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RFID stands for Radio Frequency IDentification, a technology that uses tiny computer chips smaller than a grain of sand to track items at a distance. RFID "spy chips" have been hidden in the packaging of Gillette razor products and in other products you might buy at a local Wal-Mart, Target, or Tesco - and they are already being used to spy on people.
Some of the world's largest product manufacturers have been plotting behind closed doors since 1999 to develop and commercialize this technology. If they are not opposed, their plan is to use these remote-readable spy chips to replace the bar code. RFID tags are NOT an "improved bar code" as the proponents of the technology would like you to believe. RFID technology differs from bar codes in three important ways: 1. With today's bar code technology, every can of Coke has the same UPC or bar code number as every other can (a can of Coke in Toronto has the same number as a can of Coke in Topeka). With RFID, each individual can of Coke would have a unique ID number which could be linked to the person buying it when they scan a credit card or a frequent shopper card (i.e., an "item registration system"). Many huge corporations, including
Philip Morris, Procter and Gamble, and Wal-Mart, have begun experimenting
with RFID spy chip technology. Gillette is leading the pack, and
recently placed an order for up to 500 million RFID tags from a
company called "Alien Technology"
(we kid you not). These big companies envision a day when
every single product on the face of the planet is tracked with RFID spy
chips! Don't you? Join us. Let's fight this battle before big corporations track our every move.
For additional information, see
"RFID: Tracking
Everything Everywhere", an excerpt from an article by CASPIAN founder
Katherine Albrecht, Ed.M. that appeared in the Summer 2002 issue of the
Denver University Law Review. Bio --- Katherine Albrecht, Ed.M.Katherine Albrecht is a consumer privacy expert and the Founder and Director of CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering), a national consumer organization created in 1999 to educate consumer-citizens about shopper surveillance. Ms. Albrecht is widely recognized as one of the world's leading experts on consumer privacy. She regularly speaks on the consumer privacy and civil liberties impacts of new technologies, with an emphasis on RFID and retail issues.She has testified on RFID technology before the Federal Trade Commission, the California state legislature, the European Commission, and the Federal Reserve Bank, and she has given over a thousand television, radio and print interviews to news outlets all over the world. Katherine graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in International Marketing, and holds a master's degree in Instructional Technology from Harvard University. She is currently completing her Doctorate in Education at Harvard where her research focus is consumer education, privacy and psychology.
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