RFID VS Bar Code Consumers need to know of RFID [Archive] - Page 2

Zombiewire

04-29-2007, 08:12 PM

Katherine Albrecht

Hi, Everyone:

If you've read Spychips, you know that our worst consumer privacy
nightmare is for those little anti-theft tags (known in the industry as
"EAS" tags) to someday be combined with individually trackable RFID
chips and slipped into consumer products. (See Spychips Chp 4: "The Spy
in Your Shoe" for details.)

Well, those tags are now here.

An article in Friday's RFID Journal (posted below), reveals that
Checkpoint Systems has actually developed a product tag that combines
anti-theft and RFID tracking capabilities. The tags will debut this week
at the RFID Journal Live! Conference in Orlando, Florida. What's more,
Sensormatic, Checkpoint's only serious competitor, is running a whole
conference session to describe the benefits of using this combined
tracking technology.

This is beyond a doubt the #1 most important -- and dangerous --
development in the consumer privacy arena today. It means consumers may
soon be buying, wearing, and carrying products tagged with RFID at the
item level, because Checkpoint and Sensormatic specialize in hiding
anti-theft tags deep inside of products, then distributing those
products to nearly a million retail locations worldwide.

Now they want to do the same thing with RFID spychips. If they are not
stopped, Checkpoint and Sensormatic will soon be hiding these dual-use
tracking devices in your belongings, where they will be able to silently
and secretly transmit information about you to marketers, criminals, and
Big Brother.

This will be a consumer privacy nightmare -- and no one will even know
it's happening. That's because industry lobbyists have prevented RFID
labeling legislation from passing anywhere in the nation. There is no
requirement that retailers or manufacturers tell us when they're hiding
RFID tags in our clothes, shoes, books, or anything else.

Our only protection against this threat is the strength of our voices --
and the power of our protests.

Below is a list of relevant companies attending the RFID Journal Live
conference in Orlando this week. They will all be hearing from
Sensormatic and Checkpoint what a good idea it would be to start hiding
RFID tags in the individual items you buy. Please look over the list,
and if you see a company you buy from, tell them politely but firmly
that if you catch them using RFID at the item level you will not only
boycott their company, but you will tell everyone you know to boycott
them, too.

Companies attending the RFID Journal Live! Conference:

Academy Sports & Outdoors, Albertsons, The ALDO Group,
Anheuser-Busch, Best Buy, Blockbuster, Blommer Chocolate, Brass
Eagle, CDW Corp., Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Electrolux,
Energizer Battery, Fuji Photo Film USA, The Gap, General Mills,
Gillette Company, Hampton Products, Hasbro, Hershey Foods,
Hewlett Packard (HP), Hunter Fan, Hy-Vee, Inc., Jockey
International, Johnson & Johnson, Johnsonville Sausage, Kellogg
Co., Kimberly-Clark, Limited Brands, L'Oreal USA, Loblaws,
Louisville Bedding, Lowe's Companies, Luxottica Retail,
Maidenform Worldwide , Mars, Marubeni America, Masterfoods USA,
McIlhenny Co., Meyer Corp., Nestle USA, Newell Rubbermaid,
OfficeMax, Pacific Cycle, Payless Shoe Source, Pharmavite,
Procter & Gamble, S. C. Johnson, SAKS Inc., Sara Lee Foods,
Schick, Scott Paper Limited, Sears, Sears Canada,
Sherwin-Williams, Storekraft, Stride Rite Corp., Tanimura &
Antle, Target Corp., The Valvoline Co., Unilever, Wal-Mart,
Walgreens, Wm Wrigley Jr Co, Wegmans

[To learn more about the conference, and to see a video on it,
see: http://www.rfidjournalevents.com/live/ ]

Zombiewire

06-21-2007, 08:49 AM

Wal-Mart to offer prepaid payment cards
Updated 14d ago | Comments 68 | Recommend 9 E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions | Subscribe to stories like this
By Kathy Chu and Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY
Wal-Mart plans to launch a prepaid payment card to appeal to its large segment of customers who don't have bank accounts.

Wal-Mart (WMT) wouldn't confirm details about the card. But a website for the Wal-Mart MoneyCard, www.walmartmoneycard.com, says it will be a Visa-branded card, issued by GE Money (GE), that can be used almost anywhere that Visa debit cards are accepted, including at ATMs. Three people with direct knowledge of the plans confirmed that the card will be offered.

About 28 million people — 9% of the U.S. population — do not have bank accounts, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. A survey by the Federal Reserve shows that these "unbanked" consumers prefer not to deal with banks or feel they don't write enough checks or have sufficient cash to open an account.

For these people, prepaid payment cards that can be used to pay bills or make purchases are becoming increasingly popular. Consumers can add money to the cards at participating stores, but the cards are not linked to a checking or savings account.

A few retailers, including Safeway (SWY) and Walgreens (WAG), already offer prepaid Visa cards that can be used anywhere, but Wal-Mart, as the largest retailer in the USA, would be able to reach a far greater number of consumers.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Visa | GE

Prepaid cards have been around for years. But the most common type, gift cards, often can't be reloaded and sometimes can be used only at a specific retailer.

Purchases with a branded prepaid card, such as with a Visa logo, are expected to increase from $14 billion in 2005 to $38 billion this year, says financial consulting firm Aite Group.

"There's a considerable opportunity here," says David Robertson, publisher of Nilson Report, a payment newsletter. "The unbanked have historically had to buy money orders and cashier's checks to pay their bills."

Bart Narter, senior analyst at financial industry consultant Celent, says he expects any fees on Wal-Mart's card to be less than for similar products on the market.

Wal-Mart has said it planned to venture more into financial services after it withdrew its application to operate a bank earlier this year. Wal-Mart already offers check cashing and bill paying, making the prepaid cards a natural extension of services.

"Wal-Mart has long stood for low prices and value, and this plan is another page out of that book," says John Champion, a retail strategist at global consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates. "The only surprise is that it didn't occur sooner."

Wal-Mart spokesman Alfredo Padilla said the company won't comment on the card for a few weeks.

GE Money spokesman Michael Ettlemyer said Wal-Mart and GE will announce a partnership in the next few weeks.

The Financial Times first reported on Wal-Mart's plans for the cards on Wednesday.
Prepaid payment cards surging
Purchases made with branded prepaid cards have nearly doubled in the past year and are expected to top $100 billion by 2010.
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
$14 $25 $38 $54 $76 $103
Note: in billions; 2007-2010 are estimates; figures do not include prepaid gift cards that can only be used at specific retailers. Source: Aite Group

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2007-06-06-wal-mart-usat_N.htm

Zombiewire

07-23-2007, 08:09 AM

The VeriChip battle is heating up! The Associated Press published a
feature article today on the human implant controversy that is appearing
on newsstands across America:

Chips: High tech aids or tracking tools?
By Todd Lewan, AP National Writer
July 22, 2007
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1700AP_Chipping_America.html

The article is highlighted on the Drudge Report and is printed in over
200 newspapers and news outlets around the country, including USA Today,
Business Week, Forbes, Fox News, and the Washington Post.

