This is a real concern as it’s in the beginning stages of being implemented and potentially poses a severe threat to our right to privacy.
RFID is short for Radio Frequency Identification. Here’s what epic.org has to say about it:
The purpose of an RFID system is to enable data to be transmitted by a portable device, called a tag, which is read by an RFID reader and processed according to the needs of a particular application. The data transmitted by the tag may provide identification or location information, or specifics about the product tagged, such as price, color, date of purchase, etc. The use of RFID in tracking and access applications first appeared during the 1980s. RFID quickly gained attention because of its ability to track moving objects. As the technology is refined, more pervasive—and invasive—uses for RFID tags are in the works.
In a typical RFID system, individual objects are equipped with a small, inexpensive tag which contains a transponder with a digital memory chip that is given a unique electronic product code. The interrogator, an antenna packaged with a transceiver and decoder, emits a signal activating the RFID tag so it can read and write data to it. When an RFID tag passes through the electromagnetic zone, it detects the reader’s activation signal. The reader decodes the data encoded in the tag’s integrated circuit (silicon chip) and the data is passed to the host computer for processing.
RFID tags come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Some tags are easy to spot, such as the hard plastic anti-theft tags attached to merchandise in stores. Animal tracking tags which are implanted beneath the skin of family pets or endangered species are no bigger than a small section of pencil lead. Even smaller tags have been developed to be embedded within the fibers of a national currency.
While barcodes have historically been the primary means of tracking products, RFID systems are rapidly becoming the preferred technology for keeping tabs on people, pets, products, and even vehicles. One reason for this is because the read/write capability of an active RFID system enables the use of interactive applications. Also, the tags can be read from a distance and through a variety of substances such as snow, fog, ice, or paint, where barcodes have proved useless.
Currently, RFID tags are not widely used in consumer products because the price of the tags is still prohibitively expensive. However, as companies push for enhanced means of tracking products and profiling consumers, the increased demand and production of RFID technologies will drive down prices. Already, developments in RFID technology are yielding systems with larger memory capacities, wider reading ranges, and faster processing. In response, the market for RFID tags is growing explosively, projected to reach $10 billion annually within the decade.
You can read more on RFID by clicking here. Epic.org also has some nifty links to privacy tools.
According to SearchSecurity.com:
Biometrics is the science and technology of measuring and analyzing biological data. In information technology, biometrics refers to technologies that measure and analyze human body characteristics, such as fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns and hand measurements, for authentication purposes.
Authentication by biometric verification is becoming increasingly common in corporate and public security systems, consumer electronics and point of sale (POS) applications. In addition to security, the driving force behind biometric verification has been convenience.
How long until there is an abuse of this technology, do you figure?
Let’s see what’s in the news about it:
- A Rhode Island school district has announced a pilot program to monitor student movements by means of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips implanted in their schoolbags.
- FBI Biometric Database Plan – CNN News (February 2008 )
- ABC News seems to think RFID technology is just great.
- The Bush administration has required agencies to increase their capability to share among themselves biometric information on people believed to pose a threat to national security. (June 2008 )
- FBI seeks international database to carry iris, palm and finger prints. The US-initiated programme, “Server in the Sky”, would take cooperation between the police forces way beyond the current faxing of fingerprints across the Atlantic. Allies in the “war against terror” – the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to plan their strategy.
Corrupt right from the start.
Chertoff was recently in Canada discussing, among other topics, the so-called “Server in the Sky” program to share fingerprint databases among the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia. He made the startling statement that fingerprints are “not particularly private.” Naturally the U.S. press has yet to pick up on the story (April 2008 ). Those who are aware aren’t pleased.
Oh, and here we find out it’s all been planned for over a decade. Check out the essay THE REVOLUTION IN MILITARY AFFAIRS AND CONFLICT SHORT OF WAR put out in July of 1994 by the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute (SSI).
IBM Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. have agreed to work together on the $1 billion contract to develop and maintain the FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) system, IBM said today. Federal, state and local authorities will use the new multimodal biometrics system. (May 2008 )
A face recognition system will scan faces and match them to biometric chips on passports for airline passengers, scheduled to begin this summer in the UK. (April 2008 )
Millions of residents of three states will soon face tougher and longer screening at airport checkpoints if their governors defy a federal law requiring that they comply with switching over to the Real ID driver’s licenses.
Maine, New Hampshire and South Carolina have until March 31 to say whether they plan to comply with the law, which they say is costly and will inconvenience residents by forcing them to get new licenses.
If the states don’t comply, the Homeland Security Department will bar travelers from using those state’s licenses and ID cards to board airplanes starting May 11.
“We are not bluffing,” department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said.
Ugh. What bullshit.
Real IDs, as most know, are the new licenses to replace our current driver’s licenses, and they are equipped with an RFID chip. A few states are still holding out on complying, thankfully. Good to see Nebraska put up resistance and hopefully that will continue. You can watch the MSNBC video from January 2008 on this matter.
For a compilation of news stories from reputable sources around the globe, check out BlackListedNews.com.
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