My RSS Feeds
RFID: Radio Frequency Identification/ Spy Chips - National ID Card Monitors Your Every Move - 1984 Is Here Now! - RI10
RFID: Radio Frequency
Identification/
Spy Chips -
National ID Card Monitors
Your Every Move -
1984 Is Here Now! –RI10
RFID
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID
An EPC RFID tag used for Wal-Mart
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. An RFID tag is a small object that can be attached to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person. RFID tags contain silicon chips and antennas to enable them to receive and respond to radio-frequency queries from an RFID transceiver. Passive tags require no internal power source, whereas active tags require a power source.
History of RFID tags
An RFID tag used for electronic toll collection
In 1945 Léon Theremin invented an espionage tool for the Soviet government. Even though this device was a passive covert listening device, not an identification tag, it has been attributed the first known device and a predecessor to RFID technology. The technology used in RFID has been around since the early 1920s according to one source (although the same source states that RFID systems have been around just since the late 1960s).
A similar technology, the IFF transponder, was invented by the British in 1939, and was routinely used by the allies in World War II to identify airplanes as friend or foe.
Another early work exploring RFID is the landmark 1948 paper by Harry Stockman, titled "Communication by Means of Reflected Power" (Proceedings of the IRE, pp 1196-1204, October 1948). Stockman predicted that "...considerable research and development work has to be done before the remaining basic problems in reflected-power communication are solved, and before the field of useful applications is explored." It required thirty years of advances in many different fields before RFID became a reality.
Types of RFID tags
RFID tags can be either passive, semi-passive (also known as semi-active), or active.
Passive
Passive RFID tags have no internal power supply. The minute electrical current induced in the antenna by the incoming radio frequency signal provides just enough power for the CMOS integrated circuit (IC) in the tag to power up and transmit a response. Most passive tags signal by backscattering the carrier signal from the reader. This means that the aerial (antenna) has to be designed to both collect power from the incoming signal and also to transmit the outbound backscatter signal. The response of a passive RFID tag is not just an ID number (GUID): tag chip can contain nonvolatile EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) for storing data. Lack of an onboard power supply means that the device can be quite small: commercially available products exist that can be embedded under the skin. As of 2006, the smallest such devices measured 0.15 mm Å~ 0.15 mm, and are thinner than a sheet of paper (7.5 micrometers). The smallest EPC chips (the one used by Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense) are measured at 0.25 millimeters square; such devices (without their required antenna) are practically invisible. The addition of the antenna creates a tag that varies from the size of postage stamp to the size of a post card. Passive tags have practical read distances ranging from about 2 mm (ISO 14443) up to about few meters (EPC and ISO 18000-6) depending on the chosen radio frequency and antenna design/size. Due to their simplicity in design they are also suitable for manufacture with a printing process for the antennae. Passive RFID tags do not require batteries, and can be much smaller and have an unlimited life span. Non-silicon tags made from polymer semiconductors are currently being developed by several companies globally. Simple laboratory printed polymer tags operating at 13.56 MHz were demonstrated in 2005 by both PolyIC (Germany) and Philips (Holland). If successfully commercialized, polymer tags will be roll printable, like a magazine, and much less expensive than silicon-based tags.
Because passive tags are cheaper to manufacture and have no battery, the majority of RFID tags in existence are of the passive variety. As of 2005, these tags cost an average of Euro 0.20 ($0.24 USD) at high volumes. Today, as universal RFID tagging of individual products become commercially viable at very large volumes, the lowest cost tags available on the market are as low as 7.2 cents each in volumes of 10 million units or more. Current demand for RFID integrated circuit chips is expected to grow rapidly based on these prices.
Semi-passive
Semi-passive RFID tags are very similar to passive tags except for the addition of a small battery. This battery allows the tag IC to be constantly powered. This removes the need for the aerial to be designed to collect power from the incoming signal. Aerials can therefore be optimized for the backscattering signal. Semi-passive RFID tags are faster in response and therefore stronger in reading ratio compared to passive tags.
Active
Unlike passive and semi-passive RFID tags, active RFID tags (also known as beacons) have their own internal power source, which is used to power any ICs and generate the outgoing signal. They are often called beacons because they broadcast their own signal. They may have longer range and larger memories than passive tags, as well as the ability to store additional information sent by the transceiver. To economize power consumption, many beacon concepts operate at fixed intervals. At present, the smallest active tags are about the size of a coin. Many active tags have practical ranges of tens of meters, and a battery life of up to 10 years.
The RFID system
An RFID system may consist of several components: tags, tag readers, edge servers, middleware, and application software.
