Errant E-Mail Shames RFID Backer

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Wired News
Errant E-Mail Shames RFID Backer
By Mark Baard
02:00 AM Jan. 12, 2004 PT

The companies and organizations behind radio-frequency identification tags 
are scrambling to improve their image by promising to protect the privacy 
rights of consumers, after they were caught trying to dig up dirt about one 
of their most effective critics.

The companies also said they are developing devices to disable RFID tags, 
which they are placing on everything from shampoo bottles to suit jackets 
in the United States and Europe.

RFID tags may eventually replace bar-code labels on all consumer goods. 
When exposed to radio signals, they transmit a unique serial number for 
individual items and help manufacturers, distributors and retailers keep 
track of every item in their inventory. But privacy groups, led by 
Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (or CASPIAN), 
fear that businesses and governments can use those signals to track 
individuals' movements inside stores and in public places.

One organization may have been shamed into soliciting CASPIAN's advice, 
however. The Grocery Manufacturers of America this week inadvertently sent 
an internal e-mail to CASPIAN suggesting it was looking for embarrassing 
information about the group's founder, Katherine Albrecht.

The e-mail, written by a college intern at GMA, reads, "I don't know what 
to tell this woman! 'Well, actually we're trying to see if you have a juicy 
past that we could use against you.'"

The intern earlier had asked Albrecht to produce her personal biography, 
"as part of an RFID research project," and became frustrated when Albrecht 
asked what GMA planned to do with the information, according to GMA 
spokesman Richard Martin.

But the research project had a limited scope: Albrecht was the only person 
contacted by GMA, Martin admitted.

GMA, which represents the interests of RFID backers Coca-Cola, Procter & 
Gamble and Gillette, is working on privacy guidelines for adopters of RFID 
tags and the Electronic Product Code, the industry standard governing how 
RFID tags are used with consumer goods.

And now the GMA says it wants Albrecht's advice.

"We are interested in maintaining a dialogue with consumer advocacy groups 
like CASPIAN as we move forward in rolling out EPC and RFID," said Martin.

This represents an about-face by many RFID backers, who have often played 
down their plans to tag individual items and accused Albrecht of 
exaggerating the threat the tags pose to consumer privacy.

Wal-Mart, which tested RFID tags and readers in at least two of its stores 
last year, said it would adhere to the RFID privacy guidelines published by 
EPCglobal, the EPC standards body. The guidelines require companies to 
publicly state how they plan to use data collected from the EPC tags.

"We understand and care about the concerns that some of our customers have 
about privacy and, as always, we put our customers' needs first," said 
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark.

Wal-Mart and other retailers say they plan to place RFID tags only on the 
pallets and containers in their supply chains.

But Germany's largest retailer, Metro Group, says it plans to tag every 
item in its stores with RFID. It said it is working with IBM to develop a 
device that would disable RFID tags as customers left Metro stores.

CASPIAN's Albrecht said she welcomes tag-killing technologies, as well as 
the overtures by RFID users who want to work with her. "I just hope they're 
looking for a real dialogue about the implications of this technology," she 
said, "and not simply trying to appear concerned."
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