Homeland Security to Test RFID
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/1360/1/1/


Informant: Painterscan



http://omega.twoday.net/topics/RFID/

The controversial US-VISIT scheme for those visiting the US from abroad already fingerprints holidaymakers on their way into the country and is now adding RFID to the mix in order to improve border management, the department said.

http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39127374,00.htm
http://tinyurl.com/4bk6s


From Information Clearing House

http://www.infowars.net/Pages/Jan05/290105_Big_bro.html


Informant: Mark Marks

Oh but don't worry, its all voluntary...for now...

Since U.S. regulators approved them for medical use last year, implantable identification devices from VeriChip have turned up in some interesting places. Harvard Medical School's chief information officer, Dr. John Halamka, had himself injected with a VeriChip identification microchip in December, the company announced on Friday. The rice grain-sized chips, designed to be injected into the arm's fatty tissue, can be scanned like a bar code to call up personal information such as name, blood type and medical records. The devices can also be linked to financial information such as credit card numbers and buying habits, which is why a nightclub in Glasgow, Scotland, recently began offering to implant its patrons with the chips. The club, called Bar Soba, said the chips let customers leave their wallets at home and count on their favorite drink being ready as soon as they walk through the door and get scanned.

VeriChip is a subsidiary of a Palm Beach, Fla., company called Applied Digital, which also makes implantable chips for tracking livestock and identifying lost pets. All are based on technology called radio frequency identification, or RFID.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5545802.html


From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - January 28th, 2005

Posted on Tue, Jan. 25, 2005

Bill would restrict human microchips

JOE KAFKA

Associated Press

PIERRE, S.D. - Legislation introduced Tuesday in the South Dakota House would make it illegal to require people to accept implanted microchips that can be used to identify them.

Rep. Tom Hackl, R-Hoven, is the prime sponsor of HB1114. The bill would restrict the use of radio frequency identification technology in humans.

The microchips, which are the size of rice grains, are being widely used to track business inventories and supplies. They also are being used to track livestock and even let pet owners identify runaway animals.

Radio frequency technology is being used in a limited basis in humans, too. At least 160 people who work for the Mexican attorney general had the chips implanted in their arms last year to gain access to secure areas of the office.

People also have had the chips implanted to relay their medical information to hospital workers in cases of emergency. Scanning devices can download a chip's serial number, which is then used to access a person's health records.

The chips cannot be easily removed because they are housed in glass capsules that are designed to break if tampered with.

"Do we want to put something so permanent into a person?" asked Hackl. "I think it would be an acute case of privacy down the road."

While HB1114 would bar someone from requiring a radio frequency chip to be implanted in another person, the measure contains no penalty.

The legislation was assigned to the House State Affairs Committee but is not yet scheduled for a hearing.


Informant: Mark Marks

http://tinyurl.com/78mqy

We are launching a boycott campaign against Tesco, the world's third-largest retailer, for its involvement in item-level RFID tagging trials. These trials, involving tens of thousands of British shoppers, set an unacceptable example for the retail industry.

I appeared on BBC's Newsnight program to announce the boycott to millions of UK consumers last night. (Streaming video of this announcement will be available online today only; see details below.) Tesco is taking the boycott seriously and issued a statement to the BBC acknowledging the trials, while attempting to downplay their importance.

If you are a Tesco shopper, please join the boycott. Stop by your local store this week and tell the manager that you intend to shop elsewhere until they stop putting RFID tags on consumer products. If you cannot avoid shopping at Tesco, we ask that you purchase only strictly necessary items there.

Next, please refer friends, family members and colleagues to our informational website, http://www.BoycottTesco.com, and ask them to join you. If you have a website or blog, please print a mention of the boycott and post a link to the new site.

The boycott will remain in effect until Tesco assures us that no products on their shelves have been RFID tagged. The only way to stop the escalation of RFID on consumer products is to send a strong economic message to Tesco that consumers won't stand for it.

In freedom,
Katherine Albrecht, CASPIAN


VIEW THE BBC SEGMENT ONLINE (AVAILABLE UNTIL TONIGHT ONLY)

Tuesday's Newsnight program will be available for replay today until 10:30 PM London time/5:30 PM New York time at the Newsnight website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/tvseq/newsnight/newsnight.ram.

Real Player users can scroll forward to the 30:44 time stamp to view the Tesco RFID segment.


