RFID Gazette

No doubt the above question has been asked many times by many people: why promote a technology that we've done without for so long, and that seems to scare a lot of people? Do we really need it? Is there a political agenda? Something else? Mark Roberti, founder and editor of RFID Journal weighs on why he promotes RFID, and highlights some of the abuse he takes because of it, mostly by email.

His main statement that seems to get a lot of not so delightful email is his belief that consumer concerns of a future Big Brother-like society based on RFID is overblown. His other statement that gets negative response is in saying that some people - namely Katherine Albrecht, founder of CASPIAN - are hyping the concerns for their own agendas, some of which may be religious. On the other hand, there are respected doctors, like Dr. John Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School, who willingly allowed himself to be implanted with an RFID chip to prove a point as well as to get a perspective for standards and privacy.

Roberti points out that he has often brought up legitimate privacy and security issues related to RFID, at the RFID Journal website, and thus feels he has not downplayed the concerns. But he believes that the industry would suffer greatly were any company, particularly retailers, were found to be abusing privacy rights. His own business, the magazine, would suffer as well.

While that may be true - and note that this is the first time I am disagreeing with him - that stance in itself is hardly proof that RFID is not being abused or that will not be abused. VeriChip Corp. wants to implant RFID chips into people and has even recommended it for US soliders, the terminally ill, migrant/ visiting workers, etc. I've been writing about privacy and technologies like RFID and smartcards since 1991. Rational, professional, well-respected - and somewhat powerful - people in the know have indicated to me that there has been agenda to tag humans for at least 20 years, emanating from a group in - of all places - California - a state that recently has had a lot of discussions in state Senate about RFID, and have decided to encrypt RFID data on smart id cards.

I like to live by the principle of Occam's Razor. It's something I've learned to do over time. But both my logic and intuition tell me that there really are people who want to tag all of us, though not necessarily for control purposes, just commerce. My science background says that it's possible, and my imagination unfortunately agrees. (There's a saying someone taught me a long time ago: If something is possible, it's probably, given enough time. If something is probably, it's likely, given enough time.)

Think of the fortune you would make if you were one of a handful of companies who could concoct "legitimate" ways of persuading, forcing or even scaring people - all of humanity - into being tagged. And while these people may not want to control you per se, there are others without the means of implementation who might just want to use the technology that way. These two groups are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but probably are. And of course there's the rest, who break down to into several other groups, non of which have negative intentions for RFID.

I'm a middle grounder. I think that RF technology is brilliant, with loads of incredible applications that improve efficiency and potentially reduce operating costs for businesses. But I also think that we have a Pandora's box here, and not because of any religious affiliation. I do not want that box opened, but I also don't want radio frequency technology to go away. Thus, my own purpose for promoting the technology is to make people aware of the parameters, to point out that if there is a conspiracy, there is likely more than one, with different, maybe even cross purposes. But mostly, I'm writing to promote all the good, positive, useful applications of RFID. And there really are a lot of them.

Hitachi and KDDI Develop Miniature RFID Tag
A miniature RFID chip, designed for use with Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones, has been developed by Hitachi Ltd and KDDI Corporation. The chip, dubbed the Muchip, can hold 38 digits of information and is used in tandem with the Muchip RFID Reader. [JCN Network via The RFID Weblog]

Low-Cost Temperature Sensitive RFID Trackers
Pharmacies and distributors that need to keep track of the drug supplies in their cold chain have a new option. Intelligent Devices Inc. has an RFID temperature tracker designed specifically for pharmaceutical Cold Chain Distribution. More details at Temp Sensor. Other temperature-sensitive RFID tags have been brough to market recently by companies that include Savi Technology and LogicaCMG.

DoD-Compliant RFID Labelling Solution
Looking for a DoD (US Department of Defense)-compliant RFID solution? Avery Dennison is offering a solution that includes software, a scanner, and optional labelling systems. More details at Thomas Net.

Zebra To Share RFID Patents
Zebra Technologies recently spent US$10M to acquire over 200 RFID patents from BTG. Their plan is to add these to the RFID patent pool they helped co-found, known as the RFID Consortium.

There's been talk for a few years about something called the "Internet of things." Devices known collectively as SEDs (Service-Enabled Devices) would each have their own IP address, just like a website's domain, and would be able to communicate with each other wirelessly. ASSA ABLOY and Cisco have just added a networked door [Contactless News] to the mix. The door, developed for security applications, would be used in tandem with security smartcards, which are typically of the RFID contactless variety.

There's no mention of RFID in the Contactless News article, but SEDs are likely to use the RuBee flavor of RFID transponders, which communicate wirelessly with the network they are part of. RuBee's peer-to-peer capabilities make it ideal for networked devices. There are other door solutions that use RFID, such as Jamison Door's RFID Portal products, as well as contactless id cards and even chips implanted in hands.

Several sports have been implementing RFID in innovative ways in the past couple of years. The list at least includes golf, NASCAR car racing and soccer, whose World Cup had the largest sports implementation of radio frequency technology.