The purpose of an RFID system is to enable data to be transmitted by a mobile device, called a tag, which is read by an RFID reader and processed according to the needs of a particular application. The data transmitted by the tag may provide identification or location information, or specifics about the product tagged, such as price, color, date of purchase, etc. The use of RFID in tracking and access applications first appeared during the 1980s. RFID quickly gained attention because of its ability to track moving objects. As the technology is refined, more pervasive and possibly invasive uses for RFID tags are in the works.
In a typical RFID system, individual objects are equipped with a small, inexpensive tag. The tag contains a transponder with a digital memory chip that is given a unique electronic product code. The interrogator, an antenna packaged with a transceiver and decoder, emits a signal activating the RFID tag so it can read and write data to it. When an RFID tag passes through the electromagnetic zone, it detects the reader's activation signal. The reader decodes the data encoded in the tag's integrated circuit (silicon chip) and the data is passed to the host computer. The application software on the host processes the data, often employing Physical Markup Language (PML).
Take the example of books in a library. Security gates can detect whether or not a book has been properly checked out of the library. When users return items, the security bit is re-set and the item record in the Integrated library system is automatically updated. In some RFID solutions a return receipt can be generated. At this point, materials can be roughly sorted into bins by the return equipment. Inventory wands provide a finer detail of sorting. This tool can be used to put books into shelf-ready order.
Current usage
* Talking Prescriptions - 13.56 MHz tags are being placed on prescriptions for Visually Impaired Veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient pharmacies are now supplying the tags with label information stored inside that can be read by a battery powered, talking prescription reader. This reader speaks information such as: Drug Name; Instruction; Warnings; etc. ["Scriptalk" http://www.envisionamerica.com/scriptalk.htm]
* Low-frequency RFID tags are commonly used for animal identification. Pets can be implanted with small chips so that they may be returned to their owners if lost. Beer kegs are also tracked with LF RFID. Two RFID frequencies are used in the United States: 125 kHz (the original standard) and 134.2 kHz (the international standard).
The Canadian Cattle Identification Agency began using RFID tags as a replacement for barcode tags. The tags are required to identify a bovine's herd of origin and this is used for trace-back when a packing plant condemns a carcass. Currently CCIA tags are used in Wisconsin and by US farmers on a voluntary basis. The USDA is currently developing its own program.Image:CCIA tags.jpg
* High-frequency RFID tags are used in library book or bookstore tracking, pallet tracking, building access control, airline baggage tracking, and apparel item tracking. High-frequency tags are widely used in identification badges, replacing earlier magnetic stripe cards. These badges need only be held within a certain distance of the reader to authenticate the holder. The American Express Blue credit card now includes a high-frequency RFID tag, a feature American Express calls ExpressPay.
* UHF RFID tags are commonly used commercially in pallet and container tracking, and truck and trailer tracking in shipping yards.
* Microwave RFID tags are used in long-range access control for vehicles.
* RFID tags are used for electronic toll collection at toll booths with Georgia's Cruise Card, California's FasTrak, Illinois' I-Pass, the expanding eastern states' E-ZPass system, Florida's SunPass, Massachusetts' Fast Lane, The "Cross-Israel Highway" (Highway 6), Philippines South Luzon Expressway E-Pass, Brisbane's Gateway Motorway E-Toll in Australia, Central Highway (Autopista Central) in Chile and all highways in France (Liber-T system). The tags are read remotely as vehicles pass through the booths, and tag information is used to debit the toll from a prepaid account. The system helps to speed traffic through toll plazas as it records the date, time, and billing data for the RFID vehicle tag.
* Sensors such as seismic sensors may be read using RFID transceivers, greatly simplifying remote data collection.
* Location sensing of RFID with millimeter accuracy is possible by adding a low cost photosensor. The real time location sensing (RTLS) supports many complex geometric queries.
* In January 2003, Michelin began testing RFID transponders embedded into tires. After a testing period that is expected to last 18 months, the manufacturer will offer RFID-enabled tires to car makers. Their primary purpose is tire-tracking in compliance with the United States Transportation, Recall, Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation Act (TREAD Act).
* Some smart cards embedded with RFID chips are used as electronic cash, e.g. SmarTrip in Washington, DC, USA, EasyCard in Taiwan, Suica in Japan, T-Money in South Korea, Octopus Card in Hong Kong, and the Netherlands and Oyster Card on the London Underground in the United Kingdom to pay fares in mass transit systems and/or retails.
* Starting with the 2004 model year, a Smart Key/Smart Start option became available to the Toyota Prius. Since then, Toyota has been introducing the feature on various models around the world under both the Toyota and Lexus brands, including the Toyota Avalon (2005 model year), Toyota Camry (2007 model year), and the Lexus GS (2006 model year). The key uses an active RFID circuit, which allows the car to acknowledge the key's presence within approximately 3 feet of the sensor. The driver can open the doors and start the car while the key remains in a purse or pocket.
