Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Tiny transmitters give retailers, privacy advocates goosebumps

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2003 01:43:47 -0500

USA Today's CyberSpeak Column

By Andy Kantor
December 19, 2003

Tiny transmitters give retailers, privacy advocates goosebumps

My column last week (See
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2003-12-11-kantor_x.htm)
on tools that help your neighbors invade your privacy gave some readers the
heebie-jeebies. The idea of someone secretly tracking them didn't sit well.

This week ain't gonna be any better.
Say hello to RFID: radio-frequency identification. If you don't know about
it already, you're going to. Because, depending on who you ask, RFID
technology is either a giant can of WD-40 on the wheels of commerce and
inventory, or a spawn of the evil military-industrial complex that (still)
plans to enslave us all.

The truth is-all together now-somewhere in between.

RFID technology involves "tags" and "readers." An RFID tag can be as small
as a postage stamp or a grain of rice, and it's placed on or in something-a
pallet being shipped, a box on the UPS truck, or a consumer good like a
razor or a can of soup. (Tags are cheap: less than 25 cents for some, and
that price is going to drop.)

An RFID reader might be in the entrance to a warehouse, in a handheld
computer, or at a cashier's station. When an RFID tag gets in range of a
reader, it sends the reader information about itself-whatever's programmed
into its memory. "Pallet 5819155 from Flushing," or "Gillette Mach 3 razor
from batch 16449905" or what have you. The tags don't need batteries; they
get their power from the signal sent by the readers.

(Those of you who remember crystal radio sets (See
http://home.houston.rr.com/molerat/crystal.htm), raise your hands.)

Think of RFID tags as high-tech bar codes, but with two very important
differences. First, bar codes need to be held a few inches from a scanner,
and need to be visible-picture a supermarket cashier swiping a loaf a bread
over his scanner. But RFID tags only need to come within about 10 to 30 feet
of a reader, and don't have to be pointing a certain way. Walking past an
RFID reader with something carrying a tag is enough.

The other difference is the amount of information. Every can of Campbell's
chicken noodle soup has the same bar code-it says "This is a can of
Campbell's chicken noodle soup." But RFID tags can store up to two kilobytes
of information. That's about 2,000 characters-including spaces that can be
more than 300 words. It's enough to say (to a computer), "This is can number
2003173451 of Campbell's chicken noodle soup, produced at 3:48 PM on August
8, 2003 at the third processing station in the Newton, Iowa plant. It was
canned by a machine operated by Steve Smith because Jeff Jones was out sick
that day." (That example, by the way, is about a quarter of a kilobyte.)
So that's RFID: miniscule transmitters that can be placed (or hidden) on any
product you can imagine. And they're already in use all over: as security
devices in car keys, in warehouses to track inventory, in the ExxonMobil
SpeedPass (http://www.speedpass.com/)
quick-payment keys, and in automatic toll-paying systems like New York
City's EZ Pass (http://www.ezpass.com/).

That's nice, you say-I like my car being secure and I like to zip through
toll booths. Retailers and shippers like RFID, too. It makes it easy to
track goods as they move through the warehouse, or make sure library books
don't walk out the door, or keep track of inventory on store shelves.

But RFID readers aren't only where you might think. They aren't just at cash
registers or in warehosues. They can also be embedded in store shelves.
Consumers in Brockton, Mass., got their first whiff of these so-called
"smart shelves" earlier this year when Wal-Mart's quiet (or shall we say
"secret"?) plans to test an RFID system with Gillette were revealed. (They
were cancelled soon after the press got wind.)

It was going to work like this: Every Gillette product has an RFID tag taped
into the packaging. In Wal-Mart's test store, RFID readers in the shelves
connected to a computer system that would track inventory: As the razors
were taken off the shelf, the system would know.

It could also take a photo.

Yikes.

And thus we bump into the other side of RFID technology-the side that can
track your movements once you're carrying something that's tagged.

This could be a good thing. You might approach Schick's smart shelf with a
Gillette razor in your cart and trigger a coupon for a free trial. And
that's cute when only a few things have RFID tags in them. But it's only a
matter of time before most things sport the tags. And while Gillette puts
its tags in the packaging instead of the razors themselves (so once you get
home and unwrap it, it's gone), other companies might not be so
accommodating. Would you know if there was an RFID tag in your lipstick?

You are what you buy. At least, every time you walk by an RFID reader. Let
me toss out some scenarios:

A department store's RFID system recognizes that you're carrying an item you
bought there last week. Now it knows who you are. And if there are readers
scattered about, it knows where you're going. Come home to a phone call,
"Mr. Kantor, we noticed you were shopping for a television."

Sophisticated thieves walk by homes with RFID readers to get an idea of
what's inside. Slightly less sophisticated thieves do the same thing in a
parking lot, scanning car trunks.

You go for a job interview, and your prospective employer creates an
inventory of your personal possessions. Or maybe your prescriptions. And you
thought Google searches were sneaky.

The state puts an RFID chip in your driver's license and readers along the
highways.

RFID technology is here, and it's in use all over. The first smart shelves
are being deployed, and the tags are showing up in more and more products.
So if your local police hand out complementary pocket-sized flashlights,
stop and think.

Andrew Kantor is a technology writer, pundit, and know-it-all living in
Columbus, Ohio; he's also a former editor for PC Magazine and Internet
World. Read more of his work at kantor.com.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2003-12-19-kantor_x.htm

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