posted
U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY RFI HEIGHTENS PUBLIC CONCERNS OVER RFID, notes CASPIAN
2006-02-23
DHS Wants to Track Spychips in Moving Cars Going 55 MPH
"Call it Big Brother on steroids," say privacy advocates Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, co-authors of "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID." The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for beefed up RFID technology that can read government-issued documents from up to 25 feet away, pinpoint pedestrians on street corners, and glean the identity of people whizzing by in cars at 55 miles per hour.
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. Privacy and civil liberties advocates are opposed to the use of the technology on consumer items and government documents because it can be used to track people without their knowledge or consent.
Albrecht and McIntyre have uncovered a Request for Information (RFI) issued by the Department of Homeland Security that underscores these privacy and civil liberties concerns. DHS seeks "superior remote data capture" that "offers significant improvements in performance" over the RFID technology currently being trialed in its U.S. Visit program border security initiatives. The RFI indicates this more potent tracking technology might be used in other initiatives and by other federal agencies.
"While the RFI is directed at border security, we're very concerned the government will use this tracking technology in our driver's licenses," said McIntyre, who is already opposed to the implications of the Real ID Act that passed last spring. That Act gives DHS the power to set uniform national driver's license standards. "Already the Real ID Act creates a de facto national ID since all Americans need a driver's license to participate in modern society," she observed. "Imagine having a remotely readable national ID that can be scanned by the government as you drive by or walk down the street."
DHS is seeking RFID devices that "can be sensed remotely, passively, and automatically....The device must be readable under all kinds of indoor and outdoor conditions... and while carried by pedestrians or vehicle occupant." DHS has set "several high-level goals" for the reading of RFID "tokens" carried by travellers, including:
- The solution must...identify the exact location of the read such as a specific pedestrian or vehicle lane in which the token is read.
- The solution presented must sense the remote data capture technology carried by a pedestrian traveller at distances up to 25 ft.
- The solution presented must sense all tokens carried by travelers seated in a single automobile, truck, or bus at a distance up to 25 ft. while moving at speeds up to 55 mph.
- For bus traffic, the solution must sense up to 55 tokens.
- For a successful read, the traveller should not have to hold or present the token in any special way to enable the reading of the token's information. The goal is for the reader to sense a token carried on a traveler's person or anywhere in a vehicle.
ABOUT THE BOOKS
"Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track your Every Move with RFID" (Nelson Current) was released in October 2005. Already in its fifth printing, "Spychips" is the winner of the Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty and has received wide critical acclaim. Authored by Harvard doctoral researcher Katherine Albrecht and former bank examiner Liz McIntyre, the book is meticulously researched, drawing 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 and readable according to critics, who have called it a "techno-thriller" and "a masterpiece of technocriticism." Read the foreword by Wired technology commentator and best-selling author Bruce Sterling.
"The Spychips Threat: Why Christians Should Resist RFID and Electronic Surveillance" (Nelson Current, January 31, 2006) is a paperback version of the original book that addresses Christian concerns associated with the technology.
[ 06. March 2006, 01:12 PM: Message edited by: tequeslady ]
Posts: 856 | From Texas | Registered: Jan 2005
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lymie tony z
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5130
posted
Ya constantly bellyache about homeland security.
When then the feds use technology to try to insure it you bellyache about that!
There's just no pleasing you....
Please don't quote any old originators of the constitution to me anymore.....it's superfluous.
zman
-------------------- I am not a doctor...opinions expressed are from personal experiences only and should never be viewed as coming from a healthcare provider. zman Posts: 2527 | From safety harbor florida(origin Cleve., Ohio | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
I can't imagine how anyone, no matter how partison, would have NO problem with the use of this technology, and actually think it was something that is required for HomeLand Security.
Mo
Posts: 8337 | From the other shore | Registered: Jul 2002
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MICHELE M. MELENDEZ / Newhouse News Service | March 4 2006
Your family dog or cat may have it. So may your library books. You may be paying highway tolls with it, using it to get into your office building or to unlock your car.
It's RFID: radio frequency identification. Though it has been around for decades, the technology is touching our lives now more than ever.
Q: How does RFID work?
A: An RFID system has three parts: a tag, a reader and a database. The reader extracts data from the tag and communicates that information to the database.
Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Speedpass is one example. The tag is a black plastic cylinder about 11/2 inches long and the width of a pencil; it attaches to a key chain. The customer waves the tag in front of a specially marked panel (the reader) on gas pumps at nearly 9,000 Exxon and Mobil stations.
The tag and reader, which have embedded antennae, communicate through radio frequency, making physical contact unnecessary. The tag responds to the reader's signal by sending it encrypted data stored on a tiny silicon chip. In turn, the reader delivers the information to a database that holds the customer's payment information. The transaction takes seconds.
RFID tags and readers come in many shapes and sizes. Some tags have batteries; some rely on energy from the reader to activate. The memory capacity of a tag's chip and the distance at which a tag and reader may communicate also varies, depending on what's needed. Unlike bar codes and scanners, tags and readers need not be visible to each other. They can link at angles and through clothes and other matter, even skin.
Q: How old is RFID?
A: The technology has roots in World War II, when Allied forces used transmitters to identify friendly aircraft. Over the years, it has been used to track products. As it became more sophisticated and production cost dropped, RFID spread. "It's been around, and it's been used by a lot of consumers worldwide in the last few years," said Dan Mullen, president of AIM Global, the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility, a trade group based in Warrendale, Pa.
Q: How are consumers encountering RFID?
A: In theory, with RFID, people may buy almost any product on demand and more cheaply. Companies can monitor inventory more precisely, as RFID readers in warehouses and on store shelves detect when tag-outfitted products need reordering.
"Before, there were lag times of days, months, before (workers) were told: `Replenish,"' said William DeWitt, a teaching fellow specializing in logistics, transportation and supply chain management at the University of Maryland. "It is a radically different way of operating a business."
Closer to home, pet owners mark their furry and feathered friends with microchips. They call it "getting chipped" or "tagged."
Matt Langan, 34, recently brought his Jack Russell terrier, Vera, to Friendship Hospital for Animals in Washington, D.C., for a HomeAgain microchip. "We love her too much to lose her," Langan said.
The veterinarian slid a syringe containing the chip capsule -- slightly larger than a piece of long-grain rice -- in the skin between Vera's shoulder blades. A number on the chip corresponds to Langan's information in a database. Millions of pets are tagged, so animal shelters, hospitals and clinics routinely scan those who are found.
Q: Can people get implanted with RFID tags?
A: Yes. In 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the VeriChip for medical use. A patient's implant, in the skin above the right triceps muscle, contains a number granting access to a database with that individual's health details. So far, 80 people in the United States have received such implants, about 30 of them VeriChip Corp. employees in Delray, Fla.
Last year, Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey became the country's first hospital to use the system. VeriChip spokesman John Procter said the company has agreements with 75 other medical centers to introduce the product, with more to come. In February, surveillance equipment manufacturer CityWatcher.com in Cincinnati became the first U.S. company, apart from VeriChip Corp. itself, to use the technology to grant access to secure areas.
Some people are tagging themselves.
Amal Graafstra, 29, of Bellingham, Wash., found instant fame on the Internet after he had a chip -- not designed for human implantation -- inserted just under the skin of each hand last year. "I thought, `That's a cool technology. There's got to be a way to use it in my own life,"' he said.
The left-hand chip can unlock the doors to his apartment and car and log into his computer. He's using the right-hand chip to test a more secure locking system. Graafstra's notoriety lead to his new book, "RFID Toys: Cool Projects for Home, Office and Entertainment," in which he discusses his implants.
Q: Is there a difference between RFID and "contactless chip" technology?
A: There is debate here. Both use radio frequency, a tag, a reader and a database. But some contend that contactless chips, promoted in "smart cards" and other devices, are more advanced and secure.
MasterCard reports that its PayPass card, which looks like a regular credit card but is embedded with a chip, uses contactless chip technology. PayPass allows customers to place their cards (which also have the traditional magnetic strips) in front of a reader for quick payment at millions of locations where cash usually dominates, such as convenience stores. No swiping, and for purchases under $25, no signing.
Murdo Munro, vice president with MasterCard's Mobile/Wireless Centre of Excellence in London, said RFID and PayPass' technology use different frequencies, involve different types of chips and have different capabilities. "Contactless chip is a slightly different phenomenon."
