-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Fun with RFID? Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 15:04:28 -0500 From: Parks <parks@private> To: declan@private Fun with RFID? I recently went home to Hannibal Mo. over the 4th and saw an interesting use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) - to track marathon runners! Privacy advocates fear that RFID technology would be used to track people surreptitiously - that the RFID devices would be secretly placed on products we normally use like clothes or even drivers licenses or license plates. RFID tracking people? Its already been done. In the late 90s I read that a sub-dermal ID tag was inserted in women with a Norplant like birth control device to keep track of its useful lifetime on poor Asians (sorry I don't remember the country where they used them.) Similar tracking devices are currently used to track pets. RFID tracking people! I observed a "fun run" in which the runners got a number on a card and each card had an embedded RFID tag. When the race was started they ran under an RFID wire stretched over the road. The wire powers the device with a high frequency signal picked up at the antenna which then in turn returns its unique serial number. Everyone's time was tracked by running under the wire. When they returned they ran under a different wire which recorded their elapsed time. Since there were lots of people I could easily envision almost any scenario where people could be tracked. All they need to do is be herded through "choke points." Since this wire was about 10 feet high and 30 feet long, it could be put almost anywhere without anyone noticing. It could even be across or under a highway, at the door of a subway or bus, or even at the entrance of stores or government buildings. You wouldn't notice it any more that the device itself, which is small and might be embedded in plastic. New credit cards or ID cards may have the new flexible circuit embedded into it. Exxon-Mobil promotes an RFID keychain fob which returns your credit card number when you pass it near the pump or register. The fact is that the machine has been purposefully desensitized so it wouldn't accidentally read someone nearby and deduct money from the wrong account. Are we going to be duped into accepting tracking devices at the peril of our privacy for the sake of convenience? I think so. _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Mon Jul 12 2004 - 22:59:41 PDT