* In August 2004, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRH) approved a $415,000 contract to evaluate the personnel tracking technology of Alanco Technologies. Inmates will wear wristwatch-sized transmitters that can detect if prisoners have been trying to remove them and send an alert to prison computers. This project is not the first such rollout of tracking chips in US prisons. Facilities in Michigan, California and Illinois already employ the technology.
RFID mandates
Wal-Mart and the United States Department of Defense have published requirements that their vendors place RFID tags on all shipments to improve supply chain management. Due to the size of these two organizations, their RFID mandates impact thousands of companies worldwide. The deadlines have been extended several times because many vendors face significant difficulties implementing RFID systems. In practice, the successful read rates currently run only 80%, due to radio wave attenuation caused by the products and packaging. In time it is expected that even small companies will be able to place RFID tags on their outbound shipments.
Since January, 2005, Wal-Mart has required its top 100 suppliers to apply RFID labels to all shipments. To meet this requirement, vendors use RFID printer/encoders to label cases and pallets that require EPC tags for Wal-Mart. These smart labels are produced by embedding RFID inlays inside the label material, and then printing bar code and other visible information on the surface of the label.
Human implants
Amal Graafstra's left hand
with the planned location
of the RFID chip
Just after the operation
to insert the RFID tag
was completed
Implantable RFID chips designed for animal tagging are now being used in humans as well. An early experiment with RFID implants was conducted by British professor of cybernetics Kevin Warwick, who implanted a chip in his arm in 1998. Applied Digital Solutions proposes their chip's "unique under-the-skin format" as a solution to identity fraud, secure building access, computer access, storage of medical records, anti-kidnapping initiatives and a variety of law-enforcement applications. Combined with sensors to monitor body functions, the Digital Angel device could provide monitoring for patients. The Baja Beach Club, a nightclub in Barcelona Spain and in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, uses an implantable Verichip to identify their VIP customers, who in turn use it to pay for drinks.
In 2004, the Mexican Attorney General's office implanted 18 of its staff members with the Verichip to control access to a secure data room. (This number has been variously mis-reported as 160 or 180 staff members, though the correct number is actually 18.)
Amal Graafstra, a Washington native and business owner had a RFID chip implanted in his left hand in early 2005. The chip was 12 mm long by 2 mm in diameter and has a basic read range of two inches (5 cm). The implant procedure was conducted by a cosmetic surgeon, although the name of the doctor was not released. When asked what he planned to do with the implant Graafstra responded:
Because I'm writing my own software and soldering up my own stuff, pretty much anything I want.
Graafstra has since written a book called RFID Toys, which details how hobbyists and tech-types can create and build their own RFID enabled projects and solutions including: computer login, front door access, car and vehicle access, object tracking, etc.
http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=06/03/01/1447202
How Major Corporations and Government
Plan to Track your Every Move with Radio
Frequency Identification
Wednesday, March 1st, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/01/1447202
We speak with Liz McIntyre, author of "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track your Every Move with RFID" that examines radio frequency identification - a technology that uses tiny computer chips to track items at distance. Major corporations are working right now to install RFIDs on all consumer products. What about in you arm? Or in your kids? We also speak with freelance journalist Annalee Newitz who recently had an RFID implanted in her arm. [includes rush transcript]
"Imagine a world of no more privacy.
"Where your every purchase is monitored and recorded in a database, and your every belonging is numbered. Where someone many states away or perhaps in another country has a record of everything you have ever bought, of everything you have ever owned, of every item of clothing in your closet -- every pair of shoes. What's more, these items can even be tracked remotely.
"Once your every possession is recorded in a database and can be tracked, you can also be tracked and monitored remotely through the things you wear, carry and interact with every day.
"We may be standing on the brink of that terrifying world if global corporations and government agencies have their way. It's the world that Wal-Mart, Target, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, Kraft, IBM, and even the United States Postal Service want to usher in within the next ten years.
"It's the world of radio frequency identification.
"Radio frequency identification, RFID for short, is a technology that uses tiny computer chips -- some smaller than a grain of sand -- to track items at distance. If the master planners have their way, every object -- from shoes to cars -- will carry one of these tiny computer chips that can be used to spy on you without your knowledge or consent."
Those are the opening words of the book, "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track your Every Move with RFID." Today we are joined by one of the co-authors of "Spychips" - Liz McIntyre.
* Liz McIntyre, a consumer privacy expert and author of "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track your Every Move with RFID." She serves as the Communications Director for CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering), a grass-roots organization that has been tackling consumer privacy issues since 1999. She also writes about consumer issues as the MoneyMom, a syndicated family money writer and columnist.
