they want you to "resign yourself to the inevitability of RFID"

[Nordic]

Corporations know they've got to use heavy PR (lies) in order to put RFID's on everything.

Here's a great website which shows "sensitive" documents from inside the corporations themselves:

http://www.spychips.com/press-releases/security_gaffe.html



 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 7, 2003

RFID Site Security Gaffe Uncovered by Consumer Group
CASPIAN asks, "How can we trust these people with our personal data?"

CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) says anyone can download revealing documents labeled "confidential" from the home page of the MIT Auto-ID Center web site in two mouse clicks.

The Auto-ID Center is the organization entrusted with developing a global Internet infrastructure for radio frequency identification (RFID). Their plans are to tag all the objects manufactured on the planet with RFID chips and track them via the Internet.

Privacy advocates are alarmed about the Center's plans because RFID technology could enable businesses to collect an unprecedented amount of information about consumers' possessions and physical movements. They point out that consumers might not even know they're being surveilled since tiny RFID chips can be embedded in plastic, sewn into the seams of garments, or otherwise hidden.

"How can we trust these people with securing sensitive consumer information if they can't even secure their own web site?" asks CASPIAN Founder and Director Katherine Albrecht.

"It's ironic that the same people who assure us that our private data will be safe because 'Internet security is very good, and it offers a strong layer of protection'

(snip)

Among the "confidential" documents available on the web site are slide shows discussing the need to "pacify" citizens who might question the wisdom of the Center's stated goal to tag and track every item on the planet,

mirrored at: http://cryptome.org/rfid/communications.pdf


along with findings that 78% of surveyed consumers feel RFID is negative for privacy and 61% fear its health consequences.

http://cryptome.org/rfid/pk-fh.pdf


PR firm Fleischman-Hillard's confidential "Managing External Communications" suggests a variety of strategies to help the Auto-ID Center "drive adoption" and "neutralize opposition," including the possibility of renaming the tracking devices "green tags." It also lists by name several key lawmakers, privacy advocates, and others whom it hopes to "bring into the Center's 'inner circle.'"

mirrored at: http://cryptome.org/rfid/external_comm.pdf


Despite the overwhelming evidence of negative consumer attitudes toward RFID technology revealed in its internal documents, the Auto-ID Center hopes that consumers will be "apathetic" and "resign themselves to the inevitability of it" instead of acting on their concerns.

mirrored at: http://cryptome.org/rfid/cam-autoid-eb002.pdf


Consumer citizens who are not feeling apathetic will be pleased to learn that the site provides names and contact information for the corporate executives who oversee the Center's efforts. Since the phone list isn't labeled "confidential," we're assuming that Auto-ID Center Board members are open to calls and mail that might help them better understand public opinion on this important subject.

Anyone interested in speaking with Dick Cantwell, the Gillette VP who heads the Center's Board of Overseers, for example, can find his direct office number listed on the Auto-ID Center's website here:

mirrored at: http://cryptome.org/rfid/226691160-list_board_of_overseers.pdf


To experience the Auto-ID Center's security holes firsthand, simply visit the web site at http://www.autoidcenter.org and type "confidential" in the site search box. The Center encourages such site exploration: "Our website has Research Papers and other information that anyone can download for free. There is also a Sponsors Only area of the site, which includes information and materials not available to the public at large. We encourage you to visit our site frequently to stay
up to date with the Center's many activities."

Following are other examples of sensitive documents available at the
site:

February 27, 2003 Board minutes:

http://www.autoidcenter.com/media/feb03_board/joint_minutes_feb03.pdf
http://cryptome.org/rfid/joint_minutes_feb03.pdf




ONS server schematics:

http://www.autoidcenter.com/media/feb03_board/oatsystems.pdf
http://cryptome.org/rfid/oatsystems.pdf




EMS documentation:

http://www.autoidcenter.com/media/software.pdf
http://cryptome.org/rfid/software.pdf




Doumentation of RFID field tests:

http://www.autoidcenter.com/media/field_test_nov02.pdf
http://cryptome.org/rfid/field_test_nov02.pdf

[rkc3]

1. Sounds like it's from "They Live" - starring Rowdy Roddy Piper.

Consume more. Smile. Be Polite. Shop. Shop. Shop.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. There's this very creepy company which is run by an Indian

and I do believe is located in the U.S. The guy sells private information. He has this idea that people are suspicious of each other because they don't know information on their neighbors. So he sells all kinds of personal information. Of course, there was no mention that he would take personal responsibility for what stalkers might do with that information or vicious gossips, for that matter.

I found it creepy on several grounds. First, because someone who obviously was not born in this country is making money out of digging into our private lives and; secondly, because this country is letting him do it.

We really do need to take our country back. It's becoming very obvious that there are three countries that are getting around our freedoms now that Bush, the corporate raider, is in office: China & India & Mexico.

Don't know what lobby groups these countries have, but they appear to be pretty strong with this administration.

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. Your case for Xenophobia is very, very weak

Sorry, but the facts you provide do not support your conclusion.




http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13
Buttons for brainy people - educate your local freepers today!

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Oh, so which country do you live in?

China: Has been buying our debt to the point that it will soon be in a position to tell Bush what to do. The fact that the Carlisle group is also buying Chinese corporations is an indication that the hoodlums at the top see it as a soon emerging economic force.

India: Not just outsourcing, but also personal experience of what they're capable of doing in a lawless economic environment, where decision makers aren't held responsible for their actions.

