Posted on 02/20/2007 5:09:22 AM PST by Calpernia
It would be positively Orwellian if corporate America was using high technology to track your whereabouts without your knowledge. Welcome to "1984."
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology can be thought of as a next-generation bar code. A simple RFID tag consists of a microchip and antenna, which when stimulated by a remote "reader," sends back information via radio waves. Like a bar code, an RFID tag identifies the product it is attached to for inventory or purchasing purposes; but an RFID tag can do more. For example, RFID tags can hold information related to the expiration date of a product, record whether a product has been exposed to excessive hear, or could be used to assist with product recalls. An RFID-tagged product can be tracked as it moves in commerce, providing better ways to identify and meet consumer demand for products.
"If the device remains on the item," says Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman, "it can also track the whereabouts of the individual who purchases it and I believe that's an invasion of privacy." Surely such technology is reserved for only hi-tech gizmos and the most expensive wares a store has to offer, right? Wrong? Watson Coleman says, "RFIDs are in your clothing, in your underwear, in your razor blade packages, any item that you purchase."
The purchaser of the item is usually unaware of the presence of the tag and unable to remove it. The tag can be read from a distance without the individual being aware that it is being read and if an item is purchased using a credit card or a loyalty card is used at the time of purchase it would be possible to tie the unique ID of the tagged item to the identity of the consumer.
The majority leader is sponsoring a bill would require businesses purveying items with RFID tags to post notices on their premises and labels on the products and would also require the removal or deactivation of the tag at the point of sale. 14 other states have similar legislation pending.
There are passive chips as well as active chips.
I do agree it's easy for your employer to know your finances. But if your Manager is asking you to do something of that nature, I strongly recommend dusting off the resume. By the way in many parts of the country (read flyover country) fancy cars in the lot can make a bad impression of the service or product being too expensive for that customer. Lot of people in Real Estate try to impress with fancy cars, but for people with half a brain, they know that those brokers and agents are chiseling more commission than they actually earned. My policy on snooping Managers (personal life anyway) is to make their jobs more difficult as in my case I'm usually their boss. And by the way I'm debt free except for one small car loan.
Easy things to do to screw up corporate databases:
1) Make a long list of generated pseudo names to keep in your wallet. Then every time you are asked for personal information for grocery stores, magazine subscriptions, online registrations, etc., use two of the fake names and note who got it. Use fake addresses on real streets, too. Here is a good fake name/password generator.
http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/
2) Have several throw away email addresses. Since most of them ask for another email address to set up an account, refer them to each other.
http://www.emailaddresses.com/email_web.htm
3) Use spamgourmet.com for most online registrations.
4) Use bugmenot.com to use someone else's registrations.
5) When installing software use a period "." for the name of the user and business. Most software interprets this as meaning "default", so your name and business name are not returned to the company.
6) Doubleclick opt-out. http://www.privacychoices.org/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9914807/from/RL.2
MIT maps wireless users across campus
System allows students to see where everyone is at any time
Excerpt:
MIT's newly upgraded wireless network -- extended this month to cover the entire school -- doesn't merely get you online in study halls, stairwells or any other spot on the 9.4 million square foot campus.
(snip)
The maps were unveiled this week at the MIT Museum, where the they are projected onto large Plexiglas rectangles that hang from the ceiling. They are also available online to network users, the data time-stamped and saved for up to 12 hours.
Red splotches on one map show the highest concentration of wireless users on campus. On another map, yellow dots with names written above them identify individual users, who pop up in different places depending where they're logged in.
"With these maps, you can see down to the room on campus how many people are logged on," said Carlo Ratti, director of the school's SENSEable City Laboratory, which created the maps. "You can even watch someone go from room to room if they have a handheld device that's connected."
Researchers use log files from the university's Internet service provider to construct the maps. The files indicate the number of users connected to each of MIT's more than 2,800 access points. The map that can pinpoint locations in rooms is 3-D, so researchers can even distinguish connectivity in multistoried buildings.
"Laptops and Wi-Fi are creating a revolutionary change in the way people work," Ratti said. The maps aim to "visualize these changes by monitoring the traffic on the wireless network and showing how people move around campus."
(snip)
"Many cities, including Philadelphia, are planning to go wireless. Something like our study will help them understand usage patterns and where best to invest," said researcher Andres Sevtsuk.
Sevtsuk likened the mapping project to a real-time census.
"Instead of waiting every year or every 10 years for data, you have new information every 15 minutes or so about the population of the campus," he said.
While every device connected to the campus network via Wi-Fi is visible on the constantly refreshed electronic maps, the identity of the users is confidential unless they volunteer to make it public.
(snip)
Actually, the chips are essentially the same. There are passive and active RFID tags. The tag is the combination of the chip, an antenna, and in the case of an active tag, a battery.
Active tags are not used in retail, and not used to to tag individual products. They are too large and too expensive. They are typically used to tag a pallet of goods.
A typical active RFID tag is a plastic weatherproof enclosure, rectangular, about 8" by 2" by 2". Some connect to an external antenna, making the contraption even larger. Smaller active RFID tags are available, but they do not target retail applications.
From SmartCode Corp, a supplier of RFID products:
"Active tags have a life of about ten years, due to their batteries. Still, active tags are an interesting option that allows higher data transmission rates and greater distances between tag and reader. They also offer better performance in electro magnetically noisy environments."
"The main usages for Active Tags:"
"Transport and distribution"
"Factory automation"
"Rail industry"
"Asset tracking"
"Industrial applications"
Active tags are what are being tested with WiFi and middleware scanning system for live tracking.
About VeriChip - "The First RFID Company for People" VeriChip is a subsidiary of Applied Digital and the only company to provide both implantable and wearable RFID identification and security solutions for people, their assets, and their environments. From the world's first and only FDA-cleared, human-implantable RFID microchip to the only patented active RFID tag with skin-sensing capabilities, VeriChip leads the way in next-generation RFID technologies. Today, over 4,000 installations worldwide in healthcare, security, industrial, and government markets benefit from both the protection and efficiencies provided by VeriChip systems. For more information on VeriChip, please visit www.verichipcorp.com.
There's a fine line there. On one hand, if a guy came to my house to discuss a product driving a rusted heap, I'd wonder what was up. Also, if he were driving an Aston-Martin, I would wonder what was going on.
If you aren't actually driving to meet clients, it's none of his business what you drive. Even then, it's a fine line.
Speaking of cars, how many people here complaining about privacy issues with RFID have GPS systems in their cars? ;)
Well, I think the idea is you can leave your car and walk.
But why should it even be in cars so you can be tracked? People think as the commercials intend you to think - that this will keep you "safe" and you will be "rescued". They don't think about the fact that it's always there.
Watch for e-plates:
Excerpt:
The new e-Plates project uses active (battery powered) RFID tags embedded in the plates to identify vehicles in real time. The result is the ability to reliably identify any vehicle, anywhere, whether stationary or mobile, and - most importantly - in all weather conditions. (Previous visually-based licence plate identification techniques have been hampered by factors such as heavy rain, mist, fog, and even mud or dirt on the plates.)
The e-Plates project has been under development for the past three years at a cost of more than £1 million, and is currently under consideration by a number of administrations. It is hoped that e-Plate will be one of the systems trialled by the UK Government in its forthcoming study of micro-chipped licence plates.
Chipped plates
The plates are the same shape and size as conventional plates, and are permanently fitted to the vehicle in the same way. But each e-Plate contains an embedded tag with a unique, encrypted identification number that is transmitted by the tag for detection by RFID readers. Multiple tags can be read simultaneously by a single reader at speeds of up to 320km per hour (200mph), up to 100 metres (300 feet) away.
The reader network, which includes fixed location readers (for use on the roadside) and portable readers (for use in surveillance vehicles and handheld devices), sends the unique identifier in real time to a central system where it is matched with the corresponding vehicle data such as registration number, owner details, make, model, colour, and tax/insurance renewal dates.
I don't doubt it.
With GPS in cars and in the cell phones people are yapping on all the time, we have accepted this technology voluntarily for so long that it is a little silly - and a little late - to get all upset about it now.
I don't think it is silly at all. Not everyone realizes all these plans with RFID is out there. And everyone should be very upset that those making the laws are profiting from it.
The information is freely available; the fact is, like with GPS, people don't understand the technology and don't pay attention, until all of this stuff has been installed.
Hence the point of getting the information out there.
A modest car for modest work and modest payment.
But what is modest? Thirty grand and a '93 LeSabre? Fifty grand a year and a '99 Taurus? Or seventy-five grand and a 2006 Nissan Altima?
Modest is what someone can actually afford. I drive an older low-mileage Saturn in excellent condition. It was completely paid for before I drove it off the lot.
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