- Website: Spychips.com
* Annalee Newitz, freelance journalist. She writes about the intersection of technology science and culture and is a contributing editor at Wired Magazine. She recently had an RFID implanted in her arm.
- Website: Techsploitation.com
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...
AMY GOODMAN: We welcome you to Democracy Now!
LIZ MCINTYRE: Hi, Amy. How are you?
AMY GOODMAN: It is good to have you with us.
LIZ MCINTYRE: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Why don't you tell us about what spy chips are?
LIZ MCINTYRE: Well, as you said, radio frequency identification, or RFID and they are very tiny computer chips. Some of these are smaller than a grain of sand, and they are connected to miniature antennas. The combination is called an RFID tag. Now each of these chips has a unique identification number. It is sort of like a Social Security Number for things in that the plan is that no other item would have a chip with the same number on it. Big companies you named like Procter and Gamble and Wal-Mart want one of these tags on every manufactured product on planet earth, and of course, there's a company called Verichip that would like one of these RFID devices in everyone's flesh.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, who is pushing this?
LIZ MCINTYRE: Well, right now the 800-pound gorilla of RFID in retail is Wal-Mart. Procter and Gamble is another big player. Basically any major company you can think of is very interested in the technology. Of course, also our own government is starting to put RFID tags in U.S. Passports this year. And we are concerned they may also try to use this in other ways. Already they are experimenting with the technology with the U.S. Visit program attaching RFID tags to visitor documents, and of course, recently, we revealed that we found an R.F.I., a Request for Information, that shows the Department of Homeland Security is looking for beefed up RFID that could be read from up to 25 feet away, that can be read in cars speeding by. So, potentially, a visitor who has an RFID tag on a document could be scanned without his knowledge or consent as he drives by. Of course, you know, RFID works with electromagnetic radio waves, sort of like the radio waves you listen to your favorite FM program on, your radio program, and they travel in space through solid objects like purses, backpacks, wallets, and these tags, while they are passive -- there's no battery -- any time they are within range of a reader device, this unique number can be scanned and you would never know it.
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 RFIDs, 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 RFIDs 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.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you back up a minute, Annalee. Describe the operation. The -- getting the implant, you mean?
AMY GOODMAN: Yes.
ANNALEE NEWITZ: So -- basically, the RFID is quite small. It’s just a Microchip attached to a very tiny antenna, and it’s imbedded in doped glass, that’s a surgical glass, that’s safe. It is just like the tags that you put into your pet or into your cow if you are a farmer. And they take a needle, a hollow needle, and basically just shoot the chip under your skin.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you still have this implant?
ANNALEE NEWITZ: I do, yes. Unfortunately, as it turns out, they are somewhat difficult to remove because they are so small that, although it is easy to put them in, the surgeon explained to me you kind of have to dig around a little bit to find it, to remove it. So, so far, yeah, I have kept it in.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you set off any alarms with it?
ANNALEE NEWITZ: No. You don't. Actually, the read range on these, the range that you need to be -- You need to be quite close to them to read them. So you really have to be within a couple of centimeters. So it isn’t going to set off anything particularly.
AMY GOODMAN: Liz McIntyre. Have you found that people who have these chips embedded in them might set off something, either in an airport or a drugstore, a metal detector?
LIZ MCINTYRE: I haven't heard any reports of that, no. In fact, there are very few people that have even gotten one of these things, been crazy enough to do it. So, you know, we don't have a lot of feedback on what the ultimate effects of this will be.
AMY GOODMAN: I understand that in New Orleans, they are putting these in corpses. Is that true?
LIZ MCINTYRE: Yes, after Hurricane Katrina, the coroner's office met with Verichip, and of course, Verichip was interested in promoting their technology, and they thought this was a great opportunity. It was like the vultures circling after the tragedy, and they swooped in with their Verichip equipment and had the coroners implant these chips into the remains of the victims and also into the remains of some of the deceased that had been washed up from their graves.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted the read to you from a piece in the Guardian, the headline is, “Girl to Get Tracker Implant to Ease Parents' Fears.” It says, “The parents of an 11-year-old girl are to take the extraordinary step of having her fitted with a microchip so that her movements can be traced if she's abducted. Danielle Duvall will have the device implanted in her arm in the next few months. The scientist assisting the plan claimed the miniature chip will apparently send a signal via a mobile phone network to a computer which will be able to pinpoint her location on an electronic map.” That was a piece written a few years ago. Liz McIntyre, is this a trend?
