C|Net ran this article on the 23rd:
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is ending a four-year collaboration with dozens of blue-chip companies that set out to advance a new frontier of information technology known as radio frequency identification.
The Auto-ID Center, the radio frequency identification (RFID) research group that MIT and its industry partners formed in 1999, is disbanding its current form at the end of the month, MIT said. The center was given the task of developing and field testing a new breed of computer network that can track the location of everyday objects, such as razors and shoes, through an elaborate system of radio frequency-emitting microchips and readers.
http://news.com.com/2100-1008-5095957.html
From C|Net:
BOSTON--Radio frequency identification technology proved to be the hot topic Tuesday at Forrester Research's Executive Strategy Forum here, with attendees speculating that the technology could help revitalize the sagging enterprise software industry.
The theme of this year's conference is "the extended Internet." According to Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester, the concept refers to the adoption of technologies that link products and property to digital devices such as handheld computers, vehicle-based communications systems and radio frequency identification technology (RFID) chips.
RFID chips carry descriptive information, most frequently regarding products to which they're attached. This data can be read by a number of different devices--including handheld computers or sensors located in a warehouse--and promise to help businesses streamline processes such as inventory management. For instance, some companies plan to use the chips to identify the contents of shipping containers without ever being forced to stop and open them.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-5098653.html
The US Department of Defense has issued its long-awaited policy on RFID technology, according to this article at dc.internet.com.
According to the article, "The RFID policy and the corresponding RFID tagging/labeling of DoD materiel are applicable to all items except bulk commodities such as sand, gravel or liquids."
Additional coverage on C|Net mentions Katherine Albrecht, who will be giving a keynote at our conference.
Clothing retailer Marks & Spencer this week said it is moving forward with its test of tagging individual products with RFID tags that can automate inventory and stocking.
RFID tags are tiny transponders that can communicate at short distances with reading devices. The trial bends over backward to address privacy concerns: The tags are conspicuous, shoppers can ask to have them removed, and readers will be used only after hours when no consumers are present. But Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN) wants the test stopped.
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3093101
From October 3, 2003 in USA Today:
SAN FRANCISCO — A civil liberties watchdog group is expressing concern over the San Francisco Public Library's plans to track books by inserting computer chips into each tome.
Library officials approved a plan Thursday to install tiny radio frequency identification chips, known as RFIDs, into the roughly 2 million books, CDs and audiovisual materials patrons can borrow. The system still needs funding and wouldn't be ready until at least 2005.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2003-10-03-sf-library-rfid_x.htm
METI (Ministry of Economy, Technology and Industry of Japan) is now
preparing a draft guideline to protect privacy data in RFID.
There is an article in Nikkei News, but you need ot know Japanese to read it.
METI has an intention of propose this guideline to ISO as an international
standard.
This guideline involves some recommendations.
1) Privacy data shall not be recorded a memory in RFID
2) Selection (to deactivate RFID or nor after purchase) by customer shall
be guarantied.
The European Commission has recently released a study by its
Joint Research Centre (JRC) titled "Security and privacy for the citizen in
the Post-September 11 digital age: A prospective overview." The report was
commissioned at the request of the European Parliament's Committee on
Citizens Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs.
The report is available at
http://www.jrc.es/home/publications/publication.cfm?pub=1118
and the Commission press release is at
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/0
3/1344|0|RAPID&lg=EN
RFID is a key element of this report. To quote:
"Regarding the role of regulation, a more proactive integration of new
technologies under the umbrella of the existing regulatory framework might
be enough in most cases to fulfil privacy requirements. For example, if RFID
tags are identified and classified as an independent identification system,
they would then be regulated by the identity-related framework."
An excellent article exploring both the technical and privacy issues on RFID has been published in NewsFactor. It's by Steve Ulfelder
Ulfelder quotes Katherine Albrecht, executive director of CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering), one of key leaders on the anti-RFID side. Albrecht, who calls RFID tags "spy chips," is the person who is responsible for the boycott of Benneton and Gillette, which caused both companies to apparently pull back from their immediate RFID plans. (I've spoken with others, though, who says that the pull-back of Gillette had nothing to do with Catherine.)
But Ulfelder notes that RFID is not standing still. He writes that TI has developed an RFID chip that can survive dry cleaning, and Wal-Mart is moving ahead on RFID chips for palates.