Benetton fashions tracking chip
Jim Krane
MARCH 12, 2003 

CLOTHES sold at Benetton stores will soon contain microchip 
transmitters that allow the Italian retailer to track its garments 
from their point of manufacture to the moment they're sold in any 
of its 5,000 shops.  

Benetton's introduction of "smart tag" tracking technology will be the 
largest example of a trend now emerging in the retail industry, according 
to Phillips Semiconductors, a unit of the Dutch electronics giant that 
designed 15 million tags being delivered to Benetton this year.   

Benetton's Sisley line of clothing will contain a Philips Electronics 
radio frequency ID tag that will replace ubiquitous bar codes, which 
have to be manually scanned.   

An RFID tag communicates its location to Benetton's computerized 
supply chain network, allowing the retailer to learn the status of 
its inventory at a glance and make restocking decisions quickly 
- even automatically, said Terry Phipps, Benetton's electronic 
data processing director.  

While there is no indication Benetton intends to track its customers 
with the tags, privacy advocates are worried that the technology could 
lend itself to unauthorized customer monitoring.  

Other businesses, including luxury clothing retailer Prada, have 
previously introduced RFID inventory tags. Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart 
and British retailer Tesco are among companies pursuing smart tags 
for restocking, anti- theft and anti-counterfeit purposes.  

Phillips says its smart tags will be imperceptible to the wearer. 
They store information on the style, size and color of the garment 
and its path through the manufacturing and stock chain, said Philips 
Semiconductors senior vice-president, Karsten Ottenberg.  

Because the ID is embedded in the clothes - it's an antenna-bearing 
chip smaller than a grain of rice that's attached to the clothes' 
labels - any item returned to the store automatically re-enters 
the inventory.  

Since the chips contain no power source they can only transmit their 
data when within three feet of a receiver u either a handheld unit or 
a shelving monitor in a Benetton store or warehouse, Mr Ottenberg said.  

The ID tags have the capacity to store and release more information - 
although Mr Ottenberg cautioned that the chips will store no data about 
the customer, and will be essentially useless after the garments leave 
the store.  

In a scenario reminiscent of the personalized advertising seen in the 
movie "Minority Report," an RFID tag could be programmed to store 
information about, say, the person who bought a garment. It could allow 
a retail chain to take note each time that garment was worn into a store, 
said Ted Zwibel of Psion Teklogix, a British maker of supply chain 
software involved in the Benetton system.  

For instance, a sales clerk might be tipped that a person in a pair of 
RFID- tagged slacks is a frequent customer.  

The salesperson could give that customer priority, and make sales 
suggestions based on the company's idea of clothes that match the 
slacks, Mr Zwibel said.  

Such scenarios could lead to protests over "spy clothes" on privacy 
grounds, said Wayne Madsen of the Electronic Privacy Information 
Center.  

"There really needs to be legislation if companies are doing this," 
Mr Madsen said. "They say it's for internal use. But what would prevent 
them from sharing it with third parties, with the government or criminal 
investigators?"  

The ultra-short range of the RFID transmissions would make it difficult 
to scan the clothes without the wearer's knowledge, Mr Ottenberg said.  

But the RFID tags could be programmed for other short-range tasks, 
like "talking" to a forthcoming Whirlpool washing machine to alert 
it to proper washing instructions, Mr Zwibel said.  

Philips has already sold a half-billion of the inexpensive chips, 
the largest portion of which are used in smart cards for public 
transportation systems, Ottenberg said.  

Mr Ottenberg said such tags could be used for "customer loyalty" 
rewards that could earn consumers such benefits as frequent flyer 
miles, free music downloads or discount coupons.  

AAP

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Source: "Australian IT".... 
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,6115442%5E15321%5E
%5Enbv%5E,00.html

Cheers, Steve..

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