http://news.com.com/Privacy+questions+arise+as+RFID+hits+stores/2100-1012_3-5390446.html


From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - October 2nd, 2004

Der FoeBuD kämft dafür, dass RFID-Technik, die Gegenstände per Funkwellen identifiziert und per Lesegerät Informationen aussendet, keinesfalls unkontrolliert eingeführt wird.. Am 17. August luden Wirtschafts-, Verbraucherschutz-, Innen- und und Justizministreium gemeinsam zu einer Diskussionsveranstaltung mit dem Titel »RFID und Verbraucherschutz« nach Berlin.. Auch der FoeBuD war eingeladen und fragt sich, ob dies nun ein erster Schritt das geforderte Gremium, dem Daten-, Verbraucher- und UmweltschützerInnen (Elektrosmog) sowie Arbeitnehmer-Vertretungen und BürgerrechtlerInnen angehören, einzurichten, sein soll. Noch gar nicht geklärt ist die Frage der Kostenübernahme. Der FoeBuD fordert nämlich auch, dass die Kosten der Mitarbeit in diesem Gremium nach dem Verursacherprinzip von den Nutznießern der RFID-Technik getragen werden müssen.

Bei dem Forum waren die RFID-Kritiker deutlich in der Minderheit. Der Bundesdatenschutzbeauftragte und FoeBuD als der Verein, der mit seiner Kritik den Bund erst auf die Probleme, die mit dem RFID-Einsatz einhergehen, aufmerksam gemacht hat, waren eingeladen. Rund dreiviertel der Anwesenden waren Vertreter von Organisationen, die RFID-Technik herstellen, normieren oder sie anwenden. So saßen in der Runde neben der Pro-RFID-Lobby-Gruppe Eicar auch der Einzelhandelsverband und die Handelskonzerne Metro, Rewe, Procter&Gamle und Kraft. Ihr Tenor: Die Anwendung von RFID solle keinesfalls durch Gesetze geregelt werden.

Mit dabei auch Patrick von Braunmühl vom Bundesverband Verbraucherzentrale. Er bezog eine klare Position und hob hervor, dass sich bereits heute Handelsunternehmen bei dem Umgang mit Kundenkarten nicht immer an Gesetze halten. Spätestens an der Kasse müsse RFID standardmäßig deaktiviert werden.

Für Rena Tangens gibt es keinen Grund für blindes Vertrauen in die Konzerne. Sie plädierte entschieden für Gesetze, die den Umgang mit RFID regeln, da RFID »vielfältige Risiken für eine demokratische Gesellschaft birgt«. Sie könne zur umfassenden Kontrolle, Überwachung und Manipulation der Bürger eingesetzt werden. Weltweit eindeutige Seriennummern der RFID-Chips in Koppelung mit Datenbanken ermöglichten detaillierte Bewegungs-, Konsum- und Interessenprofile der Menschen. Bei der Einführung von RFID seien daher nicht nur die Interessen der Hersteller, des Handels und der Verbraucher berührt, sondern auch fundamentale Rechte der Bürger. Eine gesetzliche Regulierung würde die »good guys« – also die Firmen, die die Privatsphäre der Bürger tatsächlich achten – schützen: vor der böswilligen Konkurrenz und vor ihren eigenen Aktionären.

Spiegel online:
Die Deutsche Industrie klagt, dass die Diskussion über Funketiketten (RFID) in eine falsche Richtung laufen würde. Das freut den FoeBuD. Die befürchtete Totalüberwachung, die mit einer unkontrollierten RFID-Einführung einhergehen würde, sei nämlich das eigentlich Problem.
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/technologie/0,1518,320267,00.html

Financial Times Deutschland:
Die einen sehen es noch als PR-Desaster, der FoeBuD sieht darin einen großer Erfolg: Das frühzeitige Nachdenken über datenschutz- und demokratiefreundlicher Technik, kann ein großer Standortvorteil werden.
http://www.ftd.de/ub/di/1094280033563.html?nv=se

Aus Newsletter des FoeBuD e.V., Ausgabe 5, Oktober 2004

Photographs of RFID Clothing Labels "Unauthorized"

Advanstar threatens CASPIAN founder: Pull or else

Photographs taken by privacy activist and writer Katherine Albrecht at the Frontline Expo 2004 conference are "unauthorized" according to Advanstar. The event management/PR firm has threatened to ban Albrecht, founder and director of CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) from future events it organizes unless she "refrain[s] from making the photos available."

