NoSSN - Press coverage of CASPIAN's opposition to RFID

+ April has been a busy month for CASPIAN in the media!
+ National Public Radio (streaming audio link)
+ Business Week Video (streaming video link)
+ Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conference (streaming audio link)

+ CFP writeup (SFGate)
+ Reuters: "Do you know what your underwear is saying about you?"
+ St. Petersburg Times: "Clothes that spy on you"
+ Additional coverage
+ RFID "eRumor" spreads like wildfire through Internet
+ International coverage of CASPIAN's opposition to RFID

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QUITE A MONTH FOR MEDIA
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When it rains, it pours -- and have we ever been busy! CASPIAN's press
coverage this month has been so extensive that we are devoting an entire
newsletter just to catching up. While there are too many stories to
list each one individually, we have included a cross-section of stories
featuring CASPIAN's opposition to RFID surveillance devices below.

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NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO (LISTEN HERE)
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National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" ran a story on April
18th that broadcast CASPIAN's RFID privacy concerns to an estimated 12
million listeners.

Source:
"NPR : Retail Tracking Chip Worries Privacy Advocates"
Larry Abramson, All Things Considered, April 18, 2003

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BUSINESS WEEK VIDEO (VIEW HERE)
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CASPIAN founder Katherine Albrecht discusses the perils of RFID with
Business Week's Jane Black.

Title: "Eyeing Buyers: Consumer advocate Katherine Albrecht says new
chips embedded in consumer goods are coming to a store near you. And
that spells dangers for privacy."
Business Week Video, April 9, 2003

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CFP PANEL: "AUTO ID: TRACKING EVERYWHERE" (LISTEN HERE)
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Katherine Albrecht coordinated an RFID panel discussion at this year's
Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (CFP) conference in New York City
earlier this month. The 1-hour panel discussion featured Ms. Albrecht,
Mark Roberti (RFID Journal), Richard M. Smith (Computerbytesman.com),
and J.D. Abolins (moderator). Included in the audio below is a
discussion of how marketers can use RFID chips to track and spy on
customers, plus evidence challenging the Auto-ID Center's claims that it
has a "longstanding concern for privacy."

Source:
CFP Plenary Session #12, "Auto ID: Tracking Everywhere"
April 4, 2003, 9:00-10:15 AM; New Yorker Hotel, New York, NY.

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CFP WRITEUP (SF GATE, SAN FRANCISCO)
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Dozens of national and international journalists attend CFP each year.
After the panel discussion above, Katherine was surrounded by horrified
reporters wanting to learn more about the implications of RFID.
Annallee Newitz of SF Gate later wrote the following:

"[C]onference speaker, Katherine Albrecht of Consumers Against
Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN) was the best
example of someone whose passion for privacy has shaped her life.... She
worries that ubiquitous RFID chips could lead to people being identified
simply by scanning their clothing from a distance. Indeed, RFIDs are so
small they can be woven into the fabric of envelopes, she said, and this
possibility opens up a whole new can of worms. 'I was shredding my mail
the other day, as I always do,' Albrecht said, 'and it occurred to me
that if RFIDs show up in envelopes, it won't matter if I shred it.
Someone could run a scanner over my trash bags and see where all my mail
had come from.' "

Source: "War on Electronic Privacy: Attendees of Computers, Freedom and
Privacy conference fight for high tech civil liberties"
Annalee Newitz, SF Gate, April 10, 2003
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/bios/

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REUTERS: DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR UNDERWEAR IS SAYING ABOUT YOU?
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Excerpt:
"Tiny wireless transmitters promise to link tires, razors and other
everyday items to the Internet, creating a world where money actually
talks and the walls really do have ears....

"But civil-liberties advocates say the sensors could also enable an
Orwellian world where sales clerks and law-enforcement officials, with
the wave of a wand, could find out the contents of a purse. Or the fact
that you purchased your name-brand briefs for $10 on sale at a
specifically named department store."