LIZ MCINTYRE: Actually, I spoke with a Verichip people about this. They actually are talking about at some point having people report back to some home station through the Verichip and some kind of a telephone system. They are very excited about the idea of parolees perhaps reporting to parole officers remotely through a combination of an implanted chip and a telephone of some kind. So, yes, I understand that that is possible. I wonder how that little girl feels being uniquely numbered and tracked.
AMY GOODMAN: The Food and Drug Administration has approved putting these chips in children?
LIZ MCINTYRE: Well, they approved the chip as a medical device. Now, you should understand that that does not mean that they did extensive testing on it. They simply made recommendations about when kinds of things companies with these microchip implants should do to make sure they are somewhat safe. We have yet to see some evidence from the Verichip Corporation on things like tests run on people who have gone through MRIs. In fact, their literature that they hand to patients, the fine print on the back, they make them basically sign away their lives saying that the Verichip may not be merchantable or fit for the purpose, saying that the database linking their information may not be available at some point, that the chip may not be readable at some point in areas where there are ambient radio waves. So, you know, the device right now is just -- it is pretty much, as Annalee said, pretty much worthless as a security device, has questionable value as a medical device when linked to medical records, and as a security, tracking kind of a thing, it is just -- I just don't understand why anybody would want such a faulty, invasive process -- procedure.
AMY GOODMAN: We have to break. When we come back, I want to ask you about chipping as a way for advertisers to target their consumers better. We are talking to Liz McIntyre, consumer privacy expert. She is co-author of Spy Chips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID, also Annalee Newitz, who writes for Wired and had a chip implanted in her. Stay with us.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's turn to a clip of the young woman who was at a technology fair talking about the implanting of this chip.
WOMAN: They were putting in the numbing into my hand. I passed out, and I have never passed out before, so it was quite shocking when I was waking up and I had no idea where I was. They hadn’t even put the chip in yet, so I had to lie down and kind of like regain consciousness and think about where I was and what I was doing, all of that.
AMY GOODMAN: That is one person's experience getting this chip put into their hand. Liz McIntyre, how well known is this becoming? Are doctors actually doing this?
LIZ MCINTYRE: Yes, there are some doctors. In fact, at the Verichip website you can find them. They are in several states across the country. It is being sold to them to increase their revenue for their practices, of all things. It is being pushed a lot to doctors that deal with geriatric patients because they feel like there will be a big market there. So, yeah, we are seeing more on the Verichip front although only about 70 people so far have been implanted. Of course, what you were just talking about are people who we call ‘do-it-yourself implanters,’ people who are putting little chips between the webbing, in the webbing between their thumbs and their pointer fingers, and this is being done by people -- not very many, just kind of 20 and 30 tech types who want a cutting-edge way to, say, open their front doors, access their computer systems, that kind of thing. Many of these chips that they are using are hobbyist’s chips you can buy for under $3. They may not even be sterilized. Our concern here is they are setting an example for young people, sort of breaking down a mental barrier to getting uniquely numbered, and of course, the precursor to being monitored and tracked in society. And the other thing is that, you know, they are getting them to stick these devices in themselves like piercings almost, and I can see where some high school kids might think this is really cool and not consider they could do serious damage to their hands. There could be infection that could result from it. And just the fact that making a part of your body a key to any kind of a valuable asset could be asking for some serious trouble.
AMY GOODMAN: You have a chapter in your book, Liz McIntyre, called "Adapt or Die: How RFID backers hope to get you onboard.” What do you mean? Adapt or die?
LIZ MCINTYRE: Well, it is actually the title of the book that was given out a conference held where heads of major companies were invited back a couple of years ago. I mean, it sounds shocking but true, and that's really the attitude they have. Companies like Wal-Mart are telling their suppliers, you know, either get on board or we are just not going the deal with you anymore. Right now, they are forcing their top suppliers to tag at the pallet and case level, but of course, their ultimate goal is to tag and track every manufactured product at some point, even packs of gum.
AMY GOODMAN: How would advertisers track their products if the chip isn't embedded in the individual but in the product?
LIZ MCINTYRE: Well, by association, things you wear and carry could reveal who you are. This is really illustrated by an I.B.M. patent application we illustrate in our book Spy Chips. It’s a patent application called “Identification and Tracking of Persons using RFID Tagged Items.” Subtle, huh Amy? And in there they talk about the day when every product will have an RFID tag and then when people pay for the items at checkout, the unique number on that chip would be linked to that person, you know, if they pay by something other than anonymous cash, by some credit card or check card. Then later when those tags are seen in the environment by reader devices, the number can be gleaned and the exact identity of the person or something about the person can be known, and they talk about, for example, if you have a baby bottle in your purse that’s identified, they might flash you an ad for diapers. Which, you know, it would steam most customers to know that someone has plans to spam them with additional advertising. But then I.B.M. goes on to talk about how the government could use this technology and track people in public places with a device they call the ‘Person Tracking Unit.’ They actually call it that, and they talk about the places to watch people. They say airports, train stations, bus stations, museums, sports arenas, libraries, elevators and even restrooms.