The photographs in dispute show Checkpoint RFID-enabled prototypes of Abercrombie & Fitch, Calvin Klein, Champion and other name brand clothing labels.

"The notion that I somehow 'surreptitiously' photographed the displays at your event is baffling," Albrecht said in a written response to Advanstar. She characterized Advanstar’s threat as "an attempt to censor images that fairly and accurately depict the activities that took place at their conference."

Advanstar’s censorship "request," and Albrecht’s response are posted at:

http://www.spychips.com/frontline-letter.html

Advanstar made the decision to designate Albrecht as "press" for the event. A sign posted at the entrance to the exhibit hall indicated anyone designated as 'press' could take photographs. In addition to representing her organization's online RFID publication, http://www.spychips.com , Albrecht attended the event to gather information for a well-known computer industry magazine.

"The photographs I took of RFID tags hidden in clothing labels and other consumer items document an issue of great public concern, and I plan to publish them over Advanstar's objections," said Albrecht. "The RFID industry's efforts to keep these images hidden underscores the danger the public faces from this powerful and insidious surveillance technology and the companies that would deploy it in secrecy."

In addition to the RFID clothing tag photos, Albrecht also documented the item-level tagging of Huggies baby wipes, Kimberly Clark diapers, Nyquil cold medicine, CVS vitamins, Similac baby formula, and Lanacane cream. Rather than bow to censorship demands, Albrecht has also posted these images at:

http://www.spychips.com/more-frontline-photos.html

The RFID tagging of these items is disturbing from a consumer privacy standpoint, since the RFID industry has lately assured lawmakers and the press that they are interested only in "supply side" inventory tracking on crates and pallets.

Item-level tagging of consumer goods violates a call for a moratorium issued by CASPIAN and over 40 of the world's leading privacy and civil liberties organizations last November.

But it also has a dark side, according to scientist Daniel Munyan, who summed it up in a single observation. The devices that read RFID tags are called readers, as you would expect, but originally they had a more ominous name: “Interrogators,” later changed for PR reasons. The problem with RFID tags was that they broadcast all their information indiscriminately to whichever reading device communicated with them, Munyan pointed out. Thus there was a serious issue of privacy and security for people and organisations that owned that information. RFID tag data was vulnerable to espionage. Customers in a shop using RFID inventory tags on goods should seek to know if the tags were being used only for theft control, he advised, or to track customers on their way through the shop. Retailers might do this to surreptitiously build up a database of customer’ shopping habits for marketing purposes – an intrusion into privacy that could help profits, but also risked offending those same customers. He cited three factors that would shape the technology’s future: “Legislation, lawsuits and boycotts.” He said the latter two would be instituted by people who felt their privacy had been invaded by inappropriate use of RFID tagging data, which would bring about laws to curb misuses. For a better understanding of the privacy issues involved, Munyan suggested seeing the 1998 film Enemy of The State, in which a lawyer played by Will Smith is tracked via satellite by the film’s villains through devices embedded in his clothing.

The film made its points by exaggeration, Munyan noted, but it has been shown by activists against this kind of intrusive electronic tracking. One problem in fighting RFID’s abuse by "bad people" was that, as Munyan put it, “terrorists and criminals are not FCC-compliant.” (The FCC or Federal Communications Commission is the US Government agency which regulates radio communications and thus RFID). For instance, they might use RFID readers capable of communicating with tags from a greater distance than that permitted by national regulations allowed, for purposes of espionage or snooping.

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2004/9/22/technology/8931574&sec=technology


From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - September 26th, 2004

I have disturbing news from the RFID front lines. CASPIAN has uncovered evidence of industry plans to deploy RFID tracking devices in consumer clothing items.

A $600 million company called Checkpoint has developed prototype labels containing RFID spychips for Abercrombie & Fitch, Calvin Klein, and Champion sportswear. These tags contain tiny computer chips with unique ID numbers that can be read remotely by anyone with the right equipment.

