RFID and Your Privacy

Maybe you haven’t heard about RFID. The acronym RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. The technology was first used by manufacturers to convey information to retailers and keep track of shipping and inventory on their products in the late 1990’s.

Manufactures have embedded them in ordinary consumer items such as clothing, warehouse pallets and packaging on many items. And like the name says, they just use simple radio waves to transmit the data and therefore the waves can travel through just about any material.

RFID technology is used in many forms – everyday items that you buy daily, such as shampoo, toilet paper, office supplies, furniture, food, books, tires, medicine bottles, light bulbs, bedding and, of course, electronics. It can be incorporated into fabric fibers, plastics, metals, wires, paper, paint, almost anything.

The integrated circuit chips are incredibly tiny - about 1/64th the size of a grain of salt; and each has its own individual 38-digit number 128-bit ROM identification number. Because they are so miniscule the tags can be hidden inside almost anything, from the hat on the top your head, to your underwear or even the soles of your shoes. And every time you step within range of an RFID reader, the tags can be detected and their information extracted by any reader in that RF range all unbeknownst to you.

Like their tag counterparts, readers have become so small they can also barely be seen. Now they are hidden in store displays, public buildings, woven into carpet, embedded in ceiling tiles, incorporated into shelving, homes, sports arenas, shopping malls, bathrooms and even public spaces like parks with their composite benches, it’s even put it into flooring to tell where you are walking. They simply place the readers in key locations, and you never know that you have been probed. RFIDs incognito characteristics have enabled it to easily blend into our lives.

Your every move has been tracked for decades by the prying eyes of corporations and governments through the ordinary objects in your possession such as your cell phone, your key fob, your watch, your jewelry, your purse or your wallet; and you likely never had a clue about it. They use the chips to evaluate your status, age, sex, purchasing preferences and more.

School children’s and government uniform providers sew RFID tracking tags into the uniforms to keep an eye on the wearer revealing where they have been and who they have been associating with.

The U.S Postal Service embeds every U.S. Postage Stamp with an RFID chip and our own U.S Currency and International banknotes are embedded with RFID chips.

The Dept. of Transportation has long subsidized RFID technology, going as far as creating an exclusive radio band for surveillance systems that extract information from vehicles as they drive past pole mounted readers. The Federal Highway Administration some years ago required that every car manufactured in the U.S. is microchipped at the factory complete with global positioning satellite receiver that can identify any cars exact location. Automatic Vehicle Identification stations are now placed along the road monitoring your vehicles speed, direction and the date and times that you travelled. Toll booths have them as well. RFID enabled license plates, registrations and inspection stickers also monitor our travels.

When the U.S. public resisted a National ID card, our government simply RFID chipped our Drivers Licenses and passports, so you really wound up with a National ID card whether you wanted one or not.

Retailers and marketers are of course thrilled. With RFID technology they are able to evaluate a household’s income level, habits and purchases. RFID enabled refrigerators might record your eating habits and report to marketers what kind of goods are inside. When it is time to restock, a coupon might be sent in the mail or a targeted commercial may play on TV just for you. Or perhaps your RFID enabled fridge may make a recommendation for you; warning you about expiring milk or even compose a weekly shopping lists for you.

Medicine cabinets may now talk to your insurance company, doctor or government official and report your meds usage. Then there is the matter of the garbage that you throw away every day, RFID readers are placed inside garbage cans and garbage trucks. The marketer collects the data on your trash and then sells it on the open market.

Have you frequented a drugstore and used a loyalty card that offers you ‘rewards’ for shopping with them? Well guess what? You just gave them some good information they could use. Health officials track our prescription drug use and attorneys can subpoena your home activity records for use against you in court. Have your health insurance premiums gone through the roof lately? Perhaps your insurance company monitored your consumption of alcohol, junk food and cigarettes and set rates accordingly.

Not just marketers and government agents have access to our information but also criminals. RFID gives thieves a huge advantage to scope out valuables and identify easy marks. They can easily identify what is inside your shopping bag, car or house. More sophisticated criminal activities might include hacking, jamming, sabotage, eavesdropping or even terrorism. There is also a large threat of peeping Toms, perverts and stalkers using RFID to harass and intimidate their victims.

With all these drawbacks, you might be truly amazed that the public has accepted them so readily.

Never underestimate the power of convenience. Arguments in support of RFID adoption include faster checkout, educational benefits, consumer safety, quick access to diagnostic tests and other information, theft prevention, improved planning and forecasting, shaved labor cost and improved productivity; all resulting in greater profits!

But once RFID is allowed to slowly infiltrate our lives it becomes accepted as the norm. First comes RFID-microchipped inanimate objects, then comes microchipped pets and livestock, then prisoners, then military and security personnel; then immigrants, then voluntary chipping programs, then a national RFID medical device registry tied to healthcare, then schoolchildren in the classroom, then government workers, then newborn babies; and then, finally, as a show of absolute dominance and control, the general public.

 

About half of this is tripe. The good news is, tin-foil hats block the RFID signal.

 

Truly?
Which 1/2 exactly are you referring to? I cant wait to hear your intelligent answer.

 

I agree, this is more appropriate to the Conspiracy Theory section then Computers & Tech.

* There is no RFID chip in US Currency.
* There is no RFID chip in US Postage.

Those are the first two that jump out at me. But wait, there's more.

The majority of RFID tags in consumer goods are simple theft detection devices. They have no information other then if they are "enabled" or "disabled". This is why when you buy a high value or high theft item they pass it through a "demagnetizer" at the cashier. They have not been magnetic in well over a decade, it is a simple RFID chip. On, and it beeps the door alarm when you leave, off and nothing happens. It stores no data other then this simple on or off (these are normally seen as the 2"x2" white square inside of products like DVDs).

Then some goods have a secondary RFID chip with information like model and serial number. This is for internal use at the warehouse only, once it is put on and sometimes off of the truck that delivers it to the store, it is never accessed again (these are normally the thin raised plastic ones, 1.5" long, 1/4" wide and about 1/8" high). This is used by distribution channels to know what store an item went to. This is how for example when a recall goes out they can target the stores that got the shipments, or alert consumers if it is for example a tainted food product).

And there is no RFID chip in drivers licenses either. Some states have looked into it (California and Virginia), but none have ever implemented it.

However, all military IDs have an RFID chip in them.

Do you have DirecTV or Dish Network? Well, better throw them out, they have RFID cards in them.

Some credit cards have them also. Visa PayWave, MasterCard PayPass, American Express ExpressPay, and Discover Zip all use RFID, that is how you can just wave them and the transaction is done.

And if you live in a state like California, the FasTrak we use to pay for bridge tolls uses RFID. Originally they were radio transponders, cost about $200 and were permanently mounted in a car and required power (and an installation fee). Because of RFID, they are now about the size of a pack of smokes, do not plug into anything, and can be moved with ease (on my bike just 2 strips of velcro hold it in place).

Use a key card for your building? Odds are, it is RFID.

At home I even have an RFID Cordless Mouse. It is kinda cool, no cords at all, not even any batteries. The thing is powered through the pad, which pulls power from the USB.

And an RFID chip in an ID is amazingly easy to protect. All military RFID cards (including ID and Eagle Cash) are issued with a foil sleeve which acts as a Faraday cage.

In short, paranoia about RFID is silly. I would be much more worried about somebody capturing your BluTooth data (amazingly easy to do), or setting up a rogue Cell point and capturing your phone calls that way (also amazingly easy, equipment is available and not very expensive).

 

Thank you Mushroom for your reply however:
four states do currently have RFID chips in their driver licenses and more states have plans to do so in the future: Michigan, Vermont, New York, and Washington. U.S. Passports have an RFID tag embedded in the cover.

The postage stamps are EU’s national postal service for improved traceability of sent items. Not such a bad idea.

Europe has been tinkering off and on with RFID embedded in their notes since early 2001 and the costs to produce passive tags have come down so greatly since then that we may possibly anticipate seeing more in the future.

There are two types of RFID tags – passive and active. An active RFID tag will include a chip, an antenna and a battery. The antenna takes up the most space, and usually is a level metallic whorl that extends around the chip. The larger the antenna, the greater the range, but for consumer goods on average they run about the size of a small paper clip. Some even have metallic Nano-fiber paint that functions as an antenna that can simply be printed on paper. Though they may look like one, they are NOT simply anti-theft devices.
Passive tags which require an RFID reader simply have the IC chip and are getting smaller all the time. They are now scarcely larger than a speck of dust. Yet each RFID tag has its own unique number assigned to it and can store up to 38-digit numbers using 128-bit ROM.
A hand-held RFID reader would have a range of about six feet and one reader can communicate with multitudes of passive tags.

The intent here is less to induce paranoia about RFID that to simply inform, the fact is RFID is now a part of our lives and it is here to stay. The technology does however lay the groundwork for future intrusions into our privacy and it is still just in it's infancy.
The more one is informed the more measures can be taken to protect privacy.

 

"I am going to continue to be paranoid, and pontificate on the dangers of RFID, real or imagined."

Those states offer Enhanced Drivers Licenses, which also work as passports for entry into Canada and Mexico. They are an option, and not required.

So once again, big deal. Do not like it on your passport, then do not get a passport. Or move to another country which
does not have them. Sorry, I see this as a non-ussie, simply CT paranoia.

And what do I care what the EU does? They are free to do or not do whatever the hell they want to do.

So has Saudi Arabia, and other countries. Once again, so what? That is their country, they can do what they want.

Trust me, I know a lot more about RFID then you do. And most of what you are saying is coprolite.

No, your intent is to increase paranoia. It is all bull(*)(*)(*)(*).

"Micro fiber antenna"??? Are you freaking serious? Those are still years away from being real. They are experimenting with them in the lab, yes. Once again, for use in inventory control in warehouses. And you already have the largest possible intrusion in the world in your home, and you use it every day.

Your computer and the Internet.

So if you fear RFID, then simply never leave your house. Lock all your doors and windows, never go outside without tinfoil underwear, and unplug your computer and burn it in your neighbor's yard (otherwise they will trace it back to your house).

This part of the forum is to talk about serious computer and tech issues, not paranoid nonsense about RFID.

 

Yeah, you're a real funny guy. If you cant see whats obvious then what's the point continuing this useless dialog.

 

Sorry, since you didn't reply to my post, I didn't know you had replied. I'll try to highlight the 1/2 that's tripe is a color I'll call 'B.S. Brown'.

The whole section about RFID 'might allow them to do this to you', and 'may be able to do that to you' is all 'mostly-tripe' as well. While those things are technically possible, they are not very likely. Honestly, RFID has a lot of potential, and that comes with a lot of potential for abuse, I will concede. But regurgitating a bunch of overblown conspiracy theory and outright tripe is not generally the way to garner intelligent discourse.

For you, I will suggest the 'Abe Lincoln tin-foil Stovepipe'. It should afford you a sphere of protection from the government RFID trackers tallying your visits to the toilet.