Major papers in Houston, Seattle, Denver, San Jose, Charlotte, Chicago,
Kansas City, Miami, and more have picked up the story. It has even
reached the UK Guardian newspaper and outlets in Canada and Australia.
For a partial list, see:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=microchip
+lewan&btnG=Search

The article features a full color photo of our anti-chipping protest in
West Palm Beach, Florida and a link to our new http://www.AntiChips.com
website. It also features quotes by me and my Spychips co-author Liz
McIntyre, and mentions our book, "Spychips: How major Corporations and
Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID."

I spoke with Todd Lewan, the AP reporter who wrote the story, and told
him everything we know about the downsides of the VeriChip Corporation
and its dangerous, Big Brother plans to chip the public. (Liz and I have
been posting these stories on our Spychips.com website for several years
at http://www.spychips.com/press.html) . Mr. Lewan independently
verified many of our concerns and discussed them in the article.

Back in May after our West Palm Beach protest, I asked you all to be
patient, as the truth about the VeriChip would soon be coming out. Now
our efforts to alert the public are beginning to bear fruit.

Sit tight. This is just the start of the backlash.

BornInPueblo

07-24-2007, 07:24 AM

I think there should be a very serious concern about this type of technology, from potential thefts in your home based on scans that criminals may be able to run an inventory of what you have in your home to people that could be tracking your movements by the items you buy. I know that Walmart does use the technology in my community, because as soon as I was leaving my local Walmart store recently an employee asked me for my receipt as I was leaving with my purchases. Seems like the cashier had failed to neutralize the RFID on it and the scanner at the exit recognized it. When the receipt verified that I was billed for the item and had paid for it, I was free to go on my way. The Walmart employee didn't even have to look at the items bagged in my cart, she already knew which item it was and which item to look for on my receipt.

I have to admit this is a tremendous advantage for a retailer to use to prevent shoplifting and keep costs, and thus prices of the items we purchase as low as possible. I think we all know that most DVD movies and musical CD's we purchase contain these devices. Evertime I purchase items that I know contain them, the first thing I do after opening them is to remove the RFID from them and send them to the local dump. The chances that a thief with some kind of knowledge of RFIDs or owning a scanner that could detect them are probably close to nil in my community, but I don't think it is worth taking the chance that they might happen by my house with their scanner and know what I have inside my home might be of some value to enter my home and take whatever they deem to be valuable.

This technology has a tremendous value to all of us in keeping prices lower for the items we purchase, while at the same time jeopardizing us by making items we purchase potentially intrusive into our personal lives and the items we own. We have to discuss this and understand better how to either accept or somehow limit the use of these devices in order to protect ourselves from abuses that will likely occur from their use.

There is also the question of using these devices as a personal means of identification and/or financial or medical information, instructions, and authorizations. New technology such as this is always presenting new questions on how to treat and use them and whether we can take advantage of them or whether they might be used to take advantage of us.

My personal thoughts are that I would rather pay the consequences of a higher price for items I purchase, rather than pay the higher cost of loss of personal freedom and loss of protections now guaranteed to us by our Constitution and most of the laws of our land. Hopefully, these two ideals may not be opposed to each other, but could be strengthened if only someone could find a proper balance between them.

Zen Curmudgeon

07-24-2007, 09:30 PM

There is also the question of using these devices as a personal means of identification and/or financial or medical information, instructions, and authorizations. New technology such as this is always presenting new questions on how to treat and use them and whether we can take advantage of them or whether they might be used to take advantage of us."New" technology is almost always "old". If I inscribe my complete medical history onto a small solid state encrypted memory chip, how have I expanded the availability of that information to unauthorized parties? How is this inferior to a paper-based system that is accessed daily by GED recipients hired to place manilla folders in a shelving system?

How is your debit card receipt more secure than a credit card used in the same restaurant? Can't your waiter copy your card number just as readily as a fictional hacker?

Paranoia is the unreasonable assumption of pursuit. There are therapies for that. Precautions are what adults take to minimize vulnerabilities. A thief will tend toward the weaker target. Wrap your RFID-equipped passport in tin foil if that makes you feel safer.

ZC

BornInPueblo

07-24-2007, 10:40 PM

"New" technology is almost always "old". If I inscribe my complete medical history onto a small solid state encrypted memory chip, how have I expanded the availability of that information to unauthorized parties?

Actually, from the article I read about this recently the embedded microchip only contains a 16-digit identification number. For the hospital or doctor to obtain your name and medical data they must log onto a secure data base to view it. So, that means that a hacker would just get a meaningless 16-digit number of no use to them. That seems like a relatively secure method of protecting the information, but no system is completely free from hackers or people who want to go after it one way or the other. You're right, filing it in a cabinet can have its own risks also.

I don't think most are being paranoid about this, they just want to know what is happening, how it works, what it means, etc. And we can all decide for ourselves whether we would support or oppose this based upon the answers to those questions. I do think your right, that it's going to happen no matter how many people choose to oppose it unless the opposition is an overwhelming majority, an unlikely scenario.

large

07-25-2007, 08:19 AM

I don't think most are being paranoid about this, they just want to know what is happening, how it works, what it means, etc.

Being an observer and a natural born cynic, I believe over 50% of the American population are not only unaware of most technological advances in data keeping, (and a lot of other things) unless the media makes a "Sky is Falling" scenario of one, they will remain unaware. And once made "aware", they will only know what the media wants them to know, or think . . They won't make any effort whatsoever to find out what the truth or facts might really be . .

And had people been as concerned about the IC as they seem to be here about the "verichip" we still wouldn't be using computers!

Zombiewire

07-25-2007, 09:05 AM

Welcome to e-Plate
e-Plate is the leader in Electronic Vehicle Identification (EVI) using active RFID tagging. Why this technology? Because governments across the world are looking to tagging to optimize the use of road space, reduce non-compliance, combat vehicle crime and fight terrorism.

Active technology, uniquely, does the job. To be precise, the 99.98% accurate, secure identification of:

• any vehicle or vehicles (car, bus, truck, trailer, motorcycle)
• individually or in dense traffic
• traveling at any speed or stationary
• in either direction
• in any weather conditions;
. . . when it comes within a distance of up to 100 metres of an e-Plate reader.

http://www.e-plate.com/

PLUS

Michelin Embeds RFID Tags in Tires
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/269/1/1/

I tell you to get informed thats it cause you can not stop the machine
check www.zombiewire.com for all the news concerning RFID Privacy

Wrap your RFID-equipped passport in tin foil if that makes you feel safer.

ZC[/QUOTE]

BornInPueblo

07-25-2007, 09:37 AM

Being an observer and a natural born cynic, I believe over 50% of the American population are not only unaware of most technological advances in data keeping, (and a lot of other things) unless the media makes a "Sky is Falling" scenario of one, they will remain unaware. And once made "aware", they will only know what the media wants them to know, or think . . They won't make any effort whatsoever to find out what the truth or facts might really be . .

And had people been as concerned about the IC as they seem to be here about the "verichip" we still wouldn't be using computers!