CNET picked up the story on Friday, September 24th. You can read it at:
http://networks.silicon.com/lans/0,39024663,39124341,00.htm

Photos of the spychipped clothing labels can be seen on our website at:
http://www.spychips.com/press-releases/checkpoint-photos.html

Potentially, people wearing the tagged clothing items could be identified and tracked as they pass through Checkpoint-equipped doorways and store portals, as they stand near Checkpoint's retail "smart shelves" containing hidden RFID reader devices, or when they enter Checkpoint's planned RFID "smart zones" in stores.

Checkpoint has an infrastructure of anti-theft reader devices already in place at stores and libraries around the world. (Look at the bottom of the next security portal you pass through and you may see the Checkpoint name.) These portals could be retrofitted to silently read and record the unique ID numbers contained in Checkpoint's new clothing tags, or in any other item Checkpoint may be tagging.

Since there is no legal requirement for companies to tell consumers when products they buy contain RFID tags, this may already be happening.

Earlier this year, Checkpoint announced the purchase of 100 million RFID tags from vendor Matrics. Nearly a year ago, a senior Checkpoint executive boasted that "the technology is ready to pilot," and revealed that "we're working with forward-thinking consumer product goods manufacturers and retail clients on pilots."

CASPIAN, on the other hand, will be working with consumers on an aggressive response to this privacy threat. Roll up your sleeves and get ready for a good fight.

In freedom,

Katherine Albrecht
CASPIAN Founder and Director


Links to more information:

Checkpoint's RFID-laced clothing labels
http://www.spychips.com/press-releases/checkpoint-photos.html

CASPIAN's press release:
http://www.spychips.com/press-releases/checkpoint.html

CNET article: "Retailer to put RFID chips in all clothing"
http://networks.silicon.com/lans/0,39024663,39124341,00.htm

Checkpoint is "the world's largest integrator of RFID technology into
consumer product packaging"
http://www.checkpointsystems.com/content/news/press_releases_archives_display.aspx?news_id=59

Checkpoint and GOLIATH to use RFID for point-of-purchase advertising
http://www.checkpointsystems.com/content/news/press_releases_display.aspx?news_id=61

Checkpoint buys 100 million RFID tags from Matrics
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/853/1/1/

Checkpoint ready for pilots, demos "smart shelf" and "smart zone"
http://www.checkpointsystems.com/content/news/press_releases_archives_display.aspx?news_id=58

Learn more about "smart shelves" from our Gillette boycott site
http://www.boycottgillette.com/spychips.html


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

You're welcome to duplicate and distribute this message to others who may find it of interest.

http://www.us-government-torture.com/


Informant: billder

Hier der Link zum Videofilm "Freiwillige Überwachung" gestriger Beitrag bei Polylux! Sie benötigen dazu den Quick Time Player.

http://www.rbb-online.de/_/polylux/aktuell/index_jsp.html

Viele Grüße aus Bad Dürkheim

Uschi Obermann


Mikrochips unter der Haut und Fingerabdrücke als Zahlungsmittel - Partypeople machen ihre Körper zur Datenbank:
http://www.rbb-online.de/_/polylux/aktuell/index_jsp.html

RFID spending is set to explode in the next few years, growing from $1 billion this year to $4.6 billion in 2007, estimates Wall Street research firm Robert W. Baird & Co. Almost all of this will be in backroom warehouses and distribution centers -- not on grocery shelves or mall store racks. Somewhere in Neuss-Norf, Germany, a customer is approaching NCR's new FastLane self-checkout machine. Using radio-frequency IDs, or smart tags, on every item, the customer's groceries are being scanned on-the-spot and tallied up -- no need to take them out of the cart. At the same time, the RFID tags are being automatically disabled so security sensors will know the customer isn't shoplifting.

The store, called Metro Group's RFID Innovation Center, is a mock-up of a retail environment that displays the bleeding edge of RFID for suppliers. RFID systems, the successor to bar codes, use wireless technology within tiny chips -- or tags -- to track items as they move from the factory floor to store shelf to checkout. The buzz around RFID has been steadily building over the past two years, promising labor savings and improved inventory management.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Inching-Toward-the-RFID-Revolution-36266.html


Aftermath News
Top Stories - September 7th, 2004

http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/lead-story6.htm


Informant: Larry Lawson