And They Shall Know You By Your Books 357
Val42K writes "People have been concerned about provisions of the Patriot Act that would grant law enforcement access to your library records. Now libraries are considering placing RFID tags into books instead of barcodes. The RFID tags will (supposedly) be turned off when you check out of the library, but could they be turned back on? What about the possibility of you being located and tracked by the books that you carry?"
RFID is inevitable (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway - from a privacy perspective there is much to fear about how RFID will be misued. However, as a geek I can not overlook the incredible myriad of practical uses for them. To be pragmatic about it, I'm quite sure that such uses will override the privacy concerns in the long run, just as credit cards have done to cash, for example. The best we can do, I think, is to push for sane privacy legislation like we don't have for banking.
I mean, how cool would it be if you ran a restaurant, for example, and you never had to keep track of what food to order? Your garbage can would just detect that your chef had thrown a tomato can, and add a new can of tomatoes to the next delivery. I can think of a thousand practical uses for RFID and I suggest that any geek with foresight should be thinking not about how to stop RFID, but how to protect our privacy in a world which will inevitably be filled with billions of the little things.
Depends on how they code them... (Score:2, Insightful)
What's that I hear? (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, Slashdot seems to have no problem stifling technology when it gives rise to insane, improbable conspiracy theories.
A book to read: (Score:3, Insightful)
I fail to see (Score:3, Insightful)
If you've attracted enough attention to yourself that someone is trying to track/stalk/gather information about you...chances are they'll do it any way they can and not say "Oh poo, I wish I could use RFID tags against this person!" and give up.
Re:RFID is inevitable (Score:5, Insightful)
These things get their power through inductance, do they not? So what's wrong with, say, using a small amount of inducted power to read the data they contain, but a larget amount will induce enough power to pop an incorporated fuse? I'm sure the tinfoil hat brigade will have their doubts, but for these things to be useful, they've got to be able to transmit, and that means they can be detected.
Trying to get the things banned outright seems a bit like trying to prevent the sun from rising in the morning. Lobbying for a requirement that the things contain a permanent off switch however might stand a chance of success, and then we get the best of both worlds for a change.
Re:What's that I hear? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Depends on how they code them... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yikes! (Score:1, Insightful)
The big question: whose tag is it? (Score:4, Insightful)
Aye, there's the rub.
Re:Depends on how they code them... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Depends on how they code them... (Score:4, Insightful)
Feel free to keep using it yourself though. I'm fine with using whatever methods for change people think work best.
Re:The big question: whose tag is it? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, there are potential privacy issues with RFID tags, but with the right combination of legal requirements and *technology* they can be overcome. We're supposed to be good with technology around here, "News for Nerds" and all, and this *is* a technology problem at heart, so instead of just bitching about the issues, why not solve them and have our cake as well as eat it?
It still scares me. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Complete nonsense (Score:3, Insightful)
But most of them receive some federal funding, so it seems to me that they have some say on what is installed where. Or, they are federally regulated; same thing.
That is much slower than realtime. At least it involves some lag behind you.
Using a high-gain antenna will amplify the received signal. Doing a little processing on the received signal, and amplifying that signal, can result in a useful signal in cases where the ordinarily specified reception equipment would not be adequate. In addition, using a highly focussed directional antenna can minimize noise and further improve gain. Filtering at both analog and digital levels can be used to further clean the signal. There are many things you can do to improve the quality of your signal which will not be commonly used in commercial RFID applications because they are simply unnecessary, which will be done in order to do both legitimate and illicit tracking of RFID tags.
I've Quit Worrying (some) (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah. I know they could use it to track me. They could somehow link it back to my bank account. They could probably even watch and bust me for speeding.
My brother in law thinks I'm crazy to allow one of these devices of the Devil into my automobile. He no longer uses his home computer because he's convinced that his ISP (Verizon) has nothing better to do than to track his every move online. He pays cash for all but the largest purchases, won't use an affinity card for his groceries, and doesn't visit ATM's (jeeze, remember standing in line at the bank to get a check cashed?). He has no spare or leisure time because the very housekeeping of life takes him twice or three times as long as it does the rest of us. He makes my particular life miserable on every visit because I merrily use credit cards, ATM's, discount cards, an EZ-Pass, and my computer.
Yeah, I could probably have lots more privacy than I do. But you know what? Life's short. There are big things to worry about and there are little things. Worry about too many of the little things and you become as miserable as my brother in law. For some reason, I place sneaky library books squarely in the "don't sweat this" category. At least for now.
Anne
Re:RFID is inevitable (Score:3, Insightful)
Our own government will use and abuse any technology possible to try to control us, label us, track us, and put us in boxes. Obviously all of us have different levels of control we're comfortable with. Some people are okay with the government running every aspect of their lives, and some people would really prefer to have no government whatsoever, and I think it's important that we make a world for as much of the spectrum as possible. (People who want total government control are always welcome to join the military.)
Re:I've Quit Worrying (some) (Score:3, Insightful)
A lot of this paranoia is based on the belief that law enforcement does not have much easier methods to discover what we are reading than to standardize RFID tags across thousands of library systems and place sensors at convenient locations. Linking a book to you through RIFD would require having the complete library catalog plus access to your purchases as well. Why go through this when a basic subpoena will do the trick most of the time?
The basic problem with this handwringing is that it treats privacy as a technical problem rather than a social problem. If the black hats want to know that you are reading, they can find out now. Mitnick and Schneier have both pointed out that the weakest link in any form of security and privacy is social and psychological rather than technical. Social engineering has always been the most powerful tool of law enforcement and spies, and is likely to continue to be for the forseeable future.
Meanwhile, RFID tags have the pontential to solve problems that cost a heck of a lot in terms of time, money and energy. I can't count how much time I've wasted (and the library has wasted on me) in looking for materials that have been misshevlved, stolen, or lost between departments.
What you said in your conclusion is the answer to the problem. The government must be held to the highest standards. Privacy is not going to be won by a kneejerk reaction against new technology by the tinfoil hat sect of the EFF. It will be won in the courts by demanding that law enforcement be held to the highest standards of probable cause before access to library databases become useful to them.