I agree with you that a lot of people are unaware. I think there are a lot of people who could care less, also. I'm not enough of a cynic to think that the "media" is somehow a cohesive or conspiratorial instrument like you apparently do. However, I do think that much of the media is concentrating on presenting a sensational story in order to promote and glorify their position, rather than reporting on subjects that may actually affect us more, but seem mundane to presenting that kind of information. In general it is our own fault if we think knowing whatever Paris Hilton is doing today is more important than knowing that some kind of technology might encroach upon our personal freedoms in the future.

large

07-25-2007, 11:18 AM

I think there are a lot of people who could care less, also.

BINGO! . . why is a moot point . .

And as you say, I don't believe the Media, especially the Electronic ones, have as much a particular agenda, as to just justify their presence and importance by crying "Wolf" daily . .

As far as technology encroaching upon our individual and personal freedoms . . it's a wash. You must trade privacy for convenience most of the time. How many people have ceased to use a cell phone because now, as long as it's turned on, it can tell those who might want to know, where you are within about a three block triangular area?

In the case of Jame's RFIDs, it's a trade off of cost of warehousing and inventory to the average consumer. I don't personally believe Wal Mart or one of the other corporations dealing with the American Consumer wants to follow you home and see what you do with whatever it is you bought. Of course it's available . . but expensive!

Someday in the future, they may . . but then someday in the future they may need to . . who knows?

Zombiewire

07-25-2007, 10:04 PM

Large Large and Large

They will only follow the boxes home not the people.
Buy a box of something and not you but the box is traced but hey who owns the box. I see how it is. I am not cattle.

Here is you beloved IBM
RFID IBM Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llnUJkH0Mlc

and yes my name is James

Zombiewire

08-09-2007, 08:46 AM

Photo-view service causing controversy wait until RFID are in your shoes and a RFID reader is in bed with Google. They will Google you...

August 9, 2007

Hey, is that your white pickup in front of the pink sign reading NUDE SHOW in big block letters?

Whoever the owner is, it's a good bet he didn't expect to be unlucky enough to be parked outside the Midway Area strip club when Google photographers cruised by snapping everything in sight.

The Street View feature on Google Maps offers a detailed look at El Cajon Boulevard and Texas Street in San Diego.
Google, the Internet search engine favored by hundreds of millions of computer users worldwide, added San Diego this week to a burgeoning group of cities on its new, and somewhat controversial, Street View service.

Part of Google Maps, Street View offers miles of panoramic, street-level images of streets here and in New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami, Denver, Los Angeles, Houston and Orlando, Fla. (Visit www. maps. google. com; click on Street View.)

So far, only major thoroughfares and streets in popular locales such as downtown, the beaches, Coronado and certain neighborhoods have been photographed. Google plans to fill in more streets before going back in the next few years to refresh the shots.

Officials at the Silicon Valley-based cyberspace goliath say Street View, which is free, has been popular with users delighted by virtual urban walking tours.

The Net is also abuzz, to varying degrees of concern, over the incidental voyeurism provided by legions of camera crews fanning out on city streets madly clicking away.

What they shoot is what you get.

It could be minor embarrassments, like the love handles of a shirtless visitor relaxing on the Mission Beach sea wall or a clear image of a San Francisco man sneaking a smoke after he promised his wife he'd quit.

It also might be something potentially more serious.

Bloggers have pointed out, for instance, that certain New York bridges and tunnels where photography has been banned since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have shown up on Street View.

Some Street View subjects have been accused of overreacting to seemingly innocent images.

One Bay Area woman said a shot of her cat perched in the window of her second-floor apartment – now immortalized on various Web sites – ruffled her fur. “Where do you draw the line between taking public photos and zooming in on people's lives?” she wondered in a newspaper interview.

During a summer in which a national debate rages over federal domestic-spying powers, Google's product has raised Orwellian issues about a nongovernmental source.

“George Orwell predicted (in his novel “1984”) that it would be the all-seeing government eye watching over all of us,” said Beth Givens of the San Diego-based nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

“But in reality, what we're seeing is private corporate endeavors being the more significant Big Brothers.”

Givens said it is not hard to imagine that people might object to being unwittingly photographed, say, leaving a Planned Parenthood clinic or a gay bar. But most people won't even know they have been captured unless someone else spots their pictures and uses them online.

Google, which won't reveal what it is spending to provide its 360-degree images of urban America, insists that Street View photographers capture nothing more than what can be seen routinely in public during the day.

“All of our images are lawful,” said Stephen Chau, product manager for Google Maps.

“They are taken by crews driving by slowly on public roads who photograph only images viewable by anyone walking down that street.”

Chau said Google “takes privacy concerns very seriously.” He emphasized that any government agency or citizen who objects to an image in Street View can ask that it be taken off the site.

“We review those requests, and we will take down the images, but there have been very few of those so far,” Chau said, declining to give the number or nature of the requests. “The response overall has been tremendously positive.”

Pam Dixon, executive director of the nonprofit public-interest research group World Privacy Forum in San Diego, said a similar service on a search engine run by Amazon.com ran into trouble by inadvertently showing women and children entering domestic-abuse shelters.

“Amazon responded and took the photos down,” Dixon said. “Google has learned from that and worked with a national domestic-violence group before launching its service to make sure this did not happen again.”

Dixon said there is no reason to be overly alarmed by the candid moments captured by Street View.

“To say this is the worst invasion of privacy ever wrought by technology is just not the truth,” Dixon said. “This is a very legal application. Guess what, if you're standing in a public place – even your own yard – you can be photographed and the image can be put on the Web.

“The important thing to think about is whether this is what we want as a culture. I'd like to see some independent oversight, a public voice, someone not on Google's staff fielding questions about these images.

“Some objective review seems to me a fair compromise to make people more comfortable with shifting technology,” Dixon said.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070809-9999-1n9google.htm

large

08-09-2007, 09:45 AM

A Loooooong time ago, I stated in this thread that RFID would be replaced with some other technology far more insidious to you "Privacy" advocates than the little chip . . ***** that's three "I Told You So's" in three days . . on three different subjects . .

Now they not only will know where you go, they can take pictures of you going there . .

Zombiewire

08-20-2007, 07:29 AM

Security chips in cards carry risks, critics say
By Michael Gardner
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

August 19, 2007

SACRAMENTO – With little thought, many Californians carry wafer-thin cards containing a 15-cent silicon chip that enable them to zip through toll booths, enter parking garages and access the office.

Called radio frequency identification, RFID technology is touted for its convenience and, more importantly, its security value at buildings, airports and borders.

PROPOSED LEGISLATION

State Sen. Joe Simitian, a Palo Alto Democrat, is carrying five measures to restrict scanning technology.

SB 28: Prohibits the state from embedding identifying chips in driver's licenses.

SB 29: Bars K-12 schools from using radio frequency identification technology in identification cards.

SB 30: Requires special security for all state-issued identification, such as driver's licenses and health care cards. Safeguards would include encryption and shields. Recipients would be notified about the RFID technology.

SB 31: Makes it illegal to surreptitiously read or record information from an identification card. Bars the disclosure of codes that enable scanners to pick up information from cards.

SB 362: Prohibits companies and the government from compelling employees to accept under-the-skin implantation of identifying chips.

For more information: Go to www.senate.ca.gov. Click on “legislation” and enter the individual bill number.
But some say it comes at a price. Privacy rights advocates see a chilling side, warning that advances could offer new opportunities for identity thieves, furnish clues to stalkers and hand government another tool to spy on law-abiding citizens.

