You Need Not Be Paranoid To Fear RFID 509
An anonymous reader writes "A story at the Boston Globe covers extensive privacy abuses involving RFID." From the article: "Why is this so scary? Because so many of us pay for our purchases with credit or debit cards, which contain our names, addresses, and other sensitive information. Now imagine a store with RFID chips embedded in every product. At checkout time, the digital code in each item is associated with our credit card data. From now on, that particular pair of shoes or carton of cigarettes is associated with you. Even if you throw them away, the RFID chips will survive. Indeed, Albrecht and McIntyre learned that the phone company BellSouth Corp. had applied for a patent on a system for scanning RFID tags in trash, and using the data to study the shopping patterns of individual consumers." I think they may be going a little overboard with their stance, but it's always interesting to talk about.
Re:FUD (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Associated credit cards with products? (Score:1, Informative)
A RFID product could potentially always be traced back to you because of this.
Re:Just put them in your microwave (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I see a market.. (Score:1, Informative)
AFAIK were they trying to disable the chip with that device, too, but I don't know if they succeeded with this
Re:Generally, who cares? (Score:2, Informative)
I feel for the folks who *have* to put their bins on the curb, when they could just move them a few feet back onto their drive or lawn and make it legally impossible for anyone to touch their trash except for the garbage service. Of course, I also realize that in the current political climate some Washington hack sucking Homeland Security dick would probably pass a law making this illegal if it became common practice.
Max
Re:every product will be unique? (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.rfidjournal.com/faq/23/102 [rfidjournal.com] [RFID Journal] says that:
Not paranoid enough ... (Score:3, Informative)
The whole problem with your scenario is that you are visualizing a single gargantuan database of RFID data. This is totally unworkable. Instead, think about each retail store, each manufacturer, and each service provider maintaining their own RFID datasets, and then making such data available to whichever marketing company (or government) pays the fees for access to that data. The USA government, under the aspices of the DHS and MATRIX (Poindexter's successor to TIA) the sharing of commercial databases with the governnment is already happening. That little nugget of info, plus the recent history of data collection companies like "Checkpoint" should bring images of Orwell's "1984" and "Minority Report" into proper perspective.
The concerns about the invasion of personal privacy are not "being paranoid", and the prospect of RFID tags being nearly ubiquitous in the future is not some "Reality Distortion Field" paranoid delusion.
The 'Necessary and Proper' Cycle (Score:5, Informative)
Soon we'll see laws against making 'precursors' to 'circumvention devices'; just you watch it happen.
Re:We've been over this before (Score:3, Informative)
Take off your tinfoil hat and put on your thinking cap. Let's figure out how to take advantage of a great technology and figure out how to make it safe.
I wear my thinking cap under my tinfoil hat... how else would I keep them from controlling my best thoughts?
Seriously, though...
Once again, we are prepared to sell our liberty for a little bit of convenience. You can already track your wine inventory automagically, get a cheap barcode scanner. Is it too difficult to scan a bottle at the door of your cellar? Is that really worth not worrying about potential government misuse of tech?
At what point are we going to look back and say, "If only we hadn't allowed THAT, we wouldn't be living in a Big-Brother type dystopia?"
Every year, we get a little closer. As the need for dissent grows, the ability to control dissent grows also. Do you think there is any correlation?
Ay corrumba! A wacko sequel!! (Score:3, Informative)
The Spychips Threat : Why Christians Should Resist RFID and Computer Tracking
An updated version of the authors' previous Spychips, this book explores the inherent dangers of RFID (which stands for Radio Frequency Identification and is a technology that uses tiny computer chips to track consumer items and consumers) and shows how this powerful new technology actually fits into the schema of many evangelicals' interpretation of biblical prophecy. Compiling massive amounts of research with firsthand knowledge, Spychips explains how RFID works, reveals the history and future of the mater planners' strategies to imbed these trackers on everything (from postage stamps to shoes to people themselves), and ties in these ominous new devices to current Christian thought about the coming New World Order.
From:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/159
Re:Someone already tried microwaving the euros! (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, carrying your ID works very well... (Score:3, Informative)
"Derek Bond, 72, was held at Durban [South Africa] police station under FBI orders for nearly three weeks after being arrested at gunpoint while on holiday with his wife."
Re:Just put them in your microwave (Score:2, Informative)
Q: Are there any plans to remove the one-cent coin (more popularly known as the "penny") from circulation?
A: You may be interested to know that the penny is the most widely used denomination currently in circulation and it remains profitable to make. Significantly, it is Congress that determines the denominations of coins that the Mint must produce and put into circulation. Each penny costs
Re:You should be more paranoid (Score:3, Informative)
I've seen the amount of information they collect at these POS systems. You use a credit/debit card, your card encodes your zip code, first name, last name. Your purchase is collected already by scanning the item into the register.
Your info is then sent to the 3 credit bueraus and your infor is merged with those large databasese. If you give your email to the retailer, your email is attached to your credit report. Through those credit reports the credit bueraus then sends back your address to the retailer and all other information the retailer can afford.
Your information is already available in catalog dealers, your internet info is available at experian online (yup experian started an internet division). How much you make and how much own is already available at experian, transunion and can't remember the last one.
The retailer already got the information they need, RFID is just a way to track inventory, really no joke. RFID does not add any additional information that the retail/catalog industry does not already have. Oh yea, they used to be able to get large amount of info through the DMV before 9/11.
Experian will sell your info to ANYBODY at the right price, private detective already have this ability, without license. Now the funny thing is the only person that has a hard time getting your info, is yourself! Oh yea don't get me started on the 2 files they keep, one public one that you see, and one that is hidden, that keeps every single transactions you've made in your life. the law says some items fall off the report, but the hiden one is available to anybody with money and can make your life horrible. There are no laws saying that your bank need to tell you they based their decision on this second file. So you think your report is clean, but the hidden one says otherwise. Oh yea that second one contains all your purchase habbits too.
God where's my hat? I can't see an after market of people scanning garbage from a particular locale/district etc. The marketing drones already have this information. Retailers routinely sell their lists to each other. Catelogs company give them to each other as "gifts". Or worse TRADED like comodity. You people are not paranoid enough!
You can take this "two-file" theory and flush it down the toilet.
1) Do you have any idea what kind of database would be required to keep track of EVERY purchase you ever made, everywhere, and attach item data? Do you have any clue how long it would take to search such a database? Most credit card companies keep statements on file for a year, and that only covers where you purchased, and the amount.
2) No, the banks cannot deny you credit based a file that you cannot get a hold of. This is pretty plain in the law, if you chose to actually read it, instead of spreading rumors. (See the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. 1681)
3) Yes, your credit card company (and maybe Experian) will happily tell whoever pays them exactly where you shop. Of course, you can write them and tell them not to, but that isn't nearly newsworthy enough. They still won't know what you bought, they would have to pay the retailer themselves for that.
4) Exactly how would Experian know how much you own? They can't possibly know what you have and what you have gotten rid of, outside of what is already available in public records. (Any schmuck can find out where you live, what real estate you own, which elections you voted in, all campaign contributions, etc. That all comes from your local government.)
5) Considering my credit report never can even get my employer right, I doubt they have any idea how much I make.
Yes, our privacy is pretty bad, but spreading paranoid, ignorant crap like this doesn't make things any better.
SirWired
Re:We've been over this before (Score:3, Informative)