The Dawn Of Tracking Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, With A Number
Pastor Dale Morgan
Mar 7th, 2007 9:08 AM
*The Dawn Of Tracking Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, With A Number*
by Katherine Albrecht, CASPIAN Founder
Excerpted from:
Albrecht, Katherine."Supermarket Cards: The Tip of the Retail
Surveillance Iceberg." Denver University Law Review, Summer 2002, Volume
79, Issue 4, pp. 534-539 and 558-565.
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Expect big changes
"In 5-10 years, whole new ways of doing things will emerge and gradually
become commonplace. Expect big changes." 1 - MIT's Auto-ID Center, 2002
Supermarket cards and 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 Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) is poised to enter all of our lives, with profound
implications for consumer privacy. RFID 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. 2
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.3 The chip sends out an identification
signal allowing it to communicate with reader devices and other products
embedded with similar chips. 4
Analysts envision a time when the system will be used to identify and
track every item produced on the planet. 5
A number for every item on the planet
RFID employs a numbering scheme called EPC (for "electronic product
code") which can provide a unique ID for any physical object in the
world. 6 The EPC is intended to replace the UPC bar code used on
products today. 7
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. 8 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. 9
Once assigned, this number is transmitted by a radio frequency ID tag
(RFID) in or on the product. 10 These tiny tags, predicted by some to
cost less than 1 cent each by 2004, 11 are "somewhere between the size
of a grain of sand and a speck of dust." 12 They are to be built
directly into food, clothes, drugs, or auto-parts during the
manufacturing process. 13
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. 14 This would allow for seamless, continuous identification and
tracking of physical items as they move from one place to another, 15
enabling companies to determine the whereabouts of all their products at
all times. 16
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. 17
The ultimate goal is for RFID to create a "physically linked world" 18
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." 19 Supporters are aiming for worldwide acceptance
of the technologies needed to build the infrastructure within the next
few years. 20
The implications of RFID
"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." 21 - 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. 22 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 RFID equipped packages. 23
Though many RFID 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 banknotes by 2005. 24 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. 25 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. 26 Mass-production of the new chip
will start within a year. 27
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." 28 - Jacki Snyder, Manager of Electronic Payments for
Supervalu (Supermarkets), Inc., and Chair, Food Marketing Institute
Electronic Payments Committee
RFID 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 29 it may not be long before RFID-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 consumers' 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. 30
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. RFID tags coupled
with indoor receivers installed in shelves, floors, and doorways, 31
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." 32
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 RFID
devices to allow doctors to remotely monitor patient compliance with
prescriptions. 33
While developers claim that RFID technology will create "order and
balance" in a chaotic world, 34 even the center's executive director,
Kevin Ashton, acknowledges there's a "Brave New World" feel to the
technology. 35 He admits, for example, that people might balk at the
thought of police using RFID to scan the contents of a car's trunk
without needing to open it. 36 The Center's co-director, Sanjay E.
Sarma, has already begun planning strategies to counter the public
backlash he expects the system will encounter. 37
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Notes:
This article was updated August 11, 2003 with a change in terminology.
Originally, I had used the term "Auto-ID" to refer to the technology
which is now commonly called "RFID." I have updated the excerpt above by
changing "Auto-ID" to "RFID" in most instances where it appears.
All footnotes and references associated with this article were available
online May 2002. Original documentation is archived at the Denver
University Law Review editorial office.
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References:
1 Auto-ID Center Questions, accessed online May, 2002 at
http://www.autoidcenter.org/questions19.asp
2 Greg Jacobson, "Technology revolution underway." Chain Drug Review,
October 22, 2001. Available online at
http://www.chaindrugreview.com/articles/tech_revolution.html
3 Auto Center Joins UK Group, MIT TECH TALK, (Jan. 24, 2001), available
at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/2001/jan24/auto.html
4 Introduction to Auto-ID, available at
http://www.autoidcenter.org/technology.asp
5 The Electronic Product Code (EPC), available at
http://www.eretailnews.com/Features/0105epc1.htm
6 Steve Traiman, Tag, You're It! The EPC Tag Could Revolutionize the
Retail Supply Chain, Retail Systems Reseller (November 2001) available
at http://www.retailsystemsreseller.com/archive/Nov01/Nov01_5.shtml
7 See EPC, supra note 5.
8 Id.
9 Steve Traiman, Tag, You're It! The EPC Tag Could Revolutionize the
Retail Supply Chain, Retail Systems Reseller (November 2001) available
at http://www.retailsystemsreseller.com/archive/Nov01/Nov01_5.shtml
10 Margie Semilof, Bar Codes in a Chip, InternetWeek.com (Nov. 19,
2001), available at http://www.internetweek.com/newslead01/lead111901.htm
11 Lisa Roner, T2T -The Next Wave of the Internet Revolution,
Eyeforpharma, available at
http://www.eyeforpharma.com/index.asp?news=2822 (n.d.)
12 Semilof, supra note 10
13 Robin Cover, Auto-ID Center Uses Physical Markup Language in Radio
Frequency Identification (RF ID) Tag Technology, The XML Cover Pages
(Nov. 21, 2001), available at http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2001-11-21-c.html
14 Cheryl Rosen & Mathew G. Nelson, The Fast Track: Radio-frequency
Devices Promise to Make it Easier to Monitor the Flow of Inventory
Across the Supply Chain, INFORMATIONWEEK (June 18, 2001), available at
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle?doc_id=IWK20010618S0001;
see also Charles W. Schmidt, The Networked Physical World, available at
http://www.rand.org/scitech/stpi/ourfuture/Internet/sec4_networked.html
(last visited Apr. 5, 2002); Indrani Rajkhowa, Shopping Gets Smarter,
COMPUTERSTODAY (June 16-30, 2001), available at
http://www.india-today.com/ctoday/20010616/marvels.html
15 Cover, supra note 13
16 Charles W. Schmidt, The Networked Physical World, available at
http://www.rand.org/scitech/stpi/ourfuture/Internet/sec4_networked.html
17 Lori Valigra, Smart Tags: Shopping Will Never Be the Same, CHRISTIAN
SCIENCE MONITOR (Mar. 29, 2001), available at
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/03/29/fp13s1-csm.shtml
18 M.K. Shankar, Algorithm Ensures Unique Object ID, NIKKEI ELECTRONICS
ASIA (Apr. 2001), available at
http://www.nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com/nea/200104/inet_127161.html
19 Id.
20 Id.
21 Auto-ID Center, Applications, available at
http://www.autoidcenter.org/technology_applications.asp
22 Auto-ID Center, Sponsor Companies, available at
http://www.autoidcenter.org/sponsors_companies.asp
23 Cheryl Rosen & Mathew G. Nelson, The Fast Track: Radio-frequency
Devices Promise to Make it Easier to Monitor the Flow of Inventory
Across the Supply Chain, INFORMATIONWEEK (June 18, 2001), available at
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle?doc_id=IWK20010618S0001
24 Junko Yoshida, Euro Bank Notes to Embed RFID Chips by 2005, EETIMES
(Dec. 19, 2001), available at http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20011219S0016
25 Id.
26 George Cole, The Little Label with an Explosion of Applications, FIN.
TIMES (Jan. 15, 2002), available at
http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT30414MGWC
27 Id.
28 Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Tuesday September
19th, 2000. Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy,
Committee on Banking and Financial Services, Washington, DC. Available
online at:
http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/bank/hba66988.000/hba66988_0.HTM#68
29 (SUPRA Note above) Auto-ID website Auto-ID Center, Sponsor Companies,
available at http://www.autoidcenter.org/sponsors_companies.asp
30 Kayte VanScoy, Can the Internet Hot-Wire P&G?: They Know What You
Eat, ZIFF DAVIS SMART BUSINESS (Jan. 1, 2001), available at
http://www.smartbusinessmag.com/article/0,3668,a=13216,00.asp
31 Cover, supra note 13.
32 John Stermer, Radio Frequency ID: A New Era for Marketers? CONSUMER
INSIGHT MAGAZINE (Winter 2001), available at
http://acnielsen.com/pubs/ci/2001/q4/features/radio.htm
33 Schmidt, supra note 16
34 Auto-ID Center available at http://www.autoidcenter.org/applications.asp
35 VanScoy, supra note 30
36 David Orenstein, Raising the Bar, BUSINESS 2.0 (Aug. 2000), available
at http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,13975|3,FF.html
37 Indrani Rajkhowa, Shopping Gets Smarter, COMPUTERSTODAY (June 16-30,
2001), available at http://www.india-today.com/ctoday/20010616/marvels.html