“Both sides are overplaying their hand,” said Jim Harper, who monitors the issue for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

“The industry is trying to sell RFID as the hammer and every problem is the nail,” he said. “The other side sees that and reacts with talk of banning RFID.”

The chip is found in wallet-sized cards and tags attached to products for inventory control. A tiny wireless antenna transmits information, usually just an identifying number, to special readers. The technology can be used to authorize access, subtract payments, track sales or confirm the identity of a passenger preparing to board a plane.

The federal Department of Homeland Security, in a push to better verify identities, has mulled requiring RFIDs in driver's licenses but has ruled it out for no

MORE>>>>>>>>http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20070819-9999-1n19rfid.html

large

08-20-2007, 08:09 AM

I'll say it once again . . The Parade of Technology cannot be stopped. The State of California may legislate what can and cannot be used in "STATE" documents and operations, but they can't and won't legislate what private industry will choose to use in the course of doing business . .

And a "National ID" or at the least, a State Driver's License with a Federal Interface is just around the corner. And I'm betting, that, no one will have options about having one. Quite like your current Driver's License, you won't be able to function well without it . . and whether it has a RFID embedded in it or not, ole Unk'l will have a clue about you . .

Zen Curmudgeon

08-20-2007, 05:49 PM

There's a natural resistance to snoops, but if you're on the grid. . .

“Privacy is dead, deal with it (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3078854/).” - Sun MicroSystems CEO Scott McNealyZC

large

08-20-2007, 07:13 PM

To add to your chagrin, James, the day of the required passport for ALL Americans is fast approaching . . and I'll betcha, Ole Unk'l will have them darned RFIDs imbedded in them . . Sum a Gun . . !

Probably cut down on boarding times on international flights . .

Zen Curmudgeon

08-20-2007, 10:00 PM

To add to your chagrin, James, the day of the required passport for ALL Americans is fast approaching . . and I'll betcha, Ole Unk'l will have them darned RFIDs imbedded in them . . Sum a Gun . . !Well, you could always buy one of these (http://www.difrwear.com/products.shtml):

http://www.difrwear.com/images/wallets_400.jpg

ZC

Zombiewire

08-21-2007, 07:49 AM

There is no way to stop the progress of RFID taking over the barcode and link with the wIfI network so that anytime you need to be found your name can be punched the internet of things and find you.

I know there is no way to stop the machine. I do what I do on here merely to inform people so they may be aware of this technology. My web site Zombiewire get lots of hits simply because I list RFID privacy issues story's.

Zombiewire

09-09-2007, 07:32 AM

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved implanting microchips in humans, the manufacturer said it would save lives, letting doctors scan the tiny transponders to access patients' medical records almost instantly. The FDA found “reasonable assurance” the device was safe, and a sub-agency even called it one of 2005's top “innovative technologies.”

But neither the company nor the regulators publicly mentioned this: A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating to the mid-1990s, stated that chip implants had “induced” malignant tumors in some lab mice and rats.
“The transponders were the cause of the tumors,” said Keith Johnson, a retired toxicologic pathologist, explaining in a phone interview the findings of a 1996 study he led at the Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich.

Leading cancer specialists reviewed the research for The Associated Press and, while cautioning that animal test results do not necessarily apply to humans, said the findings troubled them. Some said they would not allow family members to receive implants, and all urged further research before the glass-encased transponders are widely implanted in people.

To date, about 2,000 of the so-called radio frequency identification, or RFID, devices have been implanted in humans worldwide, according to VeriChip Corp. The company, which sees a target market of 45 million Americans for its medical monitoring chips, insists the devices are safe, as does its parent company, Applied Digital Solutions, of Delray Beach, Fla.

“We stand by our implantable products which have been approved by the FDA and/or other U.S. regulatory authorities,” Scott Silverman, VeriChip Corp. chairman and chief executive officer, said in a written response to AP questions.

The company was “not aware of any studies that have resulted in malignant tumors in laboratory rats, mice and certainly not dogs or cats,” but he added that millions of domestic pets have been implanted with microchips, without reports of significant problems.

“In fact, for more than 15 years we have used our encapsulated glass transponders with FDA approved anti-migration caps and received no complaints regarding malignant tumors caused by our product.”

The FDA also stands by its approval of the technology.

Did the agency know of the tumor findings before approving the chip implants? The FDA declined repeated AP requests to specify what studies it reviewed.

The FDA is overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services, which, at the time of VeriChip's approval, was headed by Tommy Thompson. Two weeks after the device's approval took effect on Jan. 10, 2005, Thompson left his Cabinet post, and within five months was a board member of VeriChip Corp. and Applied Digital Solutions. He was compensated in cash and stock options.

Thompson, until recently a candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, says he had no personal relationship with the company as the VeriChip was being evaluated, nor did he play any role in FDA's approval process of the RFID tag.

“I didn't even know VeriChip before I stepped down from the Department of Health and Human Services,” he said in a telephone interview.

Also making no mention of the findings on animal tumors was a June report by the ethics committee of the American Medical Association, which touted the benefits of implantable RFID devices.

Had committee members reviewed the literature on cancer in chipped animals?

No, said Dr. Steven Stack, an AMA board member with knowledge of the committee's review.

Was the AMA aware of the studies?

MORE ON THIS STORY http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/health/20070908-1104-chippingamericaii.html

Mousekill

09-10-2007, 12:17 PM

I have a bit of a problem with "Big Brother" ideas. Ever since I got out of college in the early 90's, the Federal Government has more or less owned me because I've worked for them in some way or another. If they really got the urge, I don't figure it would be much of an effort for most federal agencies to figure out most of what I've done in the last month. The security cameras in the parking lot's gate catch my liscense plate daily, the security cameras on the roof watch me go into the front door. The cameras by the elevators catch me walking to my anonymous cubicle and record every time I head to the drinking fountain or even the bathroom. I check in once a month to do my National Guard weekend. Every time I use a credit card, I'm sure dozens of databases track what I bought where, and how much it cost. I use government email accounts, fly for work using iteneraries arranged by the government, give them my reciepts for reembursment. I have no idea how many government databases I'm in, to even include the FBI's from their Anthrax investigation since I once worked in a bio-weapons defense lab. And then there are all the various background checks I've endured.

And, despite all of this tracking, and cross-referenced database entries, the government still seems to know nothing about me. While in the Army, it took them 6 months for the pay folks to figure out they were supposed to pay me. While I was in Iraq, they never did manage to get my mail and my body in the the same place. A couple times, the agencies that "owned" me lost all record of my existence. Some of my official records have my profession listed as a "sponge and seaweed gatherer" and no matter how much I try they won't change it. I have a hard time being too afraid of this government using even more information about me for any other tha hogging up more database space and justifying the jobs of more people to lose misfile and corrupt the data. And, if "Big Brother" really wants to follow me around, all that will happen is someone will have a job that's more dull than mine and they will have ways to varify information they already have.

Plus, if business gets hold of information of what kind of underware I buy, or that I tend to score my caffeine at the same 7-11 most days (a fact which the morning guy could have told them). I guess using this spy chip in my underware, they could figure out that I actually entered Kmart 15 minutes before their computer logged my credit card buying shoe laces.

