Alarm over shopping radio tags

By David Reid Click reporter

RFID technology broadcasts information to electronic readers

Supermarkets have already brought everything under the sun under one roof, and along the way been accused of denuding the High Street of butcher, baker and candlestick-maker.

Now they are introducing a new technology that some say threatens a fundamental invasion of our privacy.

We are all familiar with barcodes, those product fingerprints that save cashiers the bother of keying in the code number of everything we buy.

Now, meet their replacement: the RFID tag, or radio frequency ID tag.

These smart labels consist of a tiny chip surrounded by a coiled antenna.

Good tracking

While barcodes need to be manually scanned, RFID simply broadcasts its presence and data to electronic readers.

It means the computer networks of companies can track the position and progress of billions of products on rail, road, sea and shelf.

You start to ask yourself: ‘who has the ability to read the chips and what do they do with the information?’ Vint Cerf, internet pioneer

Albrecht Von Truchsess, from the German supermarket chain Metro Group, which uses this technology, says: “RFID really brings a revolution to everything that is transported from one point to the other, and in the future you will have it really on everything.

“That means that we don’t have to do anything while the goods are on the way from the production site to our stores. It is just done automatically.”

For all the benefits the technology promises, the roll-out of RFID is in danger of being derailed by the public’s perception of it.

A Christian author in the US, for example, has just published a book claiming RFID will evolve into the mark of the beast featured in Revelation and presage the end of the world.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/4886598.stm 

David Reid is a total dingbat.

What he has completely missed is that combined with the NIR, when you throw away that beer can with an RFID tag on it, someone can know that it was you that left the beer can in the street. Of course, it was not YOU that left it in the street, because as a BLOGDIAL reader, you do not litter; but if the garbage bag being used to transport your refuse to the tip splits, and then drops your garbage in the street, you will be fined, and will have to prove that it was not you that did the littering.
These systems are infinitely more dangerous when a national ID card is in place. You might say that, “I wont have to show my card unless I am buying alcohol or cigarrettes, so RFID cant track my purchase of bread”. This is an incorrect assessment. If you pay by credit card and have your identity checked with the NIR, your number will be connected to every item that you purchased, and its unique RFID tag serial number.

All of these stories relate directly to ID cards and the NIR. To leave them out of the picture in an article like this is simply wrong, especially when you are discussing the privacy aspects of this technology.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 9th, 2006 at 3:18 pm and is filed under NIR.