Last week I was listening to a radio program about the cards that the supermarkets use to give us discounts. They gave a link to a web page that tells about what they hope to do in the future with this technology. I find this very interesting how they can track all the things we buy, etc. While following some of the links I ran across where Walmart wants to put chips into things you would take home with you.

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Wal-Mart and Gillette to begin secretly monitoring products, purchasers.
Thousands of unwitting consumers will soon take tracking chips home with them
Wal-Mart will begin selling Gillette shaving products equipped with RFID tracking devices as early as next week, according to a Boston Globe article dated June 9. The RFID devices, designed to go undetected by the average shopper, will be sold at the Brockton, Massachusetts Wal-Mart store. The Brockton Wal-Mart serves a predominately low income, minority neighborhood. Why has this community been singled out for extra surveillance?

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As early as this week in its Brockton store, Wal-Mart will put RFID sensors on a shelf stocked with RFID-tagged Gillette products to test the concept. Other retailers and suppliers, including Procter & Gamble Co., Home Depot Inc., and Johnson & Johnson Inc., are supporting RFID's development.

Boston Globe Online

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This is the web site they gave on the radio about the supermarket cards.


CASPIAN- Consumer Against Supermarket Invasion and Numbering

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This is the home page to RFID details.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

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Isn't this a form of invasion of privacy?

Yes Daryl I too would think it is a form of invading our privacy. However, we do know in the last days that no one will have any privacy. I believe it just all points toward control.

I would like to see some explanation as to why this technology is "an invasion of our privacy."

As far as I have seen, RFID technology is quite limited in it's applications; and it is mainly used for security and anti-theft applications.

The "read range" for a lot of the RFID applications is not usually more than 100 feet or so, depending on several factors. This short range RFID technology would be the only type of RFID application that something such as a Walmart would use.

Any longer range applications are currently only used in special applications, and with informed consent, such as in the cases of certain criminal justice needs, etc.

At any rate, I am left wondering why this would be a threat to anyone who is not doing something they should not be - that is, considering the nature, purpose, and application realities of RFID technology.

This does not seem like an "endtime subject."

It would be good for tracking down a stolen item, if that is all it can do.

Any use beyond that though is a form of invasion of my own personal privacy.

And how do these things usually come about? As a security issue re theft, terrorism, etc.

And where does it go to from there? Time will tell us that too.

Amen Daryl...yes time will tell what technology will have to play in the endtime.

OK

Fair enough folks...Lets take the example already given here. Have you researched the particular technology that Walmart will use in their proposed RFID program? Are you able to say with certainty that it is an invasion of privacy? Or, if you are trying to say that Walmart's RFID program MIGHT later lead to such an invasion of privacy; have you researched the particular techniques that Walmarts will use, and weather or not the read range, and other needed capabilities of their devices would even support the kind of privacy invasion you have referred to here?

I went to the RFID link that Avalee provided and came across this interesting tidbit of information:

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This band is allocated for future use.
The FCC have been requested to provide a spectrum allocation of 75 MHz in the 5.85-5.925 GHz band for Intelligent Transportation Services use.

In France the TIS system is based on the proposed European pre-standard (preENV) for vehicle to roadside communications communicating with the roadside via microwave beacons operating at 5.8 GHz.

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This alone sends me a red flag signal.

Daryl I followed another link from the CASPIAN Consumers page:

RFID Right to Know Act of 2003

This link is all about the Bill. I read where they will have to mark on the package that is has the chip in it.

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15 U.S.C. 1453 is amended--

(1) by inserting the following under subsection (a) paragraph (6):

'(7) A consumer commodity or package that contains or bears a radio frequency identification tag shall bear a label as provided in paragraph (9) of this subsection.

'(8) For purposes of paragraph (7) of this subsection the term "radio frequency identification" or "RFID" means technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify individual items; and the term "tag" means a microchip that is attached to an antenna and is able to transmit identification information.

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This part deals with our privacy. Yeah right!!! We have to remember that these are just people and there are people who work in these places who have no problem invading our privacy if the time is right or the price is right.

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(1) by inserting the following under Subchapter II:

'SUBCHAPTER III--AGGREGATION OF NONPUBLIC PERSONAL INFORMATION AND RADIO FREQUENCY TAG IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION

'§ 6831. Privacy protection for consumers

'(a) (1) A business shall not combine or link an individual's nonpublic personal information with RFID tag identification information, beyond what is required to manage inventory.

'(2) A business shall not, directly or through an affiliate, disclose to a nonaffiliated third party an individual's nonpublic personal information in association with RFID tag identification information.

'(3) A business shall not, directly or through an affiliate or nonaffiliated third party, use RFID tag identification information to identify an individual.

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I agree with David on this topic. This is not an invasion of privacy, even if the RFID was designed to track customers and their shopping preferences, which it is not. A customer is in a public store publicly buying something. This is not private conduct or secret personal information. It all happens in open view of many people. It really would be no different than a store employee making a mental note of what you are buying in order to better serve you the next time you come in to his store. Consider the old fashioned notion of customer service in a small town store where the clerk knows you by name when you walk in and knows what you typically buy. Such personalized treatment by a shopkeeper is usually viewed as good customer service. There seems to be far too much paranoid hysteria about this RFID technology. Here is a link to an informative article about this topic - Inventory management technology . As the article makes clear, as does the Boston Globe article, this is designed for inventory management to enable retailers to track inventory, NOT customers, so that they know easily and efficiently what they have on their shelves and in their storerooms. This means they can restock shelves efficiently and reorder in time to be able to restock those shelves.

The technology is such that the extremely weak radio signal can only be detected within a few feet of the tiny chip. It is intended to replace the current bar code system which requires an employee to actively scan each bar code used to track inventory from the warehouse to the checkout counter. The chip would be imbedded in or attached to the packaging the same as similar security tags that are used currently for many products and would automatically transmit the very same information for the very same purpose as the bar code. Those tags which trigger the security scanners at the door are disabled at the counter. You perhaps have observed the clerk rubbing a package over a pad or just the counter before putting it in your bag. That is to disable the security chip. The RFID chips are simply designed to transmit more information. In order to emit a strong enough signal to be detected beyond a few feet a power source would need to be added as well has significant electronics for effective radio transmission over any significant distance. The size and expense of doing so renders such an idea impractical. If the chips are also to be used for security to detect shoplifters, as is currently the case, the chip will be disabled at the checkout counter which means it will serve no purpose beyond the store.

Tom