The Federal Government is alrady swamped with more information than it knows what to do with. Corporations already seem to know nearly everything they want to know about me. There are dozens of places on the internet you can find my address and phone number and my names seems to grace thousands of junk-mail mailing lists. Despite my best efforts, I have no idea how many people have access to my social security and credit card numbers. I don't like it, I wish it wasn't so, but I also don't see how one more way for them to collect information that they already have is going to complicate life anymore than it already is.

Zombiewire

09-11-2007, 06:51 AM

Mousekill

09-11-2007, 09:37 AM

No more than anybody else.

Zombiewire

09-25-2007, 08:35 AM

Dear CASPIAN Members and Supporters:

For the next two days, I will join with my colleagues from around the
world to inform Canadian, American, and world leaders about new
surveillance technologies that put us all at risk. I will be speaking in
Montreal, Canada at the following events:

International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy
Commissioners
Organized by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
September 25 to 28, 2007
http://www.privacyconference2007.gc.ca/Terra_Incognita_speakers_E.html

and

Civil Society Privacy Workshop: Privacy Rights in a World Under
Surveillance
Organized by the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
http://www.thepublicvoice.org/events/montreal07/default.html

In my panel talks, I will emphasize the importance of free markets and
consumer action as the solution to the "privacy problem." I will ask
regulators to give consumers the tools we need to act in our own best
interest -- tools like clear labels on all items tagged with RFID.

I will remind decision makers that we have a right to go about our
business in peace without corporate and government busybodies remotely
pawing through our purses and backpacks. I will tell them that we don't
want authoritarians, bureaucrats, ethically challenged corporations, or
tech-savvy criminals to track us around the clock -- or at all.

Finally, I will call for an end to the cozy lobbyist-regulator
relationships that have undermined the work of citizen-activists
worldwide. Although companies like IBM, developer of the RFID-reading
"Person Tracking Unit," may have deeper pockets and fewer scruples than
the citizens it proposes to spy on, we have greater numbers and far
greater passion.

Below is a press release from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of
Canada announcing the event. You will note that I have the dubious
distinction of being mentioned in the same paragraph as Michael
Chertoff, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. When I
see him, I'll send him your regards -- and ask why he is so intent on
creating a police state in America.

Wish me well!

In freedom,
Katherine Albrecht, Ed.D.

Zombiewire

10-14-2007, 09:36 AM

“ASHEVILLE — Buncombe County commissioners passed a requirement Tuesday that pets found loose without microchips get an electronic identification tag at owners’ expense, said Michael Frue, assistant county attorney. Pet owners are not required to get the $10 chip unless their pet is found loose, though some experts believe it’s a good idea and a way of keeping track of animals.’’

Etc., etc. Good intentions, good program, maybe a little inconvenience, no big deal.

Still, a couple of things here. One, installing chips in pets. Installing chips in pets? On one level, the idea is mighty appealing. I have, for instance, one cat that is definitely broke and could use some “Intel Inside.’’ From what I can tell there’s no intel in there at all. I think the factory messed up and put “Host-el Inside.’’ At any rate, I gather the chip would only track the critter, not make it run right, so it’s a moot point.

Point two is … well, not to sound like a nag, but where are we going with all this? A chip to track a small mammal could presumably be used to track a bigger mammal, like homo sapiens. Again, this sounds like a good idea, especially in the case of, say, institutions where inmates or residents routinely escape or wander away.

Some scenarios

But hey, why stop there?

I read a story where one seer predicted by 2020 there could be tracking chips in cars to monitor your driving habits (I imagine insurance companies would love that one). It would be introduced, naturally, in the form of safety measures — keeping pedophiles from driving near schools, things like that.

Taking it a bit further, we could all soon be wearing dog tags with arrest/security information embedded in them, scannable from a dozen yards or so away. Meaning we could glide through checkpoints, police wouldn’t have to bother phoning in our license plates, etc. I guess it would also mean if you forgot your dog tag you’d be arrested on the spot. On down the road, if you were overweight you might receive a mild electric shock if you were caught in the takeout lane at a fast-food joint, etc.

That’s by 2020, mind you.

Of course, here in today, turns out there’s a major push for things like Radio Frequency Identification Tags, or RFIDs. They’re wee little things with wee little antennae that can broadcast impressive amounts of info about whatever they’ve hitched a ride on. Billed mainly as the next step beyond bar codes, they track products from factories to store shelves. According to Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, authors of the book, “Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID,’’ IBM has already taken out a patent for people-tracking RFID tags; one school ran an experimental program tracking kids, courtesy of another corporation; and our government is working on RFID plans for things from passports to drivers licenses to stamps and prescription medication.

There’s been talk in some corners of putting chips in registered immigrants.

Where are we going?

Point is, it’s not very many steps over to being-monitored-24/7-land, and that land seems a long way from things like the Fourth Amendment. Sounds crazy.

Then again, back in my youth if you’d told me we’d live in a world where police checkpoints were common, you had to be drug tested to play sports or apply for a job, even with no suspicion of guilt, your communications could be routinely monitored by employers and in all likelihood the government, you could get a ticket for not wearing a seat belt and had to take off your shoes to board an airplane, I’d have said you were crazy.

So maybe we ought to keep an eye on all this.

I know one thing: If my cat suddenly starts working, something’s up.
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770921099

get all your RFID news at www.zombiewire.com

Zombiewire

12-15-2007, 10:02 AM

- VeriChip Corporation (Nasdaq:CHIP), a provider of RFID systems for healthcare and patient-related needs, announced today that the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Xmark, recently completed a sale of an infant protection system in the state of Ohio, where Xmark's infant protection systems are now installed in more than half of all birthing facilities. This install base features systems sold under the
Company's HUGS(R) brand.

"Our HUGS system, which is the industry standard, continues its sustained growth in maternity wards and birthing centers throughout the U.S.," said Daniel A. Gunther, President and CEO of Xmark. "The expansion of our install base is critical to our ongoing success. From sales to new hospital customers, replacement systems and upgrades to existing systems, we are pleased to be the provider of choice for infant security systems for the majority of hospitals."

Xmark's infant protection systems are designed to prevent infant abductions and inadvertent child mismatching. The main component of the systems is a wearable RFID tag that is assigned to child and mother following birth. Monitors positioned throughout the hospital detect the integrity of the tags and location of the child. If a newborn is removed from the ward, if the tag is lifted from the baby's skin or if the ankle strap is compromised, the system immediately triggers an alarm, alerting hospital security to the situation.

Xmark infant protection systems also protect against mismatching events by affixing matching RFID tags to mother and child. If the mother is given the wrong child, the RFID tag detects the mismatch and activates an audible alarm.

For more information on Xmark's products, please contact 1-866-55-XMARK or email sales@xmark.com. Additional information can be found online at www.xmark.com.

About Xmark

Based in Ottawa, Ontario, Xmark is a wholly owned subsidiary of VeriChip Corporation. For over 25 years, Xmark Corporation has provided Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) solutions to identify, locate, and protect people and assets in healthcare environments. Its market-leading infant protection, wander prevention, personal duress, and asset tracking applications are trusted by over 5,000 healthcare institutions worldwide to keep individuals safe.

