RFID Chips: the Next Big Privacy Concern

Radio-frequency I.D. (RFID) tags are a convenient way to track items and cut costs for companies. But this technology is increasingly being used to track other things, like security badges - or even people - giving it the potential to cause a horrific erosion of privacy. Tracking people with smart tags, their shopping preferences, their activities, and their personal belongings sounds like something from a sci-fi thriller. But If you got your panties in a twist over Walmart's decision to track your undies via RFID smart tags, then you'll be doublely concerned at how close we are to cradle-to-grave surveillance.


RFID tags reached a tipping point with Walmart's announcement that, starting next month, the retailer will place removable "smart tags" on consumer goods. The RFID tags can be read by hand-held scanners to track inventory levels and keep a better eye on loss prevention. Recent drops in the cost per RFID tags have encouraged adoption of this technology. With Wal-Mart publicly embracing RFID, you'll see other retailers quickly fall in line.

If your trash is filled with RFID tags, your trash could be exploited by cybercriminals (driving by with a RFID reader). Perhaps consumers should be advised to trash the offending tag before they leave Walmart parking lot? I’m honestly less concerned that cybercriminals will be cataloging an individual’s purchases via their trash than I am about RFID becoming "spychips" -  using the RFID technology to track the whereabouts of citizens who have no idea they are being tracked. RFID chips are already embedded into passports and other everyday items. These potential privacy-decimating spychips can be the size of a dust speck.

I’m not railing against all creative uses for RFID tracking. There are uses for it that aren’t intended to be violations of your privacy (though in the wrong hands, who knows?) A project called "RememberMe" was started earlier this year as a way of recording memories by tracking clothes and other objects by tagging them with an RFID tag and Quick Response (QR) codes. When the owners of the objects donate them to the shop, a research assistant would record brief stories about the donated objects into a microphone: where they acquired it, the memories attached and any associated stories. Everyone that participates volunteers to do so - so no one’s privacy is violated in this case.

Food is tracked with RFID for freshness and any possible contamination. A company came out with the world's smartest coffee mug that was embedded with RFID to store the owner's account information, purchase habits, and preferences. Perhaps your business has utilized RFID tracking with products such as Microsoft's BizTalk RFID Mobile? Many companies now use RFID tracking, be it in employee badges or for product tracing.

When it comes to using RFID to track humans and our whereabouts, that's when my hackles get raised. Not that this is new either. In 2007, after newspapers reported on a controversial program designed to compile massive dossiers of data on most every American, the website for Total Information Awareness was taken down. People naturally freaked out at the privacy invasion.

But the idea is far from dead. How about if governments started using RFID to issue automated ticket violations? As part of a project called ASSET-Road, VTT Technical Research Center in Finland, has developed RFID license plate tracking. The project began in 2008 and will wrap in June, 2011. VTT attempts to detect traffic congestion but it also achieved the goal of “traffic violations detected in a flash.” And then Arizona-based camera vendor American Traffic Solutions (ATS) expanded upon that RFID technology by developing automated tailgating tickets as a feature that can soon be added to existing speed camera programs. Now add in this bit of info: There are also drivers licenses that "come equipped with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags that can be read right through a wallet, pocket or purse from as far away as 30 feet."

Along similar lines is a company using RFID to track employees. An Indian company, Unity Infraprojects, uses RFID employee tags to keep track of so-called "ghost workers." The only way an employee gets paid is by a combination of RFID evidence and physical presence to collect daily payment.

And there are those taking this idea of tracking people a step further. RFID transponders can be embedded as a subdermal implant, similar to a microchip. Microchips for tracking our beloved pets are now common. Microsoft has HealthVault and Google has Google Health for e-health record management services and both are pushing for RFID medical bracelets. Between 2007 and 2009, RFID in the guise of VeriChip implants were given to hundreds of Alzheimer’s patients to help identify them and notify caregivers in case of an emergency.

Since 2008, RFID infant protection systems have been placed on some infants at birth to prevent them from being abducted from the hospital or from being given to the wrong mother. A new RFID product, "guarantees that RFID will follow you straight to your grave." The palm-size stone tablet has an RFID tag that talks with mobile phones to direct users to an Internet memorial archive. And such uses for RFID are only the tip of the iceberg. Thing Magic, a company that builds embedded RFID readers, recently launched 100 Uses of RFID.

In themselves, most of these are "valid uses" of RFID technology. Indeed RFID chips are often an embraced technology due to the good they could do for loss prevention. Then again, RFID technology can be the cause of security vulnerabilities. For instance, security badges with RFID chips can broadcast to the criminals where those badges are located. In an article about Fort Gordon stolen military IDs, embedded with RFID, Pentagon’s Counterintelligence Field Activity released a report stating, “The mere possession of a stolen card could, in fact, pose a security risk.”

Former NSA employee James Atkinson, still immersed in the world of intelligence and counterintelligence, said his business and government clients, "often fail to recognize security holes that to him seem big enough to steer a tank through." In regards to the missing RFID enabled military badges, Atkinson stated, “If a spy can get within 300 feet of where classified material is handled, he owns it. I mean, he owns it big time.”

At this year's HOPE hacker conference, the hackers showed both the good and the bad that comes when a person is attached to an RFID badge. “This badge knows what talks you go to. It knows who you talk to. It knows what places in the conference you go. It knows when you were there,” says Rob Zinkov, of the HOPE badge team. If you use that data to enhance your own conference experience, RFID is good. If someone else uses that data, unbeknownst to you, not good.

