Corporate America is Tracking Your Every Move

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.

>>>>under-skin liquid *tattoo* tag

Gee, sounds reminiscent of translucent inks....

Jacobus Lambertus Lentz, collaborated with the Nazis in 1941 to improve the existing ID cards and data processing systems.

August 17 (1941), Lentz devised a unique tamper-proof personal identification card that could not be forged. Translucent inks were employed to print key words that disappeared under a quartz lamp. The stamp franking was acetone-soluble. Photos of the individual were affixed front and back through a window transparently sealed and adhered with permanennt glue. A fingerprint of the person's right index finger was then impressed upon one of the photos so it always displayed through a small window. The individual's signature on watermarked paper completed the document, which included personal details.

Having created an ID Card, Lentz then anticipated the occupying Nazis demands for censuses and lists of Jews and non-Jewish slave labourers (categorised by skills and education), which were used for the mass arrests and deportations, through his IBM Hollerith punched card analyses.

There is tremendous misunderstanding about RFID. It is not a "homing system". The small RFID tags which can be put on everything do not broadcast on their own. They have to be "shot" with an RFID reader.

Passive Electronic Product Code (EPC) RFID tags have a range from one to three meters. The idea is they allow your shopping cart to be scanned without removing the items.

So frithguild, RFID cannot "find" your glasses. An RFID reader could gather information from an RFID tag on your glasses assuming you were in range (i.e., a few feet). So first, you would need to be in the same room, and then RFID would tell you, "yes your glasses are near". But it won't tell you if they are between the cushions of the couch, or under the newspaper on the coffee table.

"it can also track the whereabouts of the individual who purchases it and I believe that's an invasion of privacy."

An RFID tag can only track the whereabouts of the individual who purchases the product with the RFID tag if an RFID scanner is brought within range of the RFID tag, the location of the RFID scanner is known, and the the purchaser is still with the RFID tag. Given a range of a few meters, the Men in Black(tm) with RFID scanners would have to be in the same room, or crawling around outside your house shooting their RFID feaders through the windows. Why the Men in Black(tm) want to see if you still have that jar of Ragu you bought last month is beyond me.

Even an Active RFID tag (which is a large, bulky device), has a limited range (about 30 meters), intended for areas the size of shipping yards.

... 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.

They have been able to do this for years with UPC bar codes! This is simple fearmongering.

I remember growing up in the south in the late 1970s when UPC bar codes came out. There were many convinced it was the mark of the beast. Just like the loons today fearmonger about RFID implanted in humans, the loons then fearmongered about mandatory bar code tattoos on everyone.

"RFIDs are in your clothing, in your underwear, in your razor blade packages, any item that you purchase."

The idea of RFID tags "in your clothing" is a bit of a stretch. They would more likely be on the tag, which unless you are Minnie Pearl, you generally remove. You could put an RFID chip into clothing, but you probably could not include an antenna, which would reduce the range to about a foot.

Imagine the invasion of privacy if someone next to you could tell what kind of clothes you were wearing! The color, the style, everything!

As for Hitachi's "powder" RFID chips, these pictures are only of the memory chip. The devices pictured do not include an antenna. To scan the chips without antenna as seen would require almost direct contact. If you want to scan it at three meters, you would need an RFID tag as big as the current ones used today.

I'll give you a personal account. I am debt free including house. I worked for a particular manager at the last job that knew too much about my finances.

I have no debt whatsoever including house and vehicles. Most of the time, I drive an old pickup truck. I was "strongly encouraged" to buy a vehicle that was "commensurate" with my position and like what others drove - newer vehicles and something that made a good impression to visitors to the parking lot. I replied that I was not interested and then he mentioned that he knew I had no debt and it should be nothing for me to buy a vehicle, borrow some money, etc. I told him I wouldn't have any of that rubbish in diplomatic terms. I asked my old manager how he found out and he told me it was his business to know all of his direct report's finances. It is pretty easy. Take a person's SS#, have a friend do a credit check. That simple....

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