Xmark products are installed and serviced through an international network of authorized dealers, backed by a dedicated technical services department at Xmark. A

http://www.pr-inside.com/verichip-corporation-s-infant-protection-systems-r344680.htm

monroe

12-19-2007, 12:55 AM

I like the idea of RFID in the checkout line. No need to wait while a dozen shoppers in front of you unpack their carts, pay and repack them. Just push the cart through the reader, pay and go. Since the reader only identifies items that answer a query, if the occasional item fails to answer that's not my problem - just a bonus.

But that's as far as I'm prepared to go at this time.

To depend on one to identify me for automatic transactions? Wouldn't that make identity theft too easy? All one would need is a reader that picks an identity from anyone, anywhere, instantly encodes it into a memory chip and regurgitates it when queried. Even if the victim operated the reader, there would be no alarm and if the identity were changed after every transaction, it would be almost impossible to track the thief.

On toll roads, the radio waves activating a car's legitimate transponder can be blocked and a mimic can substitute another code. So your car can be parked in the garage or at the shop for servicing and you end up receiving the bill for someone else.

It is a great tool for tracking inventory and pets, but for anything else it lacks security.

I wouldn't worry about this technology in my home and would enjoy the convenience it can bring to my tracking of consumables.

Zombiewire

03-13-2008, 09:40 AM

Some federal and state government officials want to make state driver's licenses harder to counterfeit or steal, by adding computer chips that emit a radio signal bearing a license holder's unique, personal information.

In Virginia, where several of the 9/11 hijackers obtained driver's licenses, state legislators Wednesday will hear testimony about how radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags may prevent identity fraud and help thwart terrorists using falsified documents to move about the country.

Privacy advocates will argue that the radio tags will also make it easy for the government to spy on its citizens and exacerbate identity theft, one of the problems the technology is meant to relieve.

Virginia is among the first states to explore the idea of creating a smart driver's license, which may eventually use any combination of RFID tags and biometric data, such as fingerprints or retinal scans.

"Nine of the 19 9/11 terrorists obtained their licenses illegally in Virginia, and that was quite an embarrassment," said Virginia General Assembly delegate Kathy Byron, chairwoman of a subcommittee looking into the use of so-called smart driver's licenses, which may include RFID technology.

The biometric data would make it harder for an individual to use a stolen or forged driver's license for identification. The RFID tags would make the licenses a "contact-less" technology, verifying IDs more efficiently, and making lines at security checkpoints move quicker.

Because information on RFID tags can be picked up from many feet away, licenses would not have to be put directly into a reader device. If there was any suspicion that a person was not who he claimed to be, ID checkers could take him aside for fingerprinting or a retinal scan.

States need to adopt technologies that can ensure a driver's license holder is who he says he is, said Byron.

Federal legislators may also require states to comply with uniform "smart card" standards, making state driver's licenses into national identification cards that could be read at any location throughout the country. The RFID chips on driver's licenses would at a minimum transmit all of the information on the front of a driver's license. They may also eventually transmit fingerprint and other uniquely identifiable information to reader devices.

But federal mandates for adding RFID chips to driver's licenses would create an impossible burden for states, which will have to shoulder the costs of generating new licenses, and installing reader devices in their motor vehicle offices, said a states' rights advocate.

"It could easily become yet another unfunded federal mandate, of which we already have $60 billion worth," said Cheye Calvo, director of the transportation committee at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

RFID tags incorporate computer chips, radio transponders and coiled antennae. The tags, many as small as a postage stamp, already pervade the day-to-day lives of millions of Americans, and are expected to eventually replace barcode labels on retails goods.

Drivers with E-ZPass tags on their windshields can already cruise through many highway toll booths without stopping, thanks to RFID technology.

RFID tags, which respond to signals sent out by special reader devices, have in some tests demonstrated broadcast ranges up to 30 feet. Reader devices have proven to possess similar "sensing" ranges. This is what has some privacy advocaters worried, including one testifying tomorrow before the Virginia legislators.

"The biggest problem is that these tags are remotely readable," said Christopher Calabrese, council for the American Civil Liberties Union's Technology and Liberty Program.

RFID tags inside driver's licenses will make it easy for government agents with readers to sweep large areas and identify protestors participating in a march, for example. Privacy advocates also fear that crooks sitting on street corners could remotely gather personal information from individual's wallets, such as their birth dates and home addresses -- the same information many bank employees use to verify account holders' identities.

Information from card readers could also be coupled with global positioning system data and relayed to satellites, helping the government form a comprehensive picture of the comings and goings of its citizens.

Driver's licenses with RFID tags may also become a tool that stalkers use to follow their victims, said Calabrese. "We're talking about a potential security nightmare."

But opponents of the use of RFID and other technologies in driver's licenses and state issued ID cards are conflating RFID's technological potential with its potential for abuse by government authorities, said Robert D. Atkinson, vice president at the Progressive Policy Institute.

"Putting a chip or biometric data on a driver's license doesn't change one iota the rules under which that information can be used," said Atkinson.

The Virginia legislators may balk at the use of RFID in driver's licenses, however, unless they can be proven to be immune from use by spies and identity thieves.

"I can't see us using RFID until we're comfortable we can without encroaching on individual privacy, and ensure it won't be used as a Big Brother technology by the government," said Joe May, chairman of the Virginia General Assembly's House Science and Technology Committee.
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2004/10/65243

large

03-13-2008, 10:28 AM

Face it, Dude . . RFID or the next similar technology is going to be used as a scannable method of Identification, and it will change frequently as technology makes the old one easy to counterfeit and a new one makes it difficult . .

And as it has been seen in the past, technology creates lots of Issues, privacy being one of the chief ones . . but, wotthehell, there's TV cameras everywhere, with big Brother either watching or at least with the capability to do so . . and we go about our way . . Sometimes glad that someone was watching . .

If something like RFID is needed to assure us that the holder of a Drivers License or other official identification is who he says he is, I guess we'll have it . .

As we demand more security from the Government we have to relinquish some of our freedoms . . There's no other way to do it . .

I don't particularily like it either, and personally feel that I can take care of myself, but on the other hand, don't consider myself a lawbreaker so I don't worry much about it either . . .

Zombiewire

07-31-2008, 08:38 AM

The top brass at American Express, chagrined at the discovery of its people tracking plans, met with CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) last week to discuss the issue. One outcome of the meeting was a promise by American Express to review its entire patent portfolio and ensure that any people-tracking plans be accompanied by language requiring consumer notice and consent.

The meeting was organized after CASPIAN called attention to one of the company's more troublesome patent applications. That patent application, titled "Method and System for Facilitating a Shopping Experience," describes a Minority Report style blueprint for monitoring consumers through RFID-enabled objects, like the American Express Blue Card.

According to the patent, RFID readers called "consumer trackers" would be placed in store shelving to pick up "consumer identification signals" emitted by RFID-embedded objects carried by shoppers. These would be used to identify people, track their movements, and observe their behavior.

The patent also suggested such people-tracking systems could "be located in a common area of a school, shopping center, bus station or other place of public accommodation."