It's not just sports but sports stadiums who are getting in on RFID use. According to Contactless News, a dozen baseball stadiums are accepting MasterCard's PayPass contacless RFID smartcard, which was originally being used only at select gas stations and McDonald's restaurants in the US. Recently, New York Giants football stadium gave away free Paypass wristbands loaded with $25 credit.

American legislators are proposing that a deadline for Canadians and Americans to get e-passports to pass through the US border (from Canada) be delayed by a year and a half. The current deadline is January 2008. The proposed deadline is June 2009. Both countries are already suffering marked decreases in bordertowns all across the Canada-US border, supposedly due to the hassle of security checks. Canadian politicians are calling the delay (if it passes, I guess) a victory for Canada, but that's probably the wrong way to look at it. Free Trade and tourism kind of get shackled, so both countries stand to lose.

The Canadian government is looking for an alternative to the e-passport, including the North American biometric id card, dubbed the PASS card. This card would have an RFID tag to store personal and biometric data on the smart id card. This is suggested as an alternative to passports because the Canadian passport authority would not be able to handle the sudden demand for passports if the existing deadline is maintained.

Even if the delay goes through and the biometric card is used, it only applies to physical border crossings. Canadians and Americans landing in American airports will still have to produce one of the new e-passports. All of this is part of the WHTI (Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative), signed into being by President Bush a few years ago.  The US DHS has been testing RFID across the border since last year.

PDC, Precision Dynamics Corporation, will be promoting their Smart Band RFID Wristband at a waterpark association symposium on Oct 20-21, Orlando, Florida. The wristband is waterproof and can be used both for keyless entry into hotel rooms and lockers, as identification, and for cashless POS payment. Get more details at More RFID. Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls uses RTLS RFID wristbands from MICROS Systems. RTLS (Real Time Location Systems) is an area of growth for RFID.

The state legislature in California passed the Identity Information Act of 2006 last month with the intent of protecting residents from abuse of data collected via RFID. This applies a variety of government-issued documents, especially smart id cards. [via B-Eye] Last year, California tabled Senate Bill 682 (Joe Simitian D-Palo Alto), which would prohibit RFID from being implemented in personal identity cards and documents, and then postponed the bill. Senate did, however, pass a 30-7 vote in August to impose regulations on RFID use.

Margaret Schaut, an RFID Gazette reader, left a comment on the post Brisk sales of RFID livestock tags regarding the Amish community in the state of Indiana. She works directly with the Amish community there, and they brought their concerns to her. The United States is in the process of implementing the NAIS - National Animal Identifcation System. As part of this program, all livestock animals will be tagged for identification with several intentions including controlling diseased animals.

Several states in the USA also have their own programs - likely as a supplement to NAIS. According to an article that Margaret has posted at her Amish Community page at Squidoo, the Amish farmers were told by the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) that they have to be enrolled in a three-phase program starting Sept 1st, which has already passed. Under the new rules, a number of types of "farm animals, defined as cattle, bison, swine, sheep, goats, and captive deer or elk, must be entered into the electronic database."

Non-compliance means a $1,000 per day fine, although the BOAH says that their intention is to help meat producers register, in order aid disease identification. Margaret Schaut concludes by saying, "The Amish have historically and consistently resisted certain government impositions that violate their religious convictions." The Amish also have a concern that people will eventually be tagged.

This is a situation that, honestly, had not occurred to me. I only know a little about the Amish culture, and my understandting is that certain devices (possibly just electric devices or similar) are not part of their lifestyle, are banned for use by community members. That of course creates a huge dilemma in a country that values freedom of religious practice.

Will the US or state governments make an exception in such cases? If they do, there may be conditions that mean the Amish cannot sell their livestock without the tags, and thus will lose a portion of their livelihood. Comments on older articles at this site suggest that some people feel that NAIS will spell the end of the small family and hobby farms.

The Sultanate of Oman will be receiving 2.5M smart ID cards from Gemalto for the country's national ID card program. It's the first program of it's kind in the Middle East and will begin at the end of the year. The cards will be used for both public service as well as for homeland security - in particular, to build a National Registry System, to be managed by the Royal Oman Police force. All of this is an extension of a program that began in early 2004. As part of this program, electronic gates have already been installed at the country's border. More details at Secure ID News.

Oman is simply one more country to the growing list (UK, Malaysia, China, etc.) that have either already started a National ID program or are about to.

VeriChip's VeriTrace tracking system is now being used in the Florida Emergency Mortuary Operations Response System (FEMORS) as well as Hawaii's Dept. of Health. The VeriTrace system was used to help identify and track the bodies of victims after Hurrican Katrina. VeriTrace consists of implantable RFID tags, a Bluetooth-based wireless handheld reader, an RFID- and GPS-enabled Ricoh digital camera, and a web-enabled database for data and image collection. [More RFID via RFID Blog] I'll have to admit that it's quite a sophisticated system.

VeriChip has been a controversial company, promoting their implantable RFID chips for use in US soldiers, immigrants/ guest workers, and the chronically ill - basically, it appears, people who may feel they have little choice about being implanted. While there has been resistance to VeriChip and implantable RFID chips in general, the company is said to hold high favor with the Bush administration.