Extreme-range RFID tracking (hundreds of meters) will be explored and exploited during DEFCON. Also this year's DEFCON Badge was described as "a full-fledged, active electronic system. Pushing fabrication techniques to the limit and using some components that are so new they barely exist, the design of this year's badge took some serious risks." At last year's DEFCON, some hackers were able to temporarily steal other hackers' and a fed's identity. According to ThreatLevel, when a RFID "reader caught an RFID chip in its sights — embedded in a company or government agency access card, for example — it grabbed data from the card, and the camera snapped the card holder’s picture."

Location-aware apps are scary enough, based on GPS with the broad range they offer. But for the most part you still have to sign up for those. RFID is being implemented all around you. It has slowly been moving to mainstream. It can track infants to senior citizens with Alzheimer’s. In between it can track your clothes, your purchases, your car — even you. RFID is on the verge of tracking us all, cradle to the grave.

WRITTEN BY: Ms. Smith with original article at Network World available by clicking on the title of this posting

Some Parents Should Be Smacked

The ShopRite supermarket in Easton, PA received a simple request. The store provides birthday cakes, as many major chain groceries do now, and the parents of a little 3-year old boy wanted simply to buy a cake and have the tots name put on top. You know, "Happy Birthday so-and-so." Very simple, right? How much controversy could there be?. There was just one teeny, weeny, little problem for the store employee in the bakery section: the little tots name is Adolf Hitler Campbell. These parents named their child after one of the worst human beings in the history of the planet. Perhaps the next will be Charles Manson Campbell? Nope, because they actually already have two other children. Two-year old JoyceLynn Arian Nation CampbellS, and one-year old Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell. I mean, what happened there? Why not go right out and have the guts to call the kid Heinrich Himmler Campbell? Seriously, some parents should be smacked upside the back of the head, at a minimum. Parents name their kids for these goofy-assed shock value reasons, never considering that the poor kid has to grow up and live with this name for the rest of their life. Now, I am all for naming your child after your favorite movie star, music star, politician, baseball player, what have you. But let's be reasonable here, folks. There is a line. That line of decency and normalcy has been pushed back and pushed back by our society, but there comes a time that you have to stand up and call an idiot an idiot, and these parents are quite simply idiots of the first magnitude. The story got out in the Easton community, and a local newspaper interviewed the dear old dad of young Adolf. Dad's response was indignance at society's reaction: "People need to...start focusing on the future and forget the past" said dad Heath Campbell. The guy even had the gall to invoke the Obama name as a defense: "There's a new President, and he says its time for a change...a name's a name, the kid isn't going to grow up and do what he did", dad meaning Adolf Hitler, not Barrack Obama, of course. Maybe mom is normal, and dad is maneuvering all this, right? Try again. Mommy placed the order for the cake, and shopped around until she found a Wal-Mart that was willing to do it. Daddy Campbell, of course of German ancestry, thinks we all just need to get over it. Well, I guess we don't have much choice, dad. But as little Adolf grows up and his name gets out, I am betting that he has a much harder time getting over it. And that is your fault, Heir Campbell.

Time for Christmas Shopping

Okay, the zaniness of 'Black Friday' is still a week away, but now is the time to really start your Christmas shopping. By next weekend, and for each of the final four weekends afterwards before the actual holiday, the rush at your local mall is going to only get worse and worse. Oh yeah, I know, there is some 'financial crisis' or whatever the doomsayers are trying to sell you on today. So there won't be any Christmas shopping this year, right? Probably will be short lines and plenty of stock on the shelves at the stores, right? You can put it off until later this year, right? Wrong! You and I both know that you are going to be out there buying gifts for your kids and grandkids, your siblings, your parents (right girls?) as well as other close family members and friends. So let me give you a hint. Get out there this weekend! Things began to pick up last weekend at the malls and stores. They are going to get worse next weekend and every one after that through December. This is the time to take advantage. Get out there, beat the real mad rush. Grab exactly what you want without fighting too much of a crowd. Oh, it will be crowded. But this rush is nothing compared to what is going to be happening for the following five weekends. An even better idea, begin to get a bunch of your shopping done online. Places like 'Amazon.com' are all ready to help you do the bulk of your shopping right from the comfort of your own home. They ship directly to you at a small fee, in plenty of time for you to get the gifts wrapped for redistribution by you at the holiday. Almost every major store has an online service now to help you shop at home. From Sears to Wal-Mart, from candy to food, from gift certificates to high-end clothes and jewelry, you can buy pretty much anything online these days. Just have your credit card ready. And as for those credit cards, don't be afraid to spend, as long as you are secure in your job. If you have a good, steady job there is no reason to fear spending your good, hard-earned money in bringing some love and joy at the holidays. So get out there this weekend and get going, or just stay home and fire up the computer and get going, or tune the TV to HSN or QVC and get going. But get going, now is the time. Get those Christmas decorations, you will be decorating starting next weekend. And don't forget those Christmas cards too, you are going to be wanting to mail them out in just two more weeks. Get to it people, this is going to be your best weekend remaining to get it done. Just 33 shopping days until Christmas. 'Carpe Diem', Christmas shoppers!