How RFID Tags in Products You Own Can Be Used to Track You
(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC])
Katherine Albrecht has written has written an article for Scientific American that everyone should read. For those who don't already know her, she's the leader of CASPIAN and one of the world's foremost experts on RFID privacy issues.
Here is a mini summary of some of the major points:
- Companies intend to replace barcodes with RFID
- Unlike barcodes which identify a product type (i.e. a can of soda), RFID will identify an INDIVIDUAL product (i.e. can of coke #48377625376)
- RFID tags can be read secretly from long distances (30 or more feet).
- RFID tags in licenses have minimal security (and even passports that have more security have been hacked already many times)
- IBM filed a patent that was granted in 2006 for a system of scanners at “shopping malls, airports, train stations, bus stations, elevators, trains, airplanes, restrooms, sports arenas, libraries, theaters, [and] museums ? to track the movements of people by their RFID tags
- Alton Towers (an English amusement park) issues RFID wristbands to visitors and tracks their movements through the park. While they use it to create a keepsake "where you went" map for their customers, they prove that the system works in practice
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I have tried to think of the benefits of RFID being used in common places but other than tracking convicted criminals who are at risk of offending again, I cannot see an advantage to the common man or woman if this type of technology is put in place.
RFID’s military applications for safety are infinite with uses such as gun safety locks and vehicle identification, but the expense of such a system is a major deterrent to today’s military.
A civilian application would probably not be as expensive but the marketing information gleaned from where else customers shop after they leave your store or even what roads they use on their way home, for billboards and signage purposes, is supposed to be invaluable. But I wouldn’t put it past mega-conglomerates like Westfair to suck up the cost and do it anyway if there was any possible way to increase profits in the long run.
Well said.