AMY GOODMAN: We are talking to Liz McIntyre. She's the co-author of Spy Chips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID. You talk trash, how these tags that you throw away say as much as the ones you keep.
LIZ MCINTYRE: Right. Well, of course the line that the retailers and manufacturers are giving consumers is, ‘Well, you don't need to worry about this. You know, just throw them away when you get home.’ But, of course, there are plans for our trash in the RFID world, too. Nothing, in fact, will escape the gaze of the RFID world if master planners like Wal-Mart, Procter and Gamble and so on have their way. We have found a patent application by Bell South – in fact, a couple of them, and they are the ones that own Cingular Wireless, of course, talking about the day when everything has an RFID tag and, you know, there is a log of everything from the time it is manufactured to the time it is thrown away. In fact, at the dump they want to have large conveyor devices look through every piece of trash with picker arms, siphon the tag numbers from the items that have been thrown away, and update a database to give a complete history of an item. And, of course, they talk about selling this information to marketers who could then know how long, say, something is kept in someone's pantry, perhaps where items are transported. So, yeah, even your trash will talk if we don't stop it.
AMY GOODMAN: How does the government use Radio Frequency ID, RFIDs?
LIZ MCINTYRE: Well, of course already they are starting to put them in our passports, and they are using them, of course, in the U.S. Visit program. We mentioned that earlier, and they are looking for, of course, super beefed up RFID now, with super capabilities, and in this RFI I mentioned earlier, they are talking about, you know, this super technology not just for the Department of Homeland Security, but they’re talking about other federal agencies. We are very concerned because of the Real ID Act passed last spring that they will consider putting RFID tags in our driver's licenses. As you know, that act gave the Department of Homeland Security the right to set federal driver license standards so that every state would have to have certain information in driver's licenses they issue. Now, people are calling that already a de facto national I.D. because you cannot function in modern society without a driver's license. I mean, you can’t even get on an airplane, so imagine if they put RFID tags in these and it becomes a remotely readable national I.D. that someone from Homeland Security or another federal agency could simply scan, as you drive by at 55 miles an hour or as you walk down the street.
AMY GOODMAN: Liz McIntyre, you talk about a nightmare scenario, and you ask, “What if Hitler had RFID?”
LIZ MCINTYRE: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain.
LIZ MCINTYRE: Well, we believe that if Hitler had RFID, he would certainly have used it to his advantage. He would have probably tagged all of the Jews and tagged all of their possessions. It is interesting that Hitler actually reached out to the cutting-edge technology of the time, which was the punch card system. They hired I.B.M., the people we just talked about who have this patent application for identification and tracking of persons using RFID tagged items. They reached out to I.B.M., and I.B.M. leased Hitler the technology that allowed him to track every Jew and every possession, and you can bet if he had access to this patent application and this ability, he would use it.
AMY GOODMAN: You are saying, “Pull the plug.” What kind of movement is developing right now in response to these chips, whether implanted in human beings or in products?
LIZ MCINTYRE: People are very upset about it when they learn about it. Of course, the major companies have been trying to keep this under wraps. The plan was to kind of slip it in and tell people, ‘Oh it is just an improved bar code’ to limit any kind of alarm. Their own studies show 2/3 of people they surveyed were very upset with RFID on privacy grounds once they understood what it was and what was coming. So when we say, “Pull the plug,” we say that people need to be educated about what's coming, and our book, of course, hopefully will go a long way to that. We also have a website. It’s SpyChips.com. We have a free news letter and pictures of some of these devices we are talking about today, and up-to-date information, but in addition to educating people ourselves, we need the grassroots people out there to tell their neighbors, their friends, tell them what's coming, of course, read our book, and pass along our website information. And then we need to also shop responsibly. We believe that free market can do a great deal. In fact, we are relying on the free market to help control this kind of invasive technology. Stop shopping at Wal-Mart. I mean, there are plenty of other reasons to stop shopping at Wal-Mart. Tell them why. Say, “You know, if you are acting irresponsibly, then we are not going to send our dollars your way.” Vote with your pocketbook. Don't buy things from Procter and Gamble, a company that is really promoting this technology. I mean, they are the makers of many major products. We are talking Tide laundry detergent, Cascade dishwashing detergent. Pantene shampoo, Gillette is another big offender, with their Mach III razor blades. They ran a trial that was very invasive in England not too long ago.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean, very invasive?
