Auto-ID: Tracking everything, everywhere

[Seeker]

Thought I'd swing by the Oregon TRT website to see what's new (usually nothing other than a few links to WND articles) and they appear to have changed format to a couple of bible quotes and four links that say "click here for truth". Well clicked on one (the other links were darpa, digitalangel, and soemthing about RFID) and it turned up this articleAuto-ID: Tracking everything, everywhere , which I thought some here might enjoy.
Might want to stock up on tinfoil now,before they start tracking your purchase of it.

Auto-ID: Tracking everything, everywhere
Katherine Albrecht, CASPIAN
[The following is an excerpt from the article, "Supermarket Cards: Tip of the Retail Surveillance Iceberg," accepted for Publication in the Denver University Law Review, June 2002]


"In 5-10 years, whole new ways of doing things will emerge and gradually become commonplace. Expect big changes."
- MIT's Auto-ID Center

Supermarket cards and other retail surveillance devices are merely the opening volley of the marketers' war against consumers. If consumers fail to oppose these practices now, our long term prospects may look like something from a dystopian science fiction novel.

A new consumer goods tracking system called Auto-ID is poised to enter all of our lives, with profound implications for consumer privacy. Auto-ID couples radio frequency (RF) identification technology with highly miniaturized computers that enable products to be identified and tracked at any point along the supply chain.

The system could be applied to almost any physical item, from ballpoint pens to toothpaste, which would carry their own unique information in the form of an embedded chip. The chip sends out an identification signal allowing it to communicate with reader devices and other products embedded with similar chips.

Analysts envision a time when the system will be used to identify and track every item produced on the planet.

A number for every Item on the planet

Auto-ID employs a numbering scheme called ePC (for "electronic product code") which can provide a unique ID for any physical object in the world. The ePC is intended to replace the UPC bar code used on products today.

Unlike the bar code, however, the ePC goes beyond identifying product categories -- it actually assigns a unique number to every single item that rolls off a manufacturing line. For example, each pack of cigarettes, individual can of soda, light bulb or package of razor blades produced would be uniquely identifiable through its own ePC number.

Once assigned, this number is transmitted by a radio frequency ID tag (RFID) in or on the product. These tiny tags, predicted by some to cost less than 1 cent each by 2004, are "somewhere between the size of a grain of sand and a speck of dust." They are to be built directly into food, clothes, drugs, or auto-parts during the manufacturing process.

Receiver or reader devices are used to pick up the signal transmitted by the RFID tag. Proponents envision a pervasive global network of millions of receivers along the entire supply chain -- in airports, seaports, highways, distribution centers, warehouses, retail stores, and in the home. This would allow for seamless, continuous identification and tracking of physical items as they move from one place to another, enabling companies to determine the whereabouts of all their products at all times.

Steven Van Fleet, an executive at International Paper, looks forward to the prospect. "We'll put a radio frequency ID tag on everything that moves in the North American supply chain," he enthused recently.

The ultimate goal is for Auto-ID to create a "physically linked world" in which every item on the planet is numbered, identified, catalogued, and tracked. And the technology exists to make this a reality. Described as "a political rather than a technological problem," creating a global system “would . . . involve negotiation between, and consensus among, different countries.” Supporters are aiming for worldwide acceptance of the technologies needed to build the infrastructure within the next few years.

The implications of Auto-ID


"Theft will be drastically reduced because items will report when they are stolen, their smart tags also serving as a homing device toward their exact location." - MIT's Auto-ID Center

Since the Auto-ID Center's founding at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1999, it has moved forward at remarkable speed. The center has attracted funding from some of the largest consumer goods manufacturers in the world, and even counts the Department of Defense among its sponsors. In a mid-2001 pilot test with Gillette, Philip Morris, Procter & Gamble, and Wal-Mart, the center wired the entire city of Tulsa, Oklahoma with radio-frequency equipment to verify its ability to track Auto-ID equipped packages.

Though many Auto-ID proponents appear focused on inventory and supply chain efficiency, others are developing financial and consumer applications that, if adopted, will have chilling effects on consumers' ability to escape the oppressive surveillance of manufacturers, retailers, and marketers. Of course, government and law enforcement will be quick to use the technology to keep tabs on citizens, as well.

The European Central Bank is quietly working to embed RFID tags in the fibers of Euro bank notes by 2005. The tag would allow money to carry its own history by recording information about where it has been, thus giving governments and law enforcement agencies a means to literally "follow the money" in every transaction. If and when RFID devices are embedded in banknotes, the anonymity that cash affords in consumer transactions will be eliminated.

Hitachi Europe wants to supply the tags. The company has developed a smart tag chip that -- at just 0.3mm square and as thin as a human hair -- can easily fit inside of a banknote. Mass-production of the new chip will start within a year.

Consumer marketing applications will decimate privacy


"Radio frequency is another technology that supermarkets are already using in a number of places throughout the store. We now envision a day where consumers will walk into a store, select products whose packages are embedded with small radio frequency UPC codes, and exit the store without ever going through a checkout line or signing their name on a dotted line."
Jacki Snyder, Manager of Electronic Payments for Supervalu (Supermarkets), Inc., and Chair, Food Marketing Institute Electronic Payments Committee

Auto-ID would expand marketers' ability to monitor individuals' behavior to undreamt of extremes. With corporate sponsors like Wal-Mart, Target, the Food Marketing Institute, Home Depot, and British supermarket chain Tesco, as well as some of the world's largest consumer goods manufacturers including Proctor and Gamble, Phillip Morris, and Coca Cola it may not be long before Auto-ID-based surveillance tags begin appearing in every store-bought item in a consumer's home.

According to a video tour of the "Home of the Future" and "Store of the Future" sponsored by Proctor and Gamble, applications could include shopping carts that automatically bill consumer's accounts (cards would no longer be needed to link purchases to individuals), refrigerators that report their contents to the supermarket for re-ordering, and interactive televisions that select commercials based on the contents of a home's refrigerator.

Now that shopper cards have whetted their appetite for data, marketers are no longer content to know who buys what, when, where, and how. As incredible as it may seem, they are now planning ways to monitor consumers' use of products within their very homes. Auto-ID tags coupled with indoor receivers installed in shelves, floors, and doorways, could provide a degree of omniscience about consumer behavior that staggers the imagination.

Consider the following statements by John Stermer, Senior Vice President of eBusiness Market Development at ACNielsen:


"[After bar codes] [t]he next 'big thing' [was] [f]requent shopper cards. While these did a better job of linking consumers and their purchases, loyalty cards were severely limited...consider the usage, consumer demographic, psychographic and economic blind spots of tracking data.... [S]omething more integrated and holistic was needed to provide a ubiquitous understanding of on- and off-line consumer purchase behavior, attitudes and product usage. The answer: RFID (radio frequency identification) technology.... In an industry first, RFID enables the linking of all this product information with a specific consumer identified by key demographic and psychographic markers....Where once we collected purchase information, now we can correlate multiple points of consumer product purchase with consumption specifics such as the how, when and who of product use."

Marketers aren't the only ones who want to watch what you do in your home. Enter again the health surveillance connection. Some have suggested that pill bottles in medicine cabinets be tagged with Auto-ID devices to allow doctors to remotely monitor patient compliance with prescriptions.

While developers claim that Auto-ID technology will create "order and balance" in a chaotic world, even the center's executive director, Kevin Ashton, acknowledges there's a "Brave New World" feel to the technology. He admits, for example, that people might balk at the thought of police using Auto-ID to scan the contents of a car's trunk without needing to open it. The Center's co-director, Sanjay E. Sarma, has already begun planning strategies to counter the public backlash he expects the system will encounter.

[clem]

That's old news, the Marine Corps inplanted a micro-chip tracking device in my left buttock years ago.

Every once in a while I receive "orders".

It's especially bad when I drive by a Sporting Goods store or Gun Shop.

[Preacherman]

Clem - that was the one planted by the Gunnery Sergeant's boot, round about the time when he said "Move, Marine!", wasn't it???

[ajaxinacan]

This technology has been coming for several years now.

It's actually very nice technology, used properly. Imagine the efficiency increase, and resultant price reduction, of being able to track any item you've shipped anywhere. From your home computer, you could know the location of any item you've purchased on line as it is shipped to you. You could buy a used car and instantly interrogate it to discover its entire maintenance and repair history. You could enter a store, pick up the item you want, and walk out. No checker, no nothing.

Used improperly, it is very scary. That's one of the reasons it is taking a while to catch on. (I worked briefly for Micron in Boise, ID. I quit from there in '97, so the news may have changed since then. At the time I left, Micron was searching for business that wanted to apply this technology to their shipping needs).

Anyway, here's an older USA today story:

Micron Technology tests tracking chips
PALO ALTO, Calif. - Talk about good timing.

As concern regarding airline security mounts, a semiconductor company Thursday begins beta testing a product to track the movement of everything from auto parts to airline bags.

The Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology, seeking to reduce its reliance on the struggling computer memory chip market, has spent four years developing the MicroStamp.

The MicroStamp ranges in size from a postage stamp to a credit card. It contains a computer chip and microwave radio capability.

Here's how it works: A MicroStamp could be attached to a storage container and be programmed to list its contents. As the container passed in or out of storage facilities, its movement would be tracked by MicroStamp readers.

The advantage MicroStamp has over bar coding is that its contents can be read from up to 15 feet away, Micron says. Also, the computer chip holds more information.

Micron hopes to get MicroStamps on everything from storage containers to Federal Express packages to airline luggage tags. In terms of airline security, passenger and bag could be required to pass MicroStamp readers. That way, airlines could more easily be sure that every bag on a plane was accompanied by a passenger. "In theory, the product could have enormous ramifications," says Piper Jaffray analyst Robert Toomey.

Initially, MicroStamps will cost $5 to $35 each. That's too expensive to be feasible for widescale use. Eventually, Micron expects stripped-down products to be made for such things as luggage tags, employee badges and even documents.

Micron plans to make MicroStamps itself. It also hopes to license the technology to other semiconductor companies. MicroStamp was developed by Micron Communications, a subsidiary of Micron Technology.

By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY

[Camel]

I will be laughing until the cows come home when the day after they start someone hacks the system. Imagine the problems a hacker in this tracking system could cause. It would be the world's biggest cyber-bullseye for those who just love messing with the Man.

[4V50 Gary]

It certainly helps LE when it comes to recovering stolen autos. One expensive car was stolen from San Francisco and stored into a garage in Pittsburg (less than 40 miles away). The cops got a warrant, knocked on the guy's door and the guy insisted that the car was his. Busted. He was going to chop it for parts but never got that far.

[Hkmp5sd]

They are going to make Winona Ryder's day with this thing.

We now envision a day where consumers will walk into a store, select products whose packages are embedded with small radio frequency UPC codes, and exit the store without ever going through a checkout line or signing their name on a dotted line."

Envision the day when you can go to Radio Shack, buy a few electronic components and make a small radio frequency jammer. Then go to Walmart, load up a shopping cart and walk out the door without having to pay for anything.