Anyone watching "in the money" RIFD tags

[RB TexLa]

They are saying 5 years to get them on the floor of retailers in Germany. Why can't we get that done here now! That would be so great just push your shopping cart through the reader and there pops the total on a screen you swipe your card and done.

[niyad]

1. and you seriously think that having a chip like that, keeping track of

everything, is a good idea? WHY? are you not in the least worried about the possible misuses of such things?

[RB TexLa]

2. the misuse of a chip in my can of green beans?

OoooKaay

[liveoaktx]

3. Before you push for RFID in everything read the book "Spy Chips"

[bananas]

8. DemocracyNow! interview with the author

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/01/1447202&mode=thread&tid=25

Wednesday, March 1st, 2006
How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track your Every Move with Radio Frequency Identification

<snip>

AMY GOODMAN: We are also joined on the telephone by freelance journalist Annalee Newitz. She writes about the intersection of technology, science and culture, a contributing editor at Wired magazine. She's redefining ‘embedded journalist.’ She just had an RFID embedded in her arm. Welcome to Democracy Now!

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Hi.

AMY GOODMAN: It is good to have you with us. Can you explain what you did?

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Sure. So I had been researching an article for Wired about security issues and RFID's, and I read some publicity materials from Verichip in which the company claimed that its chip was -- couldn't be counterfeited, so it was the perfect anti-theft key because, you know, the implication was that no one could steal your keys without actually cutting off your arm -- although they didn't actually say that in the advertising materials. So that sounded very curious to me because I hadn't heard of any RFID's that were completely secure like that so I decided to find out if it was true. A very nice doctor at UCLA agreed to implant me with one of them, very quick operation, and then I visited with an RFID expert named Jonathan Westhughes who has a little Ipod-sized device that he made himself, a quite cheap homemade thing, and it is designed to clone RFID chips which means make a duplicate copy of them basically. And in about 10 minutes, we sat down in a restaurant, crowded place, and he was able to duplicate the signal from my RFID, which meant that if my RFID had been used to open vaults or locks, he would have been able to duplicate that signal simply by basically bumping into me with his device and then going ahead and using what he picked up from it to open up a door.

<snip>

[MADem]

13. How about in your clothing, your shoes, that can be read at some distance?

You walk into a store, and a voice from a tannoy screams out, Hi RGBOLEN, how'd you like to replace that ratty underwear you've got on? We've got a sale going on, you'll find them in aisle five!!! Oh, and incontinence pads are on sale as well--stock up now, based on your buying habits, you're likely running low!!!

If you like corporate thugs knowing that much about you, well, you'll probably get your wish. I'll pay cash, and do my best to avoid that kind of merchandise as much as I can.

[liveoaktx]

17. Minority Report

[Not Me]

4. RFID tags are a mixed blessing

I work at a library and there is a movement to automate the whole check out/check in process with RFID tags. The added bonus is that staff could easily find a mis-shelved item, go down the shelves and weed out materials that haven't circulated, etc. They also provided a great anti-theft advantage.

All that said, the technology can be used as a tool to track the tagged item in such a way as to infringe on personal privacy rights of people. It can be a tough balance.

[napi21]

5. Do you really want to be that quick to accept that?

I agree, it would be great at saving time and effort, but...haven't you ever encountered a problem with an item scanning wrong NOW? How would you know?

My husband is a meat cutter at a large supermarket chain, and he tells me all the time about items that were simply entered into the store's computer system at the wrong price! I don't think it's intentional, but humans make mistakes!

I love automation as much as anyone, but I'm just quite ready to accept turning over all control to a piece of equipment. I want to still be able to watch EVERYTHING as it's being scanned, so I can catch any mistakes that might happen along the way!

[seemunkee]

6. And the next time you walk into a store with one embedded

They will automatically know who you are, what you bought before, what items you are wearing purchased somewhere else, etc.
No thanks.

[RB TexLa]

7. You have to remove them from clothing

before you have them dry cleaned.

[Gormy Cuss]

9. How exactly do you do that? Where is the chip?

They are the smaller than a speck of black pepper and can be imbedded in the garment, not the tag, for better theft prevention.

[liveoaktx]

11. You can't remove them... in fact, some manufacturers are having

them woven into the threads of the garment. You must not know how small these are and how they're embedded.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

18. That much easier for Big Brother to know where you are. They are also

small enough to place into vaccines.......

[soothsayer]

21. a few seconds in the microwave fries 'em!

[liveoaktx]

22. You aren't gonna stick your leather sofa in the microwave... nor the

gallon of milk you buy at the store. C'mon. Plus, in "Spy Chips, the authors ran experiments and said that microwaving does NOT disable the chips. The closest mess-with is a scrambler prototype that scrambles the RFID signals, but doesn't disable them.

[soothsayer]

23. Shoot! I so liked the idea. Guess we'll have to rely on hackers

to disable 'em.

[spindrifter]

10. There go more jobs!

W*lmart already uses this system. I would go for it only with high-value items such as the makings for a nuke warhead.

[RB TexLa]

12. Jobs?? OMG

and I guess the tractor was a horrible thing and should be outlawed because it got rid of so many jobs in farming.

Saying technology is getting rid of jobs is like someone rallying against electricity because it is going to ruin the candle industry and put all those candle workers out of a job.

[spindrifter]

15. That is an over-reaction.

I did not attack technology as getting rid of jobs.

[slaveplanet]

14. caste system on a chip

Once the system is fully functional, and all retail checkers are eliminated. The possibility exists to have a certain class, receive a level of discount down to practically no charge. While the "inferior" class will be shouldered with the ever increasing full advertised price or full advertised "sale" price in order to balance the offset given to the "superior" class. You will never know if the person in front of you is paying the same price for the same items.
This is ONLY possible with a full RFID, but they are already running prototype schemes with the shopper cards.

Buying everything will be like how we now buy insurance. Everything from your past will be taken into account in order to determine the final price.

[liveoaktx]

16. Right. Now, if you don't want to be privy to the shopper card, you

can go somewhere else (only because there still are some stores that don't play the Loyalty game). But when RFID is ubiquitous, there will be no way to opt out and we won't know what prices we pay versus someone else.

[MADem]

20. Those loyalty cards are obnoxious

I always sign up using my dog's name, and give him an advanced degree, too!

Amazing how many credit card companies want to give the pooch a great rate, or car companies that think he'd like to drive a gas guzzler...he gets more mail than I do!

[liveoaktx]

19. Adding-I like your description-it IS a caste system on a chip