Spychips Sees an RFID Conspiracy 

By Mark Baard

02:00 AM Oct. 05, 2005 PT

A new book by privacy advocates makes the case that corporations and
government agencies are in collusion to put tiny radio transmitters on
nearly everything we buy. Companies say it's about providing thought
leadership, not the Mark of the Beast.

Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre hope to become the twin Erin
Brockoviches of RFID, by revealing the threat posed by the radio tag
replacements for barcode labels. 

They may get their wish, if readers believe the conclusions of the
privacy advocates' new book, Spychips: How Major Corporations and
Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID.

Albrecht and McIntyre make a staggering accusation in Spychips: that
Philips, Procter and Gamble, Gillette, NCR and IBM are conspiring with
each other and the federal government to follow individual consumers
everywhere, using embedded radio tags planted in their clothing and
belongings.

The businesses, who form the center of the RFID industry, hope to
wirelessly monitor the contents of consumers' refrigerators, medicine
cabinets, basement workbenches -- even their garbage pails, the book
claims.

These companies have long insisted they are interested only in making
their supply chains run more smoothly.

The authors, who run the consumer privacy rights group Caspian,
support their assertions with company documents, records of patents
and patent applications, and statements made by RFID industry leaders
at corporate events.

They also cite magazine articles and news reports in which industry
executives appear to be rubbing their hands over the power of RFID
tags to track consumers. In one example, Gillette vice president of
global business management Dick Cantwell in quoted in a 2001
Technology Review article as saying he looks forward to the company
using (RFID) readers "to track consumer use of its products at home." 

[...]

Spychips is published by the Christian media publisher Thomas Nelson,
and a forthcoming Christian edition of the book will contain an
additional chapter linking RFID to the Mark of the Beast passage in
the Bible's Book of Revelation, as well as "minor updates throughout
the text to reflect Christian concerns," said Albrecht.

The Spychips Threat: Why Christians Should Oppose RFID Technology and
Surveillance is due out in January 2006. 

[...]

As described by Albrecht and McIntyre, the RFID "conspiracy" amounts
to more of a marriage of convenience between corporate and government
interests. Marketers believe RFID tags on goods will help them figure
out what makes a shopper pick an item off a shelf and put it back,
while the government may want to use the tags to monitor individuals
suspected of crimes or under the scrutiny of state social workers.

RFID will help officials "ensure the well-being of the people they
serve" through contact with social workers monitoring people in their
homes, according to one patent application filed by Big Five
consulting firm Accenture, described in Spychips. 

[...]

An executive who handles RFID business at NCR division Teradata
believes the Spychips' authors took much of their source material out
of context in spinning their conspiracy theory. Companies in the RFID
industry are in the business of imagining every conceivable
application for the technology, he said.

"That's part of creating thought leadership," said Richard Beaver,
director for retail offer development at Teradata. "Many of the
documents we produce or use are concept documents. You can make all
kinds of assumptions about the future (based on them)." 


Full article at "Wired News"
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,69068,00.html


Cheers, Steve...

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