Mexico: The legal aliens that are here (Mexicans and otherwise) are the biggest losers in this new effort from Bush to give status to illegal aliens. Most of that pressure came from Fox's relationship with Bush.

Those are the basis of my opinions. Now refute them.

[Cronus Protagonist]

12. Nope. I don't do tasks for people without payment

I have a better idea. You get to keep your racist xenophobic point of view and I'll stay out if your small little white world.

*plonk*

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. hahaha! You should stop stereotyping.

I'm not white. Has it ever occurred to you that different cultures do things differently and it's the clash of cultures on a global scale which has been eroding our American way of life?

I'm not faulting first-generation immigrants for not knowing the rules, I'm faulting our society for not setting a better example.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. By the way, the Fuck the South

article on your webpage sounds a bit, er..xenophobic?

[sweetheart]

4. fancy bar codes

RFID has some issues in practice. One is that several chips
together each, when targeted with an electric field, transmit their
ID's in a collision, and this takes "time" to sort out, as would
be the case of rolling a supermarket trolly full of RFID-marked goods
through a reader... the ultimate wet dream of the RFID folks to
end supermarket checkouts.

This is not working yet, as anyone who still has a checkout can attest. As well, the reader distance to the chip is pretty close,
and most would perfer VERY close as in inches or less. Being
tracked as you walk around with an RFID in your sweater is a bit
beyond what commercial systems do.

Frankly, RFID's are hyped up barcodes, that have advantages barcodes
don't have, namely reading from any angle and less probability with
fraud. If you want to revive privacy, then we need some privacy laws
around keeping data on individuals. The corporate voluntary code
is a wash, and privacy should be legislated. THat RFID's are any
part of this? i'm skeptical.

It only makes privacy advocates a bit loony with this "sky is falling"
talk about RFID's. The concern should legitimately be about
databases and corporate invasion of privacy, that is really wholly
beyond any individual technology.

[jmowreader]

5. Finally, someone gets it

Over on my RFID thread I explained what datamining is capable of doing--RFID or no RFID.

Let's say I was Crisco Johnny and I wanted to find out everything I possibly could about...oh, you. By using information that is in databases RIGHT NOW, I could find out:

* How many children you have, their approximate ages, and their genders
* How many fancy parties you attend every year (if you spend $30 to $50 on your haircut, haircare products and cosmetics every month, but you spend $300 four times a year, you attend four formal events every year)
* How many dinner parties you throw every year
* How reliable your car is
* Whether you have a blue-collar or white-collar job (one look at your dry-cleaning bill will tell me this)
* Do you drink, and what do you drink?

And more to the point, I can do all of this without a list of your family members, the name of your employer or your social calendar.

[The Straight Story]

9. I think the larger worry is centered around

National ID cards and elimination of cash. RFID people see as merely a step in this direction. Walk through the store, get your stuff, walk out, and your account is debited - no cash needed.

As we move to cashless society the worries become - if the admin does not like liberals maybe their money will have 'problems' (doubt this? think about arabs today and how lock downs are put on their funds if they are people of interest). All this would be easier in a society where cash is abolished.

An unclesam search has some things on this:
http://www.google.com/unclesam?hl=en&lr=&q=cashless+society&btnG=Google+Search

[sendero]

17. I've tried and tried...

... but a lot of people here want to ascribe capabilities to RFID that it does not have and won't have for the foreseeable future.

So they can scan my cart. Big fat hairy deal. I use a credit card for convenience for most purchases so they can already tie everything I bought with ME. This bothers me about this () much. Even if I didn't, what could they do with this magical cart-scan data? They can't even tie it to a person, all they know is that someone who bought an MP3 player also bought a CD. The implications!

For the record, I'm going to say this one more time. RFID is a passive technology. The little tags they put on things just sit there, they do not transmit ANYTHING. They can be read when they are within 10 feet (more or less) of a scanning device. They CANNOT drive by your house and read your tags. They CANNOT locate you like some GPS system.

No doubt those kinds of technologies will be available someday, but realisitically from a scientific and technological standpoint such a device would have to be pretty big because it has to actually TRANSMIT something. To do so requires a power source (battery) and there is just no way to make a really small battery that lasts any length of time, providing the kind of current it takes to transmit.

I'm going to save my outrage for when it is actually needed.

[strategery blunder]

7. Will it be possible for me to search/for and/or remove RFIDs

on the stuff I buy?

Say I buy some RFID-infested clothing...if I find an RFID, would I just be able to cut it off?

I don't care if I had holes in my shirt because of this--I'd probably cover them up with a sticker that said "An RFID was here," LOL:)

[Nordic]

8. probably not. They're too small

unless you had some kind of a device that would locate them

[disillusioned1]

10. How about nukin' clothing in the microwave? n/t

[billyskank]

18. That would probably work

[strategery blunder]

11. How small are they?

Like microscopic?:shrug:

[billyskank]

19. No, not that small

a millimetre square or so, I think.

[Fescue4u]

13. TWO WORDS - Microwave Oven

Frys'm quiet efficiently.

[AliciaKeyedUp]

14. What about RFID in metal

or things that melt?

No, the RFID's have to be deactivated upon leaving the store. Otherwise they won't be approved. Hell, I'll go out and get funding and start a non-RFID store and make a mint.

[Nihil]

20. Don't bother with the store ...

... just start selling hand-held RFID zappers ... bet there'll be a
market for them ...