee access badges. RFID-based public-transit passes, wide ly used in Europe and Japan, are also coming to U.S. cities. IBM’s person tracking unit is still only a patent, but an English amusement park called Alton Towers provides a living illustration of RFID’s tracking potential. On entering the park, each visitor is offered an RFID wristband encod ed with a unique ID number. As people enjoy the attractions, a network of RFID readers placed strategically throughout the park detects each wristband as it comes within range and triggers nearby video cameras. Candid footage of each individual is stored in a file labeled with the wrist band ID number, then made available to the cus tomer on a keepsake DVD at the end of the day.
(You can read the entire article, "How RFID Tags Could Be Used to Track Unsuspecting People," if you have a digital subscription; the title of the print version is "RFID Tag—You’re It".)
Wal-Mart has stated it recognizes that issue, but the fact is, it can play Big Brother if it wants to. And if the tagging system proves worthwhile to Wal-Mart, then other retailers are likely to follow, creating many possible points of personal intrusion.
There is a positive note: Wal-Mart is installing the tags so that they are removable. For privacy’s sake, let’s hope that feature remains permanent.
Image of RFID chip by Maschinenjunge via Wikimedia Commons.
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PsiWavefunction Eg. disappearance of unscented deodorant at my local Kroger. Any brand. None there. Period. Why!? PsiWavefunction One thing I noticed about the US: a fuckton of variety in stores, but paucity of anything I actually like. PsiWavefunction A Canadian-->US culture shock example: no tonic at convenience stores or gas stations o.O But it's the best pop out there!
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"There is a positive note: Wal-Mart is installing the tags so that they are removable. For privacy’s sake, let’s hope that feature remains permanent."
Hope has little to do about this. The suckers will beacon at the right frequency. We’ve seen the crotch kamikaze next to come, the snitch one.
Link to thisI suppose the next big market are personal RFID scanners. Just a little device that beeps when you walk by, so you can then to the bug-dance to find and kill it.
Then, it’s shielded wallets that block the RFIDs we do want to carry…
Oh, who am I kidding, the young people today don’t care, they want everyone to know where they are, what they’re doing. They deliberately connect to tracking services so they can cooperate in real time. It’s only us old people that will be freaking out about privacy… the kids will be laughing at us with our tinfoil hats (or wallets).
Link to thisI remove all tags from everything I buy once I get to my car – I don’t think I’ll need my tinfoil hat – anyway privacy is such a bourgeoisie concept (now who said that?)
Link to this"It’s only us old people that will be freaking out about privacy"
True, we have knowledge of what tyranny is. Many of us have read Brave New World and 1984 and we remember the 20th century’s endless strife.
In my opinion, this isn’t as much a matter of privacy than it is a question of what assumptions can be made from herd tracking devices? Social engineering is based on unaccounted for methods and skewed World views.
Ultimately it is the individual perspective which will get eroded away, for those for whom this won’t work, DSM4 adds new mental diseases every year.
Oh, Brave New World where freedom of mind and spirit will be a flaw to correct. A lifelong static IP at birth and happy dust…
Link to thisI’ve already got that under control. I stopped wearing underwear after the military stopped ordering me around and I always take a knife to those scratchy tags; I’ll also start running a magnet over all my g-strings and prune-cups.
Link to this@James
Some people are aware of possible consequences.
The only thing that would get me to consent to be tagged would be LGMs going around looking like us and we had to tell them apart from us
Limits of consent and physical integrity should be tested in court before the use becomes too spread or we’ll get stuck with more regulations instead of a ruling.
Who will watch the watchmen is recursive. People can look after themselves.
The "taggers" want real time data to refine models at demographic levels. At this level individual wishes and wants are irrelevant.
The data derived from the models isn’t. It is used to create social frames and is reintroduced in predictive models.
Democracy is challenged by these uses of technology.
Link to thisUGGG ! I knew there was a reason for returning to cash….
Link to thisOh, that’s right – they will put RFIDs in money too, eh?
