CASPIAN Founder takes strong public stand against RFID
March 3, 2003
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| CASPIAN Founder takes strong public stand against RFID March 3, 2003 | ||
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More than 1.5 million people around the globe opened the Financial Times
over the weekend to read this scathing prediction prominently featured
at the top of the back page. Financial Times readers, described as "the
world's key decision-makers" in business and government, can no longer
pretend ignorance to the concerns of consumers and citizens over the
looming worldwide threat posed by RFID technology.
Prepare for an avalanche of news stories as the RFID topic gains wider
recognition. RFID product identification and tracking technology will
be the consumer battleground of the decade, and could become the most
crucial privacy and control issue ever to confront humanity. As the
article makes apparent, CASPIAN has taken an uncompromising stand
against the use of RFID technology to tag manufactured goods. We will
never support the use of RFID tags in consumer products. Period.
Read on for excerpts from the article and a chance to provide your
feedback on the subject.
In freedom,
Katherine Albrecht
CASPIAN Founder/Director
http://www.nocards.org
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"RADIO ID TAGS SPREAD WAVES OF ANGER AMONG PRIVACY ACTIVISTS"
BACK PAGE - FIRST SECTION, FINANCIAL TIMES
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By Simon London, Financial Times; Mar 01, 2003
"Ultimately this technology will enslave humanity," says Katherine
Albrecht, a privacy campaigner and Harvard University doctoral student.
The objects of her ire are radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags,
slivers of silicon coming soon to supermarket shelves.
Gillette, the US consumer products group, last month ordered 500m RFID
tags for tracking packets of razors through its supply chain. Michelin
has developed a manufacturing process to vulcanise a tag into every
tyre.
Many companies see RFID tags as the 21st century successors to barcodes,
but activists see a world where the movement of every object - and by
implication every person - can be monitored.
Ms Albrecht, who runs Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and
Numbering (Caspian), a group that opposes data collection by retailers,
is among the most vociferous opponents of RFID technology.
Many Caspian members, she says, "would rather walk naked than wear
clothes that have been tagged".
[snip]
According to Caspian, proponents of the RFID tag envisage a pervasive
global network of millions of receivers along the entire supply chain -
in airports, seaports, along roads, in distribution centres, warehouses,
retail stores, and homes. This, Caspian says, would allow for seamless,
continuous identification and tracking of physical items as they move
from one place to another, enabling companies to determine the
whereabouts of all their products at all times.
[snip]
Suggestions for an industry-wide solution range from Ms Albrecht's call
for a total ban to self-regulation and restraint by companies.
[snip]
Mr Hoofnagle [an attorney with EPIC]...calls on the US government to set
up a data protection commission to look at the privacy implications of
RFID
and other emerging technologies.
On one thing, however, almost everyone agrees: without a concerted
effort to address concerns about privacy, RFID technology could face a
public backlash.
Full story available online at:
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1045511247948 =========================================================================
Reporter Simon London can be reached at:
simon.london@ftnetwork.com
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SUPERMARKET INDUSTRY BAD GUYS LOOKING AT RFID, TOO
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Kevin Coupe, a grocery industry analyst and "loyalty" card proponent,
penned this article on the subject on Saturday:
"Radio Frequency Identification: Good Idea Or Bad?"
Supermarket Guru Website, March 1, 2003
http://supermarketguru.com/page.cfm/1451
Kevin Coupe can be emailed at: kc@kevincoupe.com
You can also register your opinion on an online poll associated with the
article:
http://www.supermarketguru.com/page.cfm?PageID=1452
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CASPIAN - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering
A national consumer organization opposing supermarket "loyalty" cards
and other retail surveillance schemes since 1999
We encourage you to duplicate and distribute this message to others.
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To subscribe or unsubscribe to the CASPIAN mailing list, click the
following link or cut and paste it into your browser:
http://www.nocards.org/cgi/mojo/mojo.cgi
If you have difficulty with the web-based interface, you may also
subscribe or unsubscribe via email by writing to:
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For CASPIAN's overview of RFID product identification and tracking
technology, please see this article:
http://www.nocards.org/AutoID/overview.shtml
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