RFID Tags: A Threat to Privacy in the Near Future?

[FdmNews 0]

Radio frequency identification technology, which enables objects, pets and people to be tagged and tracked wirelessly, is likely to be ubiquitous in the not-so-distant future. Almost no aspect of life may soon be safe from the prying eyes of corporations and governments.

 

Here's a vision of the not-so-distant future:

 

-Microchips with antennas will be embedded in virtually everything you buy, wear, drive and read, allowing retailers and law enforcement to track consumer items - and, by extension, consumers - wherever they go, from a distance.

 

-A seamless, global network of electronic "sniffers" will scan radio tags in myriad public settings, identifying people and their tastes instantly so that customized ads, "live spam," may be beamed at them.

 

-In "Smart Homes," sensors built into walls, floors and appliances will inventory possessions, record eating habits, monitor medicine cabinets - all the while, silently reporting data to marketers eager for a peek into the occupants' private lives.

 

Science fiction?

 

In truth, much of the radio frequency identification technology that enables objects and people to be tagged and tracked wirelessly already exists - and new and potentially intrusive uses of it are being patented, perfected and deployed.

 

Some of the world's largest corporations are vested in the success of RFID technology, which couples highly miniaturized computers with radio antennas to broadcast information about sales and buyers to company databases.

 

Already, microchips are turning up in some computer printers, car keys and tires, on shampoo bottles and department store clothing tags. They're also in library books and "contactless" payment cards (such as American Express' "Blue" and ExxonMobil's "Speedpass.")

 

Companies say the RFID tags improve supply-chain efficiency, cut theft, and guarantee that brand-name products are authentic, not counterfeit. At a store, RFID doorways could scan your purchases automatically as you leave, eliminating tedious checkouts.

 

At home, convenience is a selling point: RFID-enabled refrigerators could warn about expired milk, generate weekly shopping lists, even send signals to your interactive TV, so that you see "personalized" commercials for foods you have a history of buying. Sniffers in your microwave might read a chip-equipped TV dinner and cook it without instruction.

 

"We've seen so many different uses of the technology," says Dan Mullen, president of AIM Global, a national association of data collection businesses, including RFID, "and we're probably still just scratching the surface in terms of places RFID can be used."

 

The problem, critics say, is that microchipped products might very well do a whole lot more.

 

With tags in so many objects, relaying information to databases that can be linked to credit and bank cards, almost no aspect of life may soon be safe from the prying eyes of corporations and governments, says Mark Rasch, former head of the computer-crime unit of the U.S. Justice Department.

 

By placing sniffers in strategic areas, companies can invisibly "rifle through people's pockets, purses, suitcases, briefcases, luggage - and possibly their kitchens and bedrooms - anytime of the day or night," says Rasch, now managing director of technology at FTI Consulting Inc., a Baltimore-based company.

 

In an RFID world, "You've got the possibility of unauthorized people learning stuff about who you are, what you've bought, how and where you've bought it ... It's like saying, 'Well, who wants to look through my medicine cabinet?'"

 

He imagines a time when anyone from police to identity thieves to stalkers might scan locked car trunks, garages or home offices from a distance. "Think of it as a high-tech form of Dumpster diving," says Rasch, who's also concerned about data gathered by "spy" appliances in the home.

 

"It's going to be used in unintended ways by third parties - not just the government, but private investigators, marketers, lawyers building a case against you ..."

 

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[Totalimmortal 0]

very very very interesting. can be helpful from a law enforcement standpoint, irritating from a civilian perspective... so, naturally I'm on the fence about this one. it's probably going to be very expensive, so.... something that people will gripe about (me included)

 

-Total

[FrostElfGuard 9]

RFID is bad bad bad.

 

Why bad? 'Cause it allows people who shouldn't know stuff to know stuff.

 

This is Bill Gates style technology... that is, something developed for one purpose that can easily be used for some very wrong other purposes. BG made java able to access your hard drive... which it never was designed to be allowed to do... a huge security hole... thank you Mr. Gates.

 

In the war against crime the police are always wanting more tools to catch the bad guys... trouble is... who is watching the police as they become more and more powerful? I can't argue this one well. Bruce Schneier can. He's an international security expert (and milllionaire). He has quite a lot to say about security and trade-offs.

 

What his main argument boils down to is this: security is an arms race. You develop a new way to foil attacks (theft, etc...) and criminals come up with a new way of committing their crimes...since they are only insterested in quick-path (least effort) solutions.

 

Example: someone came up with a thumbprint lock for cars. They tried it out in Malaysia (or somewhere else in Asia). You can't open the car door without the thumbprint. So. What's a poor thief to do? Oh. Right. Cut off the thumb. Needless to say, that was the end of the thumb locks. What customer would want to lose his thumb AND his car? Attackers adapt.

 

The RFID thing: attackers will just have invalid RFIDs or ones that mutate so they can't be tracked. Regular people... well... they won't. And the rich? Well they won't have to RFID, or theirs will be better than the average Joe's. And if so... then the attackers will be emulating theirs.

 

 

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I found a better link about RFID from Bruce.

[gogoblender 3,072]

This is pretty scary stuff. The funny thing is that both camps do some pretty impressive and powerful spin on why it should or shouldn't be there. Parents want it so that they know where there kids are, grocers want it so they know where there stock is, owners could want it so they know where there cars are...but when you see how much a kind of ordering and "systematization" like this could go , especially with criminals not stopping at cutting off fingers to get implanted keys like this... it makes you wonder how far we've come and, scarily enough, how far we're going to go. I think I hard read that somewhere in the states, some companies were interested in having all their employees "implanted" with this is a kind of security measure.

 

Now, here's the thing. What if work tells you that our job security is at stake. How do you respond what do you say. I mean, if everyone else is getting one of these things implanted just so they can have the job..what is your recourse...do you have one, is there any sort of options available?

 

 

gogo