"Tiny IDs Can Track Almost Anything" 
Washington Times (06/09/03) P. A1; Hudson, Audrey 

Alien Technology Corp. is at the forefront of manufacturing and 
marketing tiny radio chips that can be used as tracking devices. 
Alien is producing 500 million chips for Gillette in order for them 
to track their product, but opponents, such as Katherine Albrecht, 
fear abuse of the new technology. Albrecht is the director of Consumers 
Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, and believes the 
technology could lead to a gross invasion of privacy.  

The new technology can get a fixed location for anything that the chip 
was attached to, from clothing to cars. The radio-frequency identification 
chips will soon be used to monitor stock at Wal-Mart, allowing the store 
to know what items need to be restocked and activating surveillance 
cameras if shoplifting is suspected. The results of use in retail would 
be a more organized store with no more missing stock, responding to an 
increasing demand in a product immediately and helping prevent 
shoplifting.  

In an effort to protect privacy some developers of RFID technology are 
experimenting with safeguards that would automatically turn a product 
off once it leaves the store, a step that, according to Albrecht, could 
be overlooked and lead to an invasion of consumer privacy. The technology 
has been marketed to the military, who have used the chips in the wrist 
tags of injured soldiers as they tracked them from hospital to hospital, 
monitoring food and equipment deliveries, while the Department of 
Homeland Security has used the technology to hasten border crossing 
by embedding chips into identification cards, and could use it to keep 
track of airline personnel.  
www.washtimes.com/national/20030609-122709-8176r.htm


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Cheers, Steve..

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