Visa and American Express have developed chip-enabled cards, too.
"It's not a question of if RFID is going to take over the credit card business, it's happening right now," said Bill Allen, director of strategic alliances at Dallas-based Texas Instruments RFid Systems.
Q: What do critics say about RFID?
A: Consumer privacy and civil liberties groups see danger of spying. They contend that tags can be hidden in merchandise or sewn into clothing, that secret readers can track individuals' movements and that consumers' anonymity can be jeopardized.
Q: What is the future of RFID?
A: Researchers see limitless potential as chips become even smaller, cheaper and more versatile. Legislators are discussing its usefulness and possible misuse. As those conversations happen, Marlin Mickle, director of the RFID Center for Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh, predicts, "It's going to be more and more ingrained in our lives."
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Setting the stage for controversial tracking technology, the satellite telecommunications company ORBCOMM has signed an agreement with VeriChip Corp., maker of the world's first implantable radio frequency identification microchip.
VeriChip, a subsidiary of Applied Digital, will work with ORBCOMM to develop and market new military, security and healthcare applications in the U.S. and around the world, the company said.
As WorldNetDaily reported, Applied Digital has created and successfully field-tested a prototype of an implant for humans with GPS, or global positioning satellite, technology.
Satellites monitored 24 hours a day from ORBCOMM's Network Control Center in Dulles, Va.
Once inserted into a human, it can be tracked by GPS technology and the information relayed wirelessly to the Internet, where an individual's location, movements and vital signs can be stored in a database for future reference.
"ORBCOMM's relationship with VeriChip provides yet another new and important industry that will use the ORBCOMM satellite system and its ground infrastructure network to transmit messages globally," ORBCOMM CEO Jerry Eisenberg said.
Initially, after privacy concerns and verbal protests over marketing the technology for government use, Applied backed away from public discussion about such implants and the possibility of using them to usher in a "cashless society."
In addition, to quell privacy concerns, the company issued numerous denials, stating it had no plans for implants.
When WND reported in April 2002 that the company planned such implant technology, Applied Digital spokesman Matthew Cossolotto accused WND of intentionally printing falsehoods.
Less than three weeks later, however, the company issued a press release announcing that it was accelerating development on a GPS implant.
Posts: 856 | From Texas | Registered: Jan 2005
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Amal Graafstra waves his hand in front of a locked door, and it opens. His girlfriend, Jennifer Tomblin, places her hand inches from her computer, and she is instantly signed on.
There are no supernatural forces at work in the couple's home in Vancouver, British Columbia, just the latest technology. Graafstra and Tomblin are among about 30 people in the world who have voluntarily implanted microchips into their hands.
"I did it because I don't want to carry anything around," Graafstra said. "I really did this for convenience."
At Graafstra's request, a surgeon friend implanted a chip in each of his hands in March 2005.
Tomblin, a 23-year-old marketing student, thought the chip was odd at first, but over time she became sold on its usefulness. Her chips were implanted in December.
"Because the procedure didn't hurt, it was really no big deal," Tomblin said. "It's not interacting with my body in any way, and the chip can only be used for what I want to use it for. It can't be used to track my movements or to keep tabs on me. It only has a range of a couple feet."
The chips give the couple complete access to each other's lives, but there is a solution should they break up.
Graafstra said they could easily remove each other from the chips' authorized list or remove the chips entirely.
Prior Chip Implants
Silicone chips have been safely implanted in pets and livestock for years, and human implantation isn't new. Some employees of the Mexican Ministry of Justice are implanted with chips that give them a fast track through their building's security, and a dance club in Barcelona, Spain, offered chips to VIPs.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration gave approval to Florida-based Verichip in 2004 to implant radio frequency identification chips, or RFIDs, in people to retrieve medical information. Verichip said it had implanted more than 2,000 people around the world and 60 in the United States at about $200 each.
The chips are inexpensive and can easily be ordered online starting at $30.
About 30 people around the world have independently inserted RFID tags into their bodies, according to Web-based forums devoted to what participants call "getting tagged."
Graafstra has written a book, "RFID Toys: 11 Cool Projects for Home, Office and Entertainment," to be published this month.
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