More coverage of last week's US House Subcommittee meeting on RFID and Privacy, this time from PC World:
Mark S. Sullivan, Medill News Service
Thursday, July 15, 2004
WASHINGTON -- The word "Orwellian" is uttered often on Capitol Hill these days, and it was said again this week in a warning of privacy dangers posed by radio frequency identification technology.
"The privacy issues raised by RFID tags are vitally important because they are representative of a larger trend in the United States--the seemingly inexorable drift toward a surveillance society," said Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union. He was among those urging caution about the technology at a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection on Wednesday.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116918,00.asp
From CIO Today:
Tiny transmitter tags embedded in products may help retailers lower prices, stock their shelves more efficiently, eliminate checkout lines and reduce theft.
But privacy experts told Congress on Wednesday that the technology, known as "radio frequency identification," could also be used by the government to track what books an individual reads or even which political rallies he attends.
From InfoWorld:
WASHINGTON - A U.S. law enforcing privacy rules for RFID (radio frequency identification) isn't needed because companies experimenting with the technology are committed to protecting privacy, two such corporations told a U.S. House subcommittee Wednesday.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/07/14/HNrfidusers_1.html
And the kids should be in charge of the candy store because they have a deep commitment to candy...
From the AP via SiliconValley.com:
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Security has reached the subcutaneous level for Mexico's attorney general and at least 160 people in his office -- they have been implanted with microchips that get them access to secure areas of their headquarters.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9154114.htm
It is reported that many cell phone manufacturers are preparing models of phones with something called NFC, or Near Field Communications. Philips is a major architect and proponent of NFC, and Mario Rivas discussed this strategy during the keynote at our workshop last November.
It is worth noting that the NFC specification has the reader (in this case the cell phone) also acting as a tag, even when powered off. So, soon, we'll be carrying around yet another RFID tagged item. I've already got 4 on my person at all times (MIT ID, Media Lab prox card, an ID badge for my kid's school, and the imbolizer chip in my car key), so hey, what's one more? Oh yeah, this one's going to be running a standard that just may become somewhat pervasive, making it worthwhile to build readers to snoop for them. Then again, as I always leave my phone on, it's already announcing my presence pretty loudly using both GSM and Bluetooth, both of which employ unique IDs for each device.
Read more about NFC in the RFID Journal:
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/1020/1/1/
From CBS Market Watch
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- U.S. health-care facilities may have the flashiest medical equipment around, but they're proving slow to adopt radio-frequency identification technology that can track patients and inventory and potentially cut rapidly rising costs.
Among its potential uses: Implanting RFID chips inside surgical instruments to ensure they're not left inside a sewn-up body, and affixing RFID labels onto surgery patients to confirm their identity and the exact procedure to be performed.
RFIDs also promise to aid in drug manufacturing by protecting against trafficking in counterfeit medicine. Yet few companies are investing in the technology, said Dan Mullen, president of AIM Global, a trade group representing 900 companies in automatic identification and mobile technology.
...
From the National Business Review:
Growing concerns about the safety of school children in Japan has led one community to initiate a project that would see the tykes tracked by radio frequency identification tags of the sort being used in supply chain management around the world.
According to an Osaka bureau of the telecommunications ministry, tags will be provided to a primary school and will be attached to the clothing and other personal articles -- like nametags and schoolbags -- of students.
Tag readers will be installed at the school gate and at other key locations parents and teachers agree are dangerous for children.
...
http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=9531&cid=5&cname=Asia