LIZ MCINTYRE: Well, there have been several already, although RFID isn't everywhere yet, there have been several cases in which it has been used to spy on people. In a store called Tesco in the U.K., sort of like our Wal-Mart, Gillette rigged what they called a ‘smart shelf’ in that store, and each of the packages of Mach III razor blades on the shelf had an RFID tag in it. The shelf had the technology, the reader device to know when someone picked up one of the packages. When that happened, a camera took a close-up mug shot of the shopper without his knowledge or consent, and then later at checkout another close-up mug shot was taken. At end of the day, the picture at the shelf and at checkout were compared, and if there weren't matching photos, then they assumed the person was a shoplifter, and they would follow that person closely the next time. Now never mind that the person had, you know, their mother-in-law pay for the blades or they abandoned them in the magazine rack. That's what happened, and of course, the Guardian newspaper helped us break that story, and people were all up in arms. That shelf disappeared pretty quickly.
AMY GOODMAN: Pharmacies, how would they be using RFIDs?
LIZ MCINTYRE: Well, pharmacies. The F.D.A. is very interested in this technology. They want to track drugs from the time they are manufactured all the way to the time they are sold to consumers. Our position is, you know: ‘Use the technology in your warehouses.’ We are not going to fight that. We will let the labor unions worry about all those electromagnetic radio waves that could cause health issues. That's another matter, but we say, you know, once that prescription is dispensed to a consumer, there should be no tag on that container. A consumer should not have to worry about his medical privacy, wonder if someone is scanning his pharmacy bag or scanning his wallet or wherever else he's carrying a prescription to get information about what he might be taking or even use that number to track him. In fact, we just issued a statement, a join statement, with EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and we sent that to the F.D.A. the other day when they requested comments, and were -- both of us are joining and saying, “No to RFID tags on the packages, consumers take home from pharmacies!”
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Liz McIntyre, I want to thank you very much for being with us.
www.democracynow.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 21, 2006
HOMELAND SECURITY RFI HEIGHTENS PUBLIC CONCERNS OVER RFID
DHS Wants to Track Spychips in Moving Cars Going
55 MPH
"Call it Big Brother on steroids," say privacy advocates Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, co-authors of "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID." The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for beefed up RFID technology that can read government-issued documents from up to 25 feet away, pinpoint pedestrians on street corners, and glean the identity of people whizzing by in cars at 55 miles per hour.
Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) is a controversial technology that uses tiny microchips to track items from a distance. These RFID microchips have earned the nickname "spychips" because each contains a unique identification number, like a Social Security number for things that can be read silently and invisibly by radio waves. Privacy and civil liberties advocates are opposed to the use of the technology on consumer items and government documents because it can be used to track people without their knowledge or consent.
Albrecht and McIntyre have uncovered a Request for Information (RFI) issued by the Department of Homeland Security that underscores these privacy and civil liberties concerns. DHS seeks "superior remote data capture" that "offers significant improvements in performance" over the RFID technology currently being trialed in its U.S. Visit program border security initiatives. The RFI indicates this more potent tracking technology might be used in other initiatives and by other federal agencies.
"While the RFI is directed at border security, we're very concerned the government will use this tracking technology in our driver's licenses," said McIntyre, who is already opposed to the implications of the Real ID Act that passed last spring. That Act gives DHS the power to set uniform national driver's license standards. "Already the Real ID Act creates a de facto national ID since all Americans need a driver's license to participate in modern society," she observed. "Imagine having a remotely readable national ID that can be scanned by the government as you drive by or walk down the street."
A copy of the RFI is posted at authors' website: www.spychips.com/DHS-RFID.pdf
DHS is seeking RFID devices that "can be sensed remotely, passively, and automatically....The device must be readable under all kinds of indoor and outdoor conditions... and while carried by pedestrians or vehicle occupant."
DHS has set "several high-level goals" for the reading of RFID "tokens" carried by travelers, including:
- The solution must...identify the exact location of the read such as a specific pedestrian or vehicle lane in which the token is read.
- The solution presented must sense the remote data capture technology carried by a pedestrian traveler at distances up to 25 ft.
- The solution presented must sense all tokens carried by travelers seated in a single automobile, truck, or bus at a distance up to 25 ft. while moving at speeds up to 55 mph.
- For bus traffic, the solution must sense up to 55 tokens.
- For a successful read, the traveler should not have to hold or present the token in any special way to enable the reading of the token's information. The goal is for the reader to sense a token carried on a traveler's person or anywhere in a vehicle.
