Larry Downes's reaction in USA Today why Katherine Albrecht's quote "The risk it poses to humanity is on a par with nuclear weapons" is so out of line with reality.
He also comments:
Groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are most concerned about what happens once the product leaves the store. In theory, our home computers could some day serve as EPC readers, but only if consumers allow it. For example, EPC could be used to automatically reorder products or let consumers know when an appliance needs preventive maintenance. That's useful, not invasive.
I just discovered this --- Back in July, ABC*15 put out a really good special report on RFID privacy. This was done by the ABC TV affiliate in phoenix. Check it out!
From http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3080211
Already a major player in the Auto-ID market, Sun Microsystems this week announced an initiative for delivering the hardware, software and services that enable enterprises to link into the Elecronic Product Code (EPN) Network. The announcement coincided with news that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based services firm is creating a new Auto-ID business
...
Still, some experts such as Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego are skeptical. "The industry must make sure that they take into consideration the privacy and civil liberties implications of this technology," Givens told internetnews.com. "If Sun and other companies involved in RFID development do not address privacy implications head-on and design products with safeguards built in, they will face the same issue Intel experienced with Pentium III."
SAP has announced several enhancements to its supply chain management (SCM) software to improve warehouse management and is touting a return on the software investement of less than six months.
New to the SAP plate is more a tightly-integrated RFID and cross-docking to process incoming and outgoing goods in the yard.
http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3078931
Text on the film recognized before going through the printer
The new sheet, which features an embedded radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, is an addition to Ricoh's series of "RECO-View Sheet" products -- film sheets that can be repeatedly written on and erased by means of thermal printing. The film can be used to display the digital data stored in its own RFID tag.
http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/wcs/leaf?CID=onair/asabt/news/267546
From atnyork.com:
IBM has launched a radio frequency identification (RFID) service designed to help companies track their goods from packing to shipping and through their ultimate destination.
...
One of the company's first clients is Kimberly-Clarke, the consumer paper product company, which is putting RFID tags into place in its warehouses in order to improve its supply-chain tracking.
Two pro-gun-rights websites recently had postings on RFID and thoughts of using it to either tag guns or ammunition. On packing.org, a group of web posters ask whether or not the chips could be used to tag ammunition, while on the website Jews For the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Inc., (I am not making this up), there is an interesting article called Big Brother In Your Holster, which quotes Katherine Albrecht's comments about the launch of the EPC, then goes on to say: RFID and Firearms: Every Bullet Will Have Your Name on It!
ZDNet brings us this report:
The Malaysian government has bought the rights to tiny chips that can embed IDs into currency notes, bullets, passports and even inside human bodies, reported Malaysian daily The Star.
This commentary from Forrester Research hilights Wal-Marts requirement that its suppliers use RFID on pallets and cases, and concludes that things are looking good for the RFID industry. It wraps up with the following recommendations:
• Focus efforts on supply chain visibility. As Forrester has long maintained, RFID projects yield the biggest immediate benefits when they support order fulfillment and logistics. Why? Because these activities, which span the supply chain and require fast decision-making, lack visibility. As such, most near-term RFID testing should concentrate on pallets, cases, distribution centers and warehouses--not items and store shelves.
• Stop talking smart refrigerators and start talking real consumer benefits. Talk of refrigerators that monitor food consumption smack of an Orwellian society and will only fuel more protests against the implicit collection of consumer data. More responsible dialogue must center on the most valuable benefits of item-level RFID, such as tamper prevention for prescription drugs and the elimination of smuggling rings that distribute stolen goods throughout the developing world.
• Create an RFID privacy policy--now. Packaged-good manufacturers and retailers must address privacy concerns by adhering to best practices like outlining uses of RFID data and providing consumers with opt-in and opt-out choices. By doing so, companies will avoid missteps like Benetton's: The Italian clothier put its item-level rollout on hold, because it had not adequately addressed consumer privacy concerns.
This was news to me. Timex and Speedpass have teamed up to sell a variety of Speedpass-enabled timex watches.
Limit two per customer. Sign up now!
Swatch has had RFID-enabled watches for several years, but there are few places you can use it.
C|Net's Alorie Gilbert once again lays out the case for RFID in this article. A very positive leaning overview, with not much new, but there are some projections as to timing and size of market that some may find interesting.
Gilbert lays out some technical hurdles to overcome, but they don't sound like major obstacles. On the social side, Gilbert has this to say:
Beyond the technical issues, the technology faces difficult political obstacles in the form of organized labor. Unions don't want to see warehouse and shipment workers' livelihoods automated away by computers, as evidenced last year when a strike by dockworkers over the introduction of new technology brought commerce to a halt on the West Coast.
Other concerns are being raised by privacy advocates, who fear that the use of RFID chips in consumer goods will eventually lead to a surveillance society. Initial trials by Wal-Mart and Britain's largest retailer, Tesco, to tag individual products with RFID devices were met with boycotts and protests.
In IP Addresses For Coke Cans? Verisign receives some press on their announcement of EPC products, due to be demonstrated at the EPC Symposium, September 15-17 in Chicago. I always thought Coke cans were a particularly difficult challenge in terms of RFID tagging. Is that impression wrong, or was this just an unfortunate example chosen by internetnews.com?
The article mentions privacy concerns, and Verisign's answer is that they have an existing suite of authentication and security products which can be overlaid atop the EPC network. It reads as though Verisign thinks the privacy issue is not so much about consumers wanting protection from having their actions tracked, but rather about competing commercial entities using RFID and EPC data for corporate espionage.
C|Net ran this interview today with California state senator Debra Bowen. Here's a sample:
Q: Isn't there a danger of restricting the development of this [RFID] technology at such an early stage and perhaps squashing the potential benefits?
A: I don't think so. I think that what we want to do is guide development in a way that's positive overall for society. It's not good for anyone to spend lots of money to develop and apply a technology in a way that causes a consumer revolt.
An article in EE Times has a misleading first sentence, but I think that the author is saying that Hitachi has figured out how to put an antenna on an RFID chip itself using some sort of bump technology, rather than requiring an external antenna.
I wonder what the range is.
internetnews.com reports on Hitachi's new 0.4 x 0.4 mm RFID chip with integrated antenna.
The writer notes that "Because an RFID chip's number must be matched to a database to have meaning, RFID industry executives say there is little chance that the tags could be used to invade individuals' privacy."