Allegations of American Express people-tracking blueprints first came to light at a conference sponsored by the Consumer Federation of America in Washington, D.C. last month. There, Dr. Katherine Albrecht, Founder and Director of CASPIAN, revealed the patent pending plans that she and her "Spychips" co-author Liz McIntyre uncovered in their ongoing RFID research.

Soon thereafter, American Express arranged for four of its vice presidents, including the vice presidents of Contactless Payments and Public Affairs, to meet with CASPIAN leaders in a phone conference.

"We are pleased that American Express responded to our concerns," said Albrecht. "It's clear the company is thinking about privacy issues and wants to address them constructively. However, we had hoped that American Express would renounce its people tracking plans altogether and be more sensitive to the fact that placing RFID tags in consumer items, like credit cards, puts consumers at risk for surreptitious tracking by others."

In response to CASPIAN concerns, American Express also promised that it would make a chip-free version of its credit card available to concerned consumers who ask for it.

"Offering a chipless credit card is a positive step and should serve as an example to the rest of the industry," said McIntyre. "Consumers don't like RFID technology. Contrary to American Express ads, most people would rather leave home without it."

The complete text and excerpts from the American Express people tracking patent application can be found at:
http://www.spychips.com/press-releases/american-express-tracking-patent.html

Zombiewire

08-23-2008, 03:04 PM

Protest Today Against RFID in Clothing and Shoes
RFID WHERE? You'd better look at your shoes, socks and underwear!

Protesters will gather today in Manhattan to greet attendees of the
third annual "RFID in Fashion" conference, an event organized to promote
the use of RFID in clothing and footwear. Dr. Katherine Albrecht, the
Harvard-educated privacy campaigner featured in the film "Freedom to
Fascism" and co-author of the bestselling book "Spychips," will be
on-hand to speak to attendees arriving for the opening keynote this
afternoon at NYC's Fashion Institute of Technology.

The conference features two days of speeches and events to advance
apparel-industry uses for controversial Radio Frequency Identification
or RFID technology. Past attendees include New Balance Athletic Shoes,
Reebok, Levi Strauss, American Apparel, Liz Claiborne, and Jockey, along
with retail outlets The Limited, Timberland, and Dillard's.

Albrecht planned today's protest after discovering the conference would
promote the use of RFID in individual clothing items. Known as
"item-level tagging," the practice of placing RFID tags on consumer
items (rather than on crates or pallets in a warehouse) has been widely
condemned by privacy and security experts.

Experts caution that such tags pose huge privacy and safety risks to the
public. Used to track inventory in warehouses, RFID tags can easily be
used to track people as well – a fact that can be exploited by
marketers, government agencies, and criminals. IBM, for example, has
patented RFID "person tracking units" for placement in walls and floors
to allow marketers and government agents to secretly monitor people's
movements. They suggest using the devices in public spaces like shopping
malls, theaters, elevators, and restrooms once RFID is implemented at
the item level.

"Consumers shouldn't have to worry about tracking devices being sewn
into the seams of their clothing or pressed into the soles of their
shoes," said Albrecht. "We are putting apparel and RFID companies on
notice that consumers will protest any item-level use of RFID on
apparel."

In 2003, Albrecht's consumer group CASPIAN led a successful boycott
against Italian clothing manufacturer Benetton. The resulting worldwide
opposition forced the company to cancel plans to sew millions of RFID
tags into women's garments.

"Consumer awareness and opposition to RFID has grown exponentially since
2003," Albrecht said. "Any U.S. company foolish enough to use RFID on
apparel will face stiff repercussions."

The RFID in Fashion 2008 conference website can be found at:
http://www.rfidjournalevents.com/fashion/

Zombiewire

08-23-2008, 03:13 PM

Look smart people. Here it is and soon. A Pig erroRRRRRRRRR I mean a peace officer of the law will carry a RFID reader. The person walking/running/driving will have the RFID chip in the cloths. The copper will then be king and more. Wake the BLEEP uP!!!!!!!!

FDA Home Page | Search FDA Site | FDA A-Z Index | Contact FDA

horizontal rule
Radiofrequency Identification Feasibility Studies and Pilot Programs for Drugs
Guidance for FDA Staff and Industry
Compliance Policy Guides
Sec. 400.210
Radiofrequency Identification Feasibility Studies
and
Pilot Programs for Drugs
November 2004
http://www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/counterfeit/rfid_cpg.html

large

08-24-2008, 10:13 AM

James! How you be?

Just a re-state . .

As we demand more security from the Government we have to relinquish some of our freedoms . . There's no other way to do it . .

Our government (the bureaucracy) demands that it be "fed" . . and it gets what it wants to be "fed" one way or another. If your Congressman doesn't out and out give the bureaucracy it's demands, it gets satisfied by skirting the constitution or nibbling away at the edges . . The RFID technology is a case of "nibbling" . . and once it's in place, it's really hard to get it removed . .

That's not how it should be . . But that's how it is!

Zombiewire

08-25-2008, 01:55 PM

Yo! John ...... Hey people need to know what is going on with RFID system being shoved down their BLEEPs.. Look how many hits I have broght to the table for this fourm?. I need to continue what i started.

YO! Large Ive been ok just paying da "bills that kill but aint that America"
I was there in Colorado for two weeks fishing/ camping in the wilderness. Hey for xmas lets go have a lunch at Passkeys... Its been awhile. How you been?

You can see my web site at www.sandiegohometech.com and check out my fence biz fence work here in Diego.... Laters man, out

large

08-25-2008, 03:55 PM

Yeah, I missed ya last July . . You said you would probably be here . .

Gimme a pm and I'll send ya my Phone Number . .

You're on! . . either a Passkey Super or Huevos at the Pantry . .

Zombiewire

08-28-2008, 08:57 AM

They call it the craft

CHIEFTAIN PHOTO/CHRIS McLEAN Michael McMillan explains the process of taking identification information for children at the Mason's booth at the Colorado State Fair.

The simple system gives parents information to be used in case of abduction.
By JOHN NORTON
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Keeping an eye on the kids is one of the biggest challenges parents face at the Colorado State Fair, but a well-known fraternal organization knows that challenge extends well beyond the Midway and Main Street.

The Grand Lodge of Colorado Masons for the first time has set up a Child ID booth in the Americraft Hall, formerly known as the Ag Palace.

Puebloan Michael McMillan, junior grand steward of the Colorado Grand Lodge, said Monday afternoon that parents of 14,000 children had been provided identification information over just the first three days of the Fair.

“When you go to the (Colorado Bureau of Investigation Web) site and look at child abductions, it’s shocking,” he said.

The Masons’ ID system is a simple one and unlike many other similar services, it’s free. Children are photographed and two fingerprints are taken. Those images are then printed on a template that’s given to the parents who fill out information that includes age, height, weight, doctors’ and dentists’ names and any characteristics like scars and birthmarks.

McMillan said that the photos and fingerprints are not stored and there is no record of ID process kept by his organization.

“Then we go to the unpleasant part,” he said. “We ask them to take a usable DNA sample. They can pluck some hair - it has to have the follicle - or take a cheek swab. We show them how to handle that and take care of it.”

Parents are then handed an envelope with the ID information and told to keep it and the DNA sample in a place “you can find when you can’t think. Because if your child is missing, you may not be thinking very well.” They can then give the ID information to police.

