AMERICAN EXPRESS ADDRESSES RFID PEOPLE TRACKING PLANS
Pastor Dale Morgan
AMERICAN EXPRESS ADDRESSES RFID PEOPLE TRACKING PLANS*
Promises Full Patent Review, Tracking Notice, and Chip-Free Option
The top brass at American Express, chagrined at the discovery of its
people tracking plans, met with CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket
Privacy Invasion and Numbering) last week to discuss the issue. One
outcome of the meeting was a promise by American Express to review its
entire patent portfolio and ensure that any people-tracking plans be
accompanied by language requiring consumer notice and consent.
The meeting was organized after CASPIAN called attention to one of the
company's more troublesome patent applications. That patent application,
titled "Method and System for Facilitating a Shopping Experience,"
describes a Minority Report style blueprint for monitoring consumers
through RFID-enabled objects, like the American Express Blue Card.
According to the patent, RFID readers called "consumer trackers" would
be placed in store shelving to pick up "consumer identification signals"
emitted by RFID-embedded objects carried by shoppers. These would be
used to identify people, track their movements, and observe their behavior.
The patent also suggested such people-tracking systems could "be located
in a common area of a school, shopping center, bus station or other
place of public accommodation."
Allegations of American Express people-tracking blueprints first came to
light at a conference sponsored by the Consumer Federation of America in
Washington, D.C. last month. There, Dr. Katherine Albrecht, Founder and
Director of CASPIAN, revealed the patent pending plans that she and her
"Spychips" co-author Liz McIntyre uncovered in their ongoing RFID research.
Soon thereafter, American Express arranged for four of its vice
presidents, including the vice presidents of Contactless Payments and
Public Affairs, to meet with CASPIAN leaders in a phone conference.
"We are pleased that American Express responded to our concerns," said
Albrecht. "It's clear the company is thinking about privacy issues and
wants to address them constructively. However, we had hoped that
American Express would renounce its people tracking plans altogether and
be more sensitive to the fact that placing RFID tags in consumer items,
like credit cards, puts consumers at risk for surreptitious tracking by
others."
In response to CASPIAN concerns, American Express also promised that it
would make a chip-free version of its credit card available to concerned
consumers who ask for it.
"Offering a chipless credit card is a positive step and should serve as
an example to the rest of the industry," said McIntyre. "Consumers don't
like RFID technology. Contrary to American Express ads, most people
would rather leave home without it."
The complete text and excerpts from the American Express people tracking
patent application can be found at:
http://www.spychips.com/press-releases/american-express-tracking-patent.html
ABOUT RFID
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a controversial technology that
uses tiny microchips to track items from a distance. These RFID
microchips have earned the nickname "spychips" because each contains a
unique identification number, like a Social Security number for things,
that can be read silently and invisibly by radio waves.
ABOUT CASPIAN
CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering)
is a grass-roots consumer group fighting retail surveillance schemes
since 1999 and irresponsible RFID use since 2002. With thousands of
members in all 50 U.S. states and over 30 countries worldwide, CASPIAN
seeks to educate consumers about marketing strategies that invade their
privacy and encourage privacy-conscious shopping habits across the
retail spectrum.
To join or support CASPIAN or to sign up for our mailing list, please see:
http://www.spychips.com/get_involved.html
ABOUT THE BOOK
"Spychips" is the winner of the 2006 Lysander Spooner Award for
Advancing the Literature of Liberty and has received wide critical
acclaim. Authored by recent Harvard graduate Dr. Katherine Albrecht and
former bank examiner Liz McIntyre, the book is meticulously researched.
"Spychips" draws on patent documents, corporate source materials,
conference proceedings, and firsthand interviews to paint a convincing
-- and frightening -- picture of the threat posed by RFID.
Despite its hundreds of footnotes and academic-level accuracy, the book
remains lively, readable, and hilarious, according to critics, who have
called it a "techno-thriller" and "a masterpiece of technocriticism."
"A chilling story about an emerging future in which spychips run amok as
Big Brother and Big Shopkeeper invade our privacy in unprecedented ways."
- Chicago Tribune
"Paints a 1984-ish picture of how corporations would like to use RFID
tags to keep tabs on you."
- The Associated Press