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ST. PETERSBURG TIMES: CLOTHES THAT SPY ON YOU
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Excerpt: "In order to bring a touch of chilling realism to the film
Minority Report starring Tom Cruise, director Steven Spielberg consulted
a cadre of MIT futurists. The result was a world where advertising
billboards spoke directly to pedestrians by name, and where virtual Gap
clerks using retinal scanning asked a customer crossing the store's
threshold how he enjoyed "that three-pack of tank tops you bought last
time you were in"

"The film declared privacy dead in the year 2054 -- an apt prediction.
But that death certificate is likely to be issued well before
midcentury. The grave is being dug now, driven by government's
insatiable appetite for more information on each of us and businesses'
craven desire to sell us more by documenting our habits and tastes down
to the last purchase." [snip]

"Katherine Albrecht, a national consumer privacy researcher and
activist, says that if RFID were utilized in stamps and letters, even
shredding correspondence before putting it in the trash wouldn't be a
protection against its source and, potentially, even its contents being
known." [snip]

"To the retail world we are all walking wallets. If profit is at stake,
other values such as individuality and keeping a respectable distance
become indulgences to be disregarded. Add to this the confluence of
interests between commerce and government -- both seeking to observe our
lives in a highly intrusive way -- and you have a society with no
powerful ally for privacy. 2054 my foot. Try 2005."

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ADDITIONAL COVERAGE
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Excerpt: "Clothing maker Benetton won't be using radio tags on its
products after all, a move which appears to be a victory for pro-privacy
groups and a blow to Dutch electronics giant Philips."

Excerpt: "Perhaps bowing to pressure from privacy groups, Benetton Group
has issued a statement saying that it has not embedded tracking devices
in any of its clothing products and that it has not yet decided whether
or not to use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags."

Excerpt: "In a move that may have brought unwanted attention to a
burgeoning industry, Italian clothing maker Benetton Group said it has
not embedded any radio frequency identification tags in any of its
clothing....[Privacy] groups say the industry in general hasn't done
enough to educate the public on the possible abuses for RFID tags."

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RFID "eRUMOR" SPREADS LIKE WILDFIRE THROUGH INTERNET
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How many tens of thousands of copies of Mary Starrett's "I'd Rather Go
Naked" article circulated through email before reaching the folks at
Truth or Fiction, a self-described website where Internet users can
"quickly and easily get information about eRumors," revealing the truth
about "the stories that are the most widely-circulated on the Internet"?

The "rumor," titled "Benetton, Gillette, and Other Companies Propose Use
of Electronic Tags to Track Merchandise" goes as follows:

"The eRumor says there is a threat to privacy through the intended use
of small chips embedded in clothing and other products that can provide
information about the products and their users wirelessly."

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INTERNATIONAL COVERAGE OF CASPIAN'S OPPOSITION TO RFID
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Here is a sample of recent international articles mentioning CASPIAN

NETHERLANDS (Netkwesties - Includes Katherine Albrecht photo)
April 17, 2003
Title: "De Marketingnachtmerrie van Benetton en hoe Philips die
Veroorzaakte"
"De panische angst van Benetton is voor besmetting van hun global brand;
het verdonkeremanen van een persbericht door Philips...Zie hier de
ingrediÃ«nten van een botsing tussen giganten met privacy als inzet."
http://www.netkwesties.nl/editie59/artikel1.html

SCOTLAND (The Scotsman)
Title: "Shop tags that can spy on your life"
Stephen Fraser, April 20, 2003
"It sounds like a Big Brother nightmare, but in the near future every
item in your bedroom wardrobes and kitchen cupboards could be a
potential spy..."
http://www.news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=453872003

FRANCE (Transfert)
Title: "Benetton est socialement irresponsable [Katherine Albrecht]"
"Vous la reconnaissez ? C'est la directrice de l'ONG Caspian, qui
demande un moratoire sur les "Ã©tiquettes intelligentes"
http://www.transfert.net/article.php3?id_article=8582

AUSTRALIA (IT News)
Title: "Privacy concerns hinder RFID rollout"
Antone Gonsalves, Information Week; April 11, 2003
"Major retailers rushing to use tiny radios...have raised opposition
from consumer advocates who say companies have failed to adequately
protect consumer privacy"
http://www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.cfm?ID=9&Art_ID=11846

GERMANY (Focus Magazine - 6 million readers)
Title: "Lauschangriff aufs MÃ¼sli: Milliarden sandkorngroÃŸer Funk-Chips
sollen bald die AlltagsgegenstÃ¤nde vernetzen. DatenschÃ¼tzer
protestieren"
Jochen Wegner, April 19, 2003
http://focus.msn.de/F/2003/17/Technik/minisender/minisender.htm

UK (ZDNet UK)
Title: "Benetton considers chip plans"
Winston Chai and Richard Shim, April 7, 2003
"Clothing maker Benetton has clarified its plans regarding radio
tags....Nagging privacy concerns have sparked off strong consumer furor
over the initial Philips-Benetton announcement. "
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t295-s2133031,00.html

CASPIAN - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering
A national consumer organization opposing retail surveillance since 1999

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