The Masons have been providing their service for five years and while they haven’t heard from any parents of lost children who’ve had to use it, McMillan said that police appreciate the service.

He recommends that the IDs be updated yearly, something parents can do by contacting their local Masonic lodge.

Zombiewire

09-03-2008, 07:42 AM

A privacy activist argues that the devices pose new security risks to those who carry them, often unwittingly
By Katherine Albrecht

* Radio-frequency identi*fication (RFID) tags are embedded in a growing number of personal items and identity documents.
* Because the tags were designed to be powerful tracking devices and they typically incorporate little security, people wearing or carrying them are vulnerable to surreptitious surveillance and profiling.
* Worldwide, legislators have done little to address those risks to citizens.

If you live in a state bordering Canada or Mexico, you may soon be given an opportunity to carry a very high tech item: a remotely readable driver’s license. Designed to identify U.S. citizens as they approach the nation’s borders, the cards are being promoted by the Department of Homeland Security as a way to save time and simplify border crossings. But if you care about your safety and privacy as much as convenience, you might want to think twice before signing up.

The new licenses come equipped with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags that can be read right through a wallet, pocket or purse from as far away as 30 feet. Each tag incorporates a tiny microchip encoded with a unique identification number. As the bearer approaches a border station, radio energy broadcast by a reader device is picked up by an antenna connected to the chip, causing it to emit the ID number. By the time the license holder reaches the border agent, the number has already been fed into a Homeland Security database, and the traveler’s photograph and other details are displayed on the agent’s screen.

Although such “enhanced” driver’s licenses remain voluntary in the states that offer them, privacy and security experts are concerned that those who sign up for the cards are unaware of the risk: anyone with a readily available reader device—unscrupulous marketers, government agents, stalkers, thieves and just plain snoops—can also access the data on the licenses to remotely track people without their knowledge or consent. What is more, once the tag’s ID number is associated with an individual’s identity—for example, when the person carrying the license makes a credit-card transaction—the radio tag becomes a proxy for that individual. And the driver’s licenses are just the latest addition to a growing array of “tagged” items that consumers might be wearing or carrying around, such as transit and toll passes, office key cards, school IDs, “contactless” credit cards, clothing, phones and even groceries.

RFID tags have been likened to barcodes that broadcast their information, and the comparison is apt in the sense that the tiny devices have been used mainly for identifying parts and inventory, including cattle, as they make their way through supply chains. Instead of having to scan every individual item’s Universal Product Code (UPC), a warehouse worker can register the contents of an entire pallet of, say, paper towels by scanning the unique serial number encoded in the attached RFID tag. That number is associated in a central database with a detailed list of the pallet’s contents. But people are not paper products. During the past decade a shift toward embedding chips in individual consumer goods and, now, official identity documents has created a new set of privacy and security problems precisely because RFID is such a powerful tracking technology. Very little security is built into the tags themselves, and existing laws offer people scant protection from being surreptitiously tracked and profiled while living an increasingly tagged life.

Beyond Barcodes
The first radio tags identified military aircraft as friend or foe during World War II, but it was not until the late 1980s that similar tags became the basis of electronic toll-collection systems, such as E-ZPass along the East Coast. And in 1999 corporations began considering the tags’ potential for tracking millions of individual objects. In that year Procter & Gamble and Gillette (which have since merged to become the world’s largest consumer-product manufacturing company) formed a consortium with Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers, called the Auto-ID Center, to develop RFID tags that would be small, efficient and cheap enough to eventually replace the UPC barcode on everyday consumer products.

MORE >>> http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-rfid-tags-could-be-used

Zombiewire

10-11-2008, 08:24 AM

In a recent article, Pennsylvania Representative Sam E. Rohrer reminded us of the words of Benjamin Franklin, who famously stated, "People willing to trade freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both." The Real ID Act threatens the results warned by Franklin - loss of both freedom and security, says Rep. Rohrer. It has become the biometric enrollment phase of a plan to implement a terribly invasive tracking system, largely without public knowledge or approval. At issue is more than standardized or non-duplicative driver's licenses, and the effort extends worldwide, threatening everyone. Under REAL ID biometric facial recognition technology, you become a number literally worn on your face - a number which is read by computer, tracked by surveillance camera, and distributed worldwide. Many people still wrongly assume that there is a legitimate need for security that trumps all other considerations, but Real ID is not just about a secure driver's license or terrorism prevention. It violates Constitutional rights, compromises national and state sovereignty, and threatens the safety of all Americans. http://www.nonationalid.com/

large

10-11-2008, 09:14 AM

A couple of things . .

You are not going to get out of this world alive . .

And the Government is going to know who you are . . .

Zombiewire

10-22-2008, 02:55 PM

Tuesday, October 21, 2008 1:00 PM PDT

The U.S. Department of Justice won't oppose an agreement by seven companies to jointly license patents related to RFID (radio frequency identification) technology, potentially clearing the way for greater deployment of RFID standards.

The DOJ said Tuesday it will not pursue antitrust complaints against the seven members of the RFID Consortium, after a representative of the group asked for the DOJ's opinion of the group's patent agreement. The consortium members own 10 patents closely tied to standards developed for ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID, a type of RFID that allows chips to be read from up to 10 meters away.

Last November, consortium members -- 3M, France Telecom, Hewlett-Packard, LG Electronics, Motorola, ThingMagic and Zebra Technologies -- formed a limited liability partnership to jointly license their RFID-related patents using "reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms," the DOJ said. The companies requested the DOJ conduct a business review to determine that the partnership didn't break any U.S. antitrust laws.

Under the consortium plan, an independent licensing agent will offer nonexclusive licenses to other companies interested in adopting RFID.

The patents address a UHF RFID standard endorsed in 2006 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The so-called Generation-2 standard was originally created by EPCglobal, a private RFID standards group.

"This licensing arrangement will provide a convenient and cost-effective way for any interested company to obtain patent licenses required to implement the UHF RFID Standards," Lem Amen, vice president and general manager of 3M Track and Trace Solutions, said in a November news release from the consortium. "This will benefit consumers by encouraging competition and speeding adoption of the technology."

A representative of the RFID Consortium wasn't immediately available for comment on the DOJ's decision.

While organizations including Wal-Mart and the U.S. Department of Defense have embraced RFID, other businesses have been slow to adopt the technology, according to some surveys. RFID allows products and materials to be tagged and scanned, helping organizations keep track of their inventories.

A survey released by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) a year ago found that 84 percent of technology resellers, solution providers, systems integrators and consultants will or may offer RFID products and solutions in the next three years. But nearly two-thirds of the companies said their customers hadn't yet implemented RFID.

The DOJ, in a letter to the RFID Consortium, said its proposal is reasonably likely to produce procompetitive benefits. The consortium holds "essential" RFID patents, the DOJ said.

"The proposed patent-licensing arrangement has the potential to speed up the commercialization of UHF RFID technology, to the benefit of competition and consumers, without harming competition or impeding innovation," Thomas O. Barnett, assistant attorney general in charge of the DOJ's Antitrust Division, said in a statement.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/152571/us_doj_wont_challenge_rfid_licensing_plan.html