OUR PRESS RELEASE

January 26, 2005

CASPIAN ANNOUNCES WORLDWIDE TESCO BOYCOTT ON BBC TELEVISION

Consumers react to UK retailer's planned expansion of item-level RFID

CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) has launched a worldwide boycott of Tesco in response to the retailer's escalating use of RFID on consumer products. CASPIAN Founder and Director Katherine Albrecht made the announcement to millions of viewers watching BBC Newsnight, the popular UK news program, on Tuesday. Tesco is the world's third largest retailer, with over 2,300 stores across Europe and Asia.

RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification, a controversial technology that hooks miniature antennas up to tiny computer chips smaller than a grain of sand to track items at a distance. The technology raises privacy concerns because RFID tagged items can be monitored invisibly right through items consumers normally consider private, like clothing, purses, backpacks and wallets.

During the BBC segment, Albrecht outlined CASPIAN member objections to Tesco's expansion of its item-level RFID tagging trials, saying they "would involve potentially hundreds of thousands more shoppers....it essentially means that more people will be taking home items containing [RFID] spychips." She concluded, "that's simply unacceptable."

Newsnight correspondent Paul Mason said Tesco was taking the announcement of the boycott "seriously," and read a prepared statement from the retailer that was intended to assure consumers that the store did not have plans to track products after purchase.

Mason concluded that "all the big names in this [RFID] industry will be watching this battle very intently."

Tuesday's Newsnight program will be available for replay until Wednesday evening at the Newsnight website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/tvseq/newsnight/newsnight.ram. Real Player users can scroll forward to the 30:44 time stamp to view the Tesco RFID segment.

CASPIAN has launched http://www.boycottTesco.com in conjunction with its boycott announcement. The site details Tesco's RFID involvement, including its past misconduct with the controversial Gillette RFID "smart shelf."

Albrecht vows to maintain the boycott until Tesco complies with the moratorium on item-level RFID tagging of consumer goods as outlined in a position statement endorsed by CASPIAN and over 40 of the world's leading privacy and civil liberties organizations. (See Position Statement on the Use of RFID on Consumer Products at
http://www.spychips.com/jointrfid_position_paper.html)

"We believe Tesco's decision to pursue item-level RFID tagging is irresponsible," Albrecht added. "We're calling on consumers to boycott the chain until the practice is stopped. If people must shop at Tesco, we are asking them to reduce their purchases. After all, as Tesco says, 'every little helps.'"



Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN) is a grass-roots consumer group fighting retail surveillance schemes since 1999. With thousands of members in all 50 U.S. states and over 30 countries worldwide, CASPIAN seeks to educate consumers about marketing strategies that invade their privacy and to encourage privacy-conscious shopping habits across the retail spectrum.

For more information, see:
http://www.spychips.com and http://www.nocards.org

Not many people took notice to this little detail which was shown day after day on FOX News. With all of the talk about national I.D. cards, uniform drivers licenses in every state, RFID's (implantable chip), and GPS tracking, it's curious that so few noticed the details of this footage. Here's the story. Recently during the beginning of this month (Jan. 05)there were several incidents of Lasers beamed into the cockpits of several passenger airliners. Well, as it would happen, FOX News ran some "file footage" with that story that really had nothing to do with the incidents. However, the file footage showed a male, who was in a flight suit including a helmet with goggles. The clip was obviously done in a (training module) of some kind. But, the most interesting part was when the "pilot" reached up to turn some switches on a computer, and then placed the underside of his clenched fist on the computer screen for a few seconds, then proceeded to turn more switches/buttons on the computer. For what reason would a pilot need to place his wrist on a computer screen? Only to gain access to the system he/she would be working on! In other words, the computer was able to read information on an implanted RFID in the pilots wrist, therefore allowing the pilot access to the system!

Was this pilot chipped? And, was this clip just a subtle way of letting the public know that the U.S. Government is already using RFID's as a means of tracking pilots when they are downed in enemy territory?

I believe that the pilot was chipped, and I believe that the U.S. Government is in the planning stages for chipping the entire population of the U.S. Why not; they are already planning to have each child under the age of 18 given a psychological evaluation and profiling.

http://www.politicalgateway.com/main/columns/read.html?col=223


From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - January 24th, 2005

by Katherine Albrecht

Free Market News Network

01/21/05

Today, billions of dollars are spent annually to collect and share consumer 'intelligence.' In-store tracking technologies like floor sensors, heat sensors, hidden cameras, hidden microphones, GPS-enabled grocery carts, and phony shoppers are all used to gather information. RFID will greatly simplify the task of collecting such consumer data -- particularly if consumers can be automatically identified while walking in the door...

https://www.freemarketnews.com/pview/5782/1106330410/html/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp