Published - Thursday, October 04, 2007

*High-tech Micro-chip tags seen as blessing, potential Big Brother curse*

By JO ANNE KILLEEN | Staff writer

As if shopping for new clothes wasn’t stressful enough, soon there will
be talking mirrors in the dressing rooms. Well, they might not talk, but
they will be able to communicate.

These mirrors (some are called MagicMirrors) receive signals from a tag
affixed to the hanger or whatever you might have in your hand and help
you find matching accessories or outfits.

Technology has advanced to the point where tags on items in stores have
a code embedded in them that transmits signals, via radio waves, to a
reader that links with a database with all kinds of information.

Some Wisconsin legislators are trying to prevent this technology from
infringing on personal privacy before the technology becomes prevalent.

The information received by the reader can be tossed around in a
company’s database to send back to you messages about, well, anything.
The new technology is supplanting bar coding of items, but up until now,
the technology has been used to track inventory while in shipping and
distribution channels.

The technology, called radio frequency identification, or RFID, is an
emerging product for which business strategists are saying the early
birds stand to gain market share for implementing the technology.

RFID has been in use by manufacturers and shippers of all kinds of goods
from oil to food as a cost-efficient method of tracking the location of
inventory and monitoring shelf life of things like food.

One major retail company, Wal-Mart, mandates all its suppliers use the
technology. The Department of Defense also mandates its use by all of
its suppliers. But the tags are disabled before the merchandise leaves
the store, Wal-Mart officials have been quoted as saying.

The Bush administration has proposed putting an RFID chip in each
soldier that would replace the traditional dog tags. In recent years,
veterinarians and other animal caregivers have implanted chips to track
animals.

The health care and pharmaceutical companies use chips to track drugs
and medical supplies, ensuring they are kept in environmentally
sensitive locations when indicated, such as organ transplants or blood
being kept cold. Mega-stores are putting RFID chips in shopping carts to
help shoppers locate items they are looking for without going up and
down each aisle.

One Alzheimer’s facility in Florida is implanting RFID chips in 200
volunteers who are clients of the organization in case they wander, get
lost, or confused or hurt and wind up in an emergency room. Doctors at
the area hospitals would be able to read the chips and know whom to
contact as well as the person’s medical history.

A public beach in New Jersey that charges admission provides a wristband
to each paying beachcomber. Security then will be able to use a reader
from several feet away to locate a chip instead of confronting people to
find out if they’ve paid.

Major conferences provide name badges to convention goers that have
chips embedded in them. As the visitor travels the exhibitions, readers
can detect the chip, sort through the data base of names and know that
Ms. Jones is from Wisconsin and has an interest in such and such a
subject. A television or computer monitor displays items of interest to
that particular person (if she’s still standing within 10 feet or so) or
tells her who else at the conference might share that interest.

There are some who believe RFID technology, if it were more widespread,
could have saved the produce industry millions of dollars during the
spinach contamination crisis and could in the future reduce spoilage of
products worldwide.

Retailers are beginning to catch on to new uses for the technology that
has saved supply and distribution chains millions of dollars for years.
Actually, the new technology is supposed to make shopping easier.

Say you go into a dressing room with a blouse or shirt you want to try
on. An RFID tag on the item will signal a receiver placed in the mirror
or possibly some other device, route that signal to the store’s
inventory of merchandise and project on a screen for you more
merchandise that you can pair with the item so that you can see an
entire ensemble.

The projection shows possible pairings of clothing, jewelry, shoes,
hats, and other accessories in stock. Just touch the screen on the item
you like and a signal is sent to the sales staff that goes to the racks
to find one in your size and brings it to you.

Retailers are also experimenting with customer loyalty RFID tags.
Instead of (or in addition to) being attached to retail items, the tag
would be embedded on what’s called a loyalty card.

The card’s signal could be read by a store’s receiver as soon as you
walk in the door and a personal greeting to you could be flashed on a
display board, your coffee might already be in process by the time you
get to the counter, your favorite newspaper placed at your favorite seat.

Alternatively, the card could have your purchasing history that allows
the staff to be able to customize their suggestions to suit your tastes
and automatically credit all your purchases to your checking or credit
card account.

One store in Columbus, Ohio, has started experimenting with the
technology in order to improve customer relationship management. Upscale
stores in other places like Hong Kong and Latin America already provide
customers with the ability to shop without having to find a salesperson.
Not only can the system inform customers of different ways to mix and
match outfits, it can also provide a back story on the item informing
them about the history of the garment, where it was made (in more detail
than ‘Made in China’).

This might be valuable information for those concerned their purchases
supported sweatshops of low-paid workers. The back-story might be
finding out if any celebrities like athletes or entertainers are wearing
the same clothes. That would fit into the craze of celebrity
endorsements of clothing sought after by millions of consumers.

Retailers are betting this new technology is also attractive to
customers who don’t want to be hassled by salespeople, who don’t want to
wander around the store looking for a matching blouse or skirt or pants.
They say they are also appealing to the need of people to feel they
belong who might be made to feel he or she is getting personalized
attention and that the store “knows my name.”

Privacy concerns

It’s that detailed knowledge at a personal level that troubles consumer
privacy advocates and others. Groups in the United States and around the
world are forming to stop the rise in the use of the chips, which some
call “spychips.”

The four main privacy concerns are:

n That the purchaser of an item will not necessarily be aware of the
presence of the tag or be able to remove it.

n The tag can be read at a distance without the knowledge of the individual.

n If a tagged item is paid for by credit card or in conjunction with use
of a loyalty card, it might be possible to connect the identity of the
purchaser.

n The EPCglobal system of tags create globally unique serial numbers for
all products.

Some religious groups believe the chip, which the FDA approved for
implantation in humans, is the “mark of the beast” (666) specifically
mentioned in the book of Revelation.

In 2006, Wisconsin became the first state to enact legislation
prohibiting the placement of RFID tags or chips on persons without their
knowledge or consent. On Aug. 14, Wisconsin Rep. Marlin Schneider,
D-Wis. Rapids, introduced legislation prohibiting the sale of consumer
goods or certain farm products that contain an RFID tag, unless the
seller renders the tag inoperable before the purchaser takes possession
of the item.

“Where does 1984 start and end?” asked Mike Schoenfeld, legislative aid
to Schneider. “We’d rather err on the more conservative in terms of
liberty. Structure will come.

“Voluntary chips are fine, Schoenfeld continued. “You just can’t coerce
anyone, even child molesters.”

Retailers who have experimented with the technology have seen a 30
percent increase in sales. While the systems are expensive, they are
saving companies much more than the investment.

They are also using RFID to manage shoplifting. One cannot leave a store
with RFID tags that are still active or it will set off an alarm.

The proposed legislation does not address what to do about merchandise
with RFID chips already in consumers’ hands.

For example, depending on the manufacturer of a tire, consumers can
purchase tires embedded with a chip that can be read by a diagnostic
machine at a service shop and indicates to the mechanic the tires need
to be replaced or balanced.