Privacy Implications of RFID

L&L: How and when did you first get involved with raising awareness about the privacy implications of RFID? Was there a particular event that triggered your interest in the subject?

Liz McIntyre: I found out about the technology while researching patent documents. I had stumbled upon a scheme to target grocery store shoppers with coupons based on their historical purchases - whether or not they presented a supermarket loyalty card. I figured the best way to learn the mechanics of the coupon system was to look at the associated patents. While doing that research, I found a cache of scandalous documents outlining ways that RFID could be used to track people and create an inescapable surveillance grid. Many of these blueprints relied on using RFID in ways that would be invisible to the public. I felt a responsibility to share my findings with the world in hopes of heading off this planned future.

L&L: Use of RFID in the retail industry is increasing all the time. The price of the tags is perhaps the key dictating factor in it's expansion - what kind of time scale do you think we are looking at before the technology is in widespread use in supermarkets and other shops?

Liz: We hope the widespread use of RFID on individual consumer items, a practice called 'item-level tagging' never happens. If consumers vote with their shopping dollars and say 'no' to RFID-tagged items, manufacturers and retailers will have no choice but to honor the majority or go out of business. RFID proponents including global corporations like Wal-Mart, Procter & Gamble, IBM, and NCR, like to think they can tag most manufactured items within the next ten years.

L&L: What kind of impact have CASPIAN's organized boycotts had on companies like Gillette?

Liz: Our organized boycotts and the real threat of additional boycotts have kept many companies from moving ahead with plans to put RFID tags on individual items. For example, when Benetton wanted to put spychips in its Sisley line of women's undergarments, the implications weren't lost on the world's women. They supported the CASPIAN boycott and sent a very strong message to the company. In response, the company quickly backed off from its plans. Companies really don't want to alienate their customers - they need our shopping dollars in order to thrive.

L&L: Do you envisage circumstances in which the loss of privacy is a small price to pay in return for advanced service? 

Liz: There are always tradeoffs with technology. As C.P. Snow once said, 'Technology is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.' When it comes to RFID technology, consumers will have to make decisions about the cost to their privacy and freedom. As we spell out in 'Spychips' and on our website at www.spychips.com, we believe the final decision should be made in the free marketplace. But in order for the free market to work, consumers need to be fully informed about the downsides of the technology - something big companies like Wal-Mart, Procter & Gamble, Gillette, Tesco, NCR and IBM fear. This is because their own studies have shown the vast majority of consumers object to the technology on privacy grounds once they fully understand it. Consumers know instinctively that it can too easily be used against them.

L&L: How would you like to see the government act to prevent misuse of this technology? 

Liz: We believe the best solution to privacy invading technologies like item-level RFID is the free market. According to industry studies, two-thirds of people object to RFID on privacy grounds. If those two-thirds vote on the technology by refusing to buy items from retailers and manufacturers promoting it, then companies would be forced to honor the wishes of the majority.

But in order for the free market to work, consumers need to understand the implications of the technology and know what products contain RFID tags. Since these tags can be so easily hidden in everyday objects on store shelves, we believe it is appropriate to require labeling.

Consumers need to know what items contain tracking devices and the implications of those devices so they can make educated decisions in the marketplace. 

L&L: Do you think that 'switching off' the tags could be a potential solution to consumer concern of being tracked outside the store? 

Liz: It's only a hollow solution. It might give consumers a false sense of security while the RFID infrastructure is being put in place. If we allow the technology to become ubiquitous, we could wake up to an instant surveillance society overnight. One day the chips are off - the next they're on. It's conceivable that keeping the chips 'live' could be mandated by the government at some point or by store policy.

In addition, turning chips off after sale doesn't solve the problem of the tracking that could go on well before the consumer every reaches the cash register. In Spychips we expose blueprints by companies like IBM, NCR, and Procter & Gamble, to track people through RFID chips while they're IN the store. All the abuses of RFID to date have occurred within the stores themselves. A good example of this is the Gillette 'smart shelf' trial at a Tesco store in the UK. In that trial, RFID tags were hidden in Mach 3 razor packages. The 'smart shelf' could sense when consumers picked up the spychipped packages. SNAP! A camera relayed a close-up mug shot of each shopper's face to store security personnel. A second camera snapped the shopper's photo at checkout. If someone was seen picking up razor blades from the shelf but wasn't seen paying for them, that person was flagged as a potential shoplifter. 

L&L: Some Christians in the US have expressed their concern that RFID technology could be the fulfillment of the Biblical prophecy regarding the 'Mark of the Beast'. Do your concerns about the technology stem from religious beliefs, or worry as a consumer? 

Liz: Some Christians see RFID technology as potentially offering a fulfillment of the prophesies of John in the last chapter of the Bible. Revelation 13:16-18 predicts a time when people will not be able to buy or sell unless they receive a mark in their right hand or forehead.

Never before in history have we had a technology with the ability to control the marketplace like RFID, so Christians are concerned about its implications for the future. Of course, you don't have to be a Christian to be concerned about a technology with the tremendous tracking and control potential of RFID.