=========================================
ABOUT THE BOOKS
"Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track your Every Move with RFID" (Nelson Current) was released in October 2005. Already in its fifth printing, "Spychips" is the winner of the Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty and has received wide critical acclaim. Authored by Harvard doctoral researcher Katherine Albrecht and former bank examiner Liz McIntyre, the book is meticulously researched, drawing on patent documents, corporate source materials, conference proceedings, and firsthand interviews to paint a convincing -- and frightening -- picture of the threat posed by RFID.
Despite its hundreds of footnotes and academic-level accuracy, the book remains lively and readable according to critics, who have called it a "techno-thriller" and "a masterpiece of technocriticism."
Read the foreword by Wired technology commentator and best-selling author Bruce Sterling.
"The Spychips Threat: Why Christians Should Resist RFID and Electronic Surveillance" (Nelson Current, January 31, 2006) is a paperback version of the original book that addresses Christian concerns associated with the technology.
http://www.spychips.com/press-releases/dhs-rfid.html
Microsoft Reveals Details of Its RFID
Infrastructure
03.01.06
Total posts: 2
By Renee Boucher Ferguson
DALLAS—Microsoft Corp. revealed at this week's RFID World conference here that it is developing an RFID infrastructure—one that its claims will affordably handle device management, event management, integration and application development.
The infrastructure, in beta since January, is really an expansion of a middleware strategy Microsoft introduced just about a year ago.
In April 2004, Microsoft announced the formation of an RFID Partner Council to look at its options for building out RFID-based software.
Nearly a year later, on Feb. 17, 2005, the company announced "continued momentum" on its RFID strategy that included a Windows-based RFID middleware platform, the RFID-enablement of three out of four of its ERP (enterprise resource planning) suites, and a healthy mix of partners that are developing related software on Microsoft's nascent RFID platform.
At the time, Microsoft provided few details of its platform, saying only that it would be enable the development, implementation and scalability of RFID software and hardware, with functionality that focuses on device abstraction, data modification and data transformation.
eWEEK.com Special Report: RFID
During his Feb. 28 breakout discussion at this week's Dallas event, Alok Ahuja, senior product manager of RFID at Microsoft, provided more color.
Ahuja steered away from calling the product middleware, and instead referred to Microsoft's RFID infrastructure.
He defined the bottom layer as a device management layer that will include functionality from Microsoft, and from its partners as well.
"We are working with a large range of hardware partners who are building out and surfacing [functionality] in the event manager," said Ahuja.
Read the rest of this eWEEK story: "Microsoft Reveals Details of Its RFID Infrastructure"
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1932549,00.asp
There’s a reason why you don’t know the truth about RFID: the government and big biz don’t want you to know. Just like they didn’t want you to know that 80% of America’s ports are owned and operated by foreign companies.
The media is very big on O. J. Simpson, Jessica Simpson & The Simpsons. Important, controversial and truly dangerous topics? Well, that’s another story. What happened to “Investigative Journalism”? Isn’t that what ’60 Minutes’ is supposed to do? I admit that I don’t watch it anymore. If they did an expose on RFID, I missed it. I haven’t found anything on the Internet by 60 Minutes. Of course, America cannot rely on 60 Minutes alone. 60 Minutes, even in its prime, was never viewed by everybody. Even if they do a politically, business-related or socially relevant piece, the MSM (Main Stream Media) has to pick up the story and run with it to give it legs.
Enter the Bloggers. Most blogs are a waste of time, if not downright disinformation. But more and more Bloggers are coming forth with investigative journalism that the MSM has seen fit to ignore. As I have said before, if Tabacco knows, why don’t they know? Tabacco has published here at Blog-City since August, 2005. I have only been blogging since May 24, 2005. Prior to that, Tabacco didn’t exist. George W. had already been elected twice! Well, Tabacco is here now. And I intend to expose every piece of dirty, underhanded and secretive scams they try to pull on the unsuspecting public. That’s my “Prime Directive”.
But if Tabacco publishes, and nobody “runs with the story”, it will die a slow death. Yesterday, Tabacco had 1,809 Hits. That’s humongous for a blog that didn’t exist last July. But 1,809 Americans out of 300,000,000 is insignificant at best. Spread the word – or it disappears into oblivion. The powers that be count on that happening.
Remember if 10 people tell 10 people, who tell 10 people, who tell 10 people, who tell 10 people, who tell 10 people, then 1,000,000 people now know! That’s just 6 generations of hitting your email “Forward Button”. This is known as a “geometric progression”. The Internet combined with email can change the world, but only in combination.
Also Read:
Ohio Company Puts Silicon Chips Under Employees’ Skin To Track Their Every Move: George Orwell’s 1984 Is Now! -RI10
http://tabacco.blog-city.com/ohio_company_puts_silicon_chips_under_employees_skin_to_trac.htm
Published February 14, 2006
T.A.B.A.C.C.O. (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization)