Posted on 06/26/2006 3:51:15 PM PDT by pubwvj
RFID tags in our livestock, in our pets, in our licenses, in passports, in food, in clothing and maybe someday in you. It is getting rather excessive. Fortunately there are a number of ways to kill RFID chips. See the Technical Documents section of the right hand sidebar for how to build your very own RFID bomb with which you can clear you home of unauthorized RFID chips. For the less technically inclined there is a simple device that most people already own which does a admirable job of frying RFID chips.
The way that passive RFID chips work is they pickup a radio signal from the wand using a large in-chip antenna. This energy is stored up over a short period to accumulate enough power to activate the chip and then send back its code number to the receiver.
If you can send out a strong enough signal, and it doesn't take much, you will overload the RFID chip and burn it out. A microwave oven on high for just a moment does the trick in my own tests. The chip I tested was inside of a credit card and I fried it on high for about 2 seconds - On-Off! The card is still operational using the magnetic strip and the numbers embossed on it but the RFID chip is fried and the antenna was nicely crisped. The hologram (nickel) was also fried and is now unreadable.
Some clothing companies are now putting RFID tags in jeans, sneakers and other items. Many other items are being manufactured with RFID tags. Their excuse is inventory control and theft prevention. If that were really the case then they should be turning the tags off when you buy the product. For a while that was what was done but no more.
There is a new and more sinister reason for the vendors to be tagging your products - they are tagging you in the process. Scenario: you go to Wal-Mart and buy shoes with an RFID tag. When you check out you pay with a credit card. Using that information they link you to that RFID tag. When you return they are able to know that you walked in the store. They can then track where you move through the store and what you buy each time to learn about your interests and buying habits. This helps them target you with advertising so you'll buy more from them.
Vendors are already discussing signs that change based on who the buyer is near the signs. Then there is the custom pricing model that is already being explored on the Internet by some vendors using cookies - they change the prices of products based on who the customer is to maximize their profits. Coming soon to a store near you!
Ah, but you say, what if I buy those shoes for my brother? No problem, when he comes in the store's software recognize that the RFID tag and the person don't match when he checks out and they correct their database. More over, if your brother already has other tags embedded in his apparel they can do a tentative correction as he walks in the door.
Warning: Putting metal into a microwave oven causes sparks and may start a fire. I am not suggesting you do this. Anything you do do you do at your own risk. This is merely my observation and experience. Usual disclaimers apply: don't walk on the grass void where prohibited. I would also not suggest putting living organisms inside the microwave. No kidding.
Next thing you know... they'll be wanting to put flouride in our water... poison our precious bodily fluids...
Truthfully, if they want to follow me around the local WallyWorld, they can. They will fInd I am the most boreing customer they have.
So, now a retailer can not tell if this card is valid, or fraudelent. Thus, a retailer SHOULD deny this individual the use of the card.
The card does NOT belong to you, it never has belonged to you, and it never will belong to you. The card is issued in your name, however the card is and remains the property of the lending institution. That's why they can demand the card back.
How about potential thieves, cruising through parking lots at Christmas time, getting an inventory of the merchandise in the cars with a portable scanner?
Don't think this method would work too well on the pets, either.
Uhhh, actually flouride is known to attack thyroid hormones. It's been known for years to do that, should too much of the stuff gets into the human body.
As for these tags, how do you really get rid of them? Exactly how big are they, and can one find one in apparel?
Your car is basically a Faraday cage meaning that very few frequencies will make it into your car. Your car, being metal, will filter a large portion of the useable energy out of a scanner.
The RF ID tag requires an antenna to get power enough to activate the chip, and for the chip to 'chirp' the information back. This form of hi-tech is simply much for your typical thief to use, much less understand. A hammer, a chunk of pipe or screw driver is much easier to use, easier to conceal and easier to obtain. I just can't imagine too many thieves wandering through the parking lot with a RF transceiver powerful enough to punch through the sunscreen of your car, and a laptop computer fitted with all of the possible RF codes so the theif knows which item he should steal .... all while doing his best to look inconspicious.
Glass isn't much of an RF shield. Scanners will be large and complicated initially. The will be small and simple to operate soon enough. I'll wager I can get all the barcode infomormation for every item in the average WalMart on an IPod.
But glass with a sunscreen (Metalic coating) certainly filters out a lot of RF. Also, bear in mind we are talking micro-watts (10e-6) of power. Given the range from a window, the metal skin on the car; do you think the unpowered RF chip will produce a response that is measureably greater than ambient noise? I doubt the RF chip's transmit power is great enough to make it back out of the car; at a level that is great enough to distinguish from ambient.
RF isn't my specialty; but this doesn't pass the 'sniff test'. Maybe I'm wrong.
I'm no expert either, but they hype RFID technology as having the potential to inventory a shipment while it's still in the container. Even if they exaggerate this by an order of magnitude, I don't think being able to inventory a passenger car from close range is unreasonable. IMHO.
I believe this means that the cardboard box, or pallet can be inventoried as it passes through a partition; in a very similar way that department stores and video stores use those little RF badges to trigger an alarm.
The RF ID tag is in pretty much every DVD you buy. Very basic chip, with a square or oblong package containing a filament antenna. It is powered by the RF transmitter, which sends a challenge code on a pre-determined frequency; the antenna stores the charge from the transmitter, and the chip 'squawks' the response code (ie. product code and serial number) with whatever minute charge the antenna was able to grab - minus processing power.
Hitting a rail car with this would be pretty useless; as even if the signal strength were strong enough to make it through the cracks and floorboards of the rail car; the response is very weak. The response would not make it back out. Now, plywood crates are another matter all together. Plywood, plastic, cloth and things of that nature do not noticably impeded RF signals.
So I'm OK as long as I don't have a car with plastic body panels?
You must deny them your essence!
bttt
A Your car is basically a Faraday cage meaning that very few frequencies will make it into your car. Your car, being metal, will filter a large portion of the useable energy out of a scanner.
ME I can't take my corvette to wall-mart, drat and double drat.
THANKS MUCH.
Have been waiting for such.
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