Some of us have read 1985, and recognize it as a commentary, not a warning novel. I bet we’ve read it more recently too. RFIDs are just another method of tracking purchases, item usage, etc. I look forward to the day when my RFID milk tells my internet fridge, to email me an expiration notice at work, so I can pick some up on my way home. Perhaps I check the last size of clothing my wife bought for my kids, when I notice a sale. The positives outweigh the negatives here, don’t hinder innovation and progress with doomsday Big Brother talk. If worse comes to worse, my generation has trained extensively with state of the art first person shooters, we’d enjoy a good revolution
Link to thisSome of us have read 1985, and recognize it as a commentary, not a warning novel. I bet we’ve read it more recently too. RFIDs are just another method of tracking purchases, item usage, etc. I look forward to the day when my RFID milk tells my internet fridge, to email me an expiration notice at work, so I can pick some up on my way home. Perhaps I check the last size of clothing my wife bought for my kids, when I notice a sale. The positives outweigh the negatives here, don’t hinder innovation and progress with doomsday Big Brother talk. If worse comes to worse, my generation has trained extensively with state of the art first person shooters, we’d enjoy a good revolution
Link to thisParanoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Step outta line, the men come, and take you away
- Buffalo Springfield
The crazy thing about people who are afraid that the government will take away their freedoms is that they believe they have freedom now. The US is a classic example of Cowslip’s Warren.
Link to thisSounds like one of wal-mart’s recruitment ad.
Link to thisI briefly worked with Ms. Albrecht on her site around 2002 or so and had the opportunity to converse with her via email on a few occasions. She struck me as being entirely dedicated to her cause and it seems, a bit ahead of her time. When she first started, her warnings fell on deaf ears to all but the most fringe of information seekers. But now that reality is forming into a similar scenario to her fears, she is recognized by the mainstream as having a valid voice (hence the SciAm article). Bless her heart for howling into the darkness for so long.
As for the "young one" who read 1985
– it’s 1984, and you must not have read it too thoroughly or you would have known that and just how iconic those four digits have become. I am glad you are so comfortable with your monitored life and the prospect of even deeper monitoring. It will help you accept it once the inevitable monitoring reaches a saturation point so horrifying that even you might cringe at it.
In the meantime, us old coots (I am only 35), will continue to cringe at each innovation that compromises our privacy, and speak against such a nightmare future scenario.
Of course this issue is only one of a mammoth handful of insidious problems plaguing our world today. The young generation do not realize how deeply things have been altered in society and for the planet in general, in the past 30 or so years. It’s a shame really, that in this case, ignorance is not bliss but an uneducated, unwitting, tacit approval of the way things are becoming.
To those who know, keep howling into the darkness, no matter how futile………
Link to thisFINALLY! Praise is due for giving people even more reason to deter from shopping at WalChina. This "could" help the U.S.A. get closer to net-zero trading!!! hah! Dreams…
Link to thisThe problem is not surveillance, but incompetent use of the information. If Wall Mart wishes to use RFID info they will probably believe the output, even if it is uncertain. They will probably not care if they make a few mistakes.
Link to thisThis becomes a major problem if authorities do the same. If my actions are all recorded there is some likelihood that they will match someone else’s and that he and I can be confused by a program that only looks for one match. With enough people this will be a statistical certainty.
Not identity theft but identity replacement may mean that I must prove that a complex system has misidentified me. The effort to understand whether this has happened may turn out to be too great, leaving me with no recourse.
Remember paranoids have enemies too – maybe more than most !
A better response than discarding the tags is to keep them ans swap them amongst ourselves at totally random intervals. If they didn’t ask our permission to collect data they can scarcely complain if we decide to screw with their system.
Link to thisDear robert,
I have read 1984 but not 1985
More to the point-can I bugger the bug by zapping it in the Microwave?
Link to thisWould first make item moist.
Would passing the tagged article over an induction heater not fry it? I would expect that it should be very easy to disable such a tag. Suggestions from the electronics buffs are awaited.
Link to thisthis seems possible to legislate.
Link to thiswe Should be certain that the law knows enough to make them removeable-
Link to thishow hard could that be?