|
Post by magentacandle on Nov 20, 2007 6:04:53 GMT
Consider the following statements by John Stermer, Senior Vice President of eBusiness Market Development at ACNielsen:
"After bar codes the next 'big thing' was frequent shopper cards. While these did a better job of linking consumers and their purchases, loyalty cards were severely limited...consider the usage, consumer demographic, psychographic and economic blind spots of tracking data.... Something more integrated and holistic was needed to provide a ubiquitous understanding of on- and off-line consumer purchase behavior, attitudes and product usage. The answer: RFID (radio frequency identification) technology.... In an industry first, RFID enables the linking of all this product information with a specific consumer identified by key demographic and psychographic markers....Where once we collected purchase information, now we can correlate multiple points of consumer product purchase with consumption specifics such as the how, when and who of product use."
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Nov 20, 2007 6:05:44 GMT
Marketers aren't the only ones who want to watch what you do in your home. Enter again the health surveillance connection. Some have suggested that pill bottles in medicine cabinets be tagged with RFID devices to allow doctors to remotely monitor patient compliance with prescriptions.
While developers claim that RFID technology will create "order and balance" in a chaotic world, even the center's executive director, Kevin Ashton, acknowledges there's a "Brave New World" feel to the technology. He admits, for example, that people might balk at the thought of police using RFID to scan the contents of a car's trunk without needing to open it.
The Center's co-director, Sanjay E. Sarma, has already begun planning strategies to counter the public backlash he expects the system will encounter.
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Dec 5, 2007 6:09:47 GMT
I know that a Big Brother vision of the future sounds farfetched. I assure you that this seemingly impossible future is on the drawing board, and I promise that you will be convinced, too.
In a future world laced with RFID spychips, cards in your wallet could "squeal" on you as you enter malls, retail outlets, and grocery stores, announcing your presence and value to businesses. Reader devices hidden in the doors, walls, displays, and floors could frisk the RFID chips in your clothes and other items on your person to determine your age, sex, and preferences. Since spychip information travels through clothing, they could even get a peek at the color and size of your underwear.
I'm not joking. A major worldwide clothing manufacturer named Benetton has already tried to embed RFID chips into women's undergarments. And they would have gotten away with it, too, had it not been for an international outcry when we exposed their plan.
While consumers might be able to avoid spychipped clothing brands for now, they could be forced to wear RFID-enabled work clothes to earn a living. Already uniform companies like AmeriPride and Cintas are embedding RFID tracking tags into their clothes that can withstand high temperature commercial washings.
Don't have to wear a chipped uniform to work? Your RFID-enabled employee badge could do the spying instead. One day, these devices could tell management who you're chatting with at the water cooler and how long you've spent in the restroom—even whether or not you've washed your hands. There's already a product called iHygiene that can monitor the handwashing habits of RFID-tagged employees during bathroom visits.
Our next generation of workers could be conditioned to obediently accept this degrading surveillance through forced early exposure. Some schools are already requiring students to wear spychipped identification badges around their necks to keep closer tabs on their daily activities. If Johnny is one-minute late for math class, the system knows. It's always watching.
Retailers are thrilled at the idea of being able to price products according to your purchase history and value to the store. RFID will allow them to assess your worth as you pick up products and flash you a corresponding customer-specific price. Prime customers might pay three dollars for a staple like peanut butter while "bargain shoppers" or the economically challenged could be charged twice as much. The goal is to encourage the loyalty of shoppers who contribute to the profit margins while discouraging those who don't. After all, stores justify, why have unprofitable customers cluttering the store and breathing their air?
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Dec 5, 2007 6:10:54 GMT
RFID chips embedded in passbooks and ATM cards will identify and profile customers as they enter bank lobbies, beaming bank balances to employees who will snicker at the customer with a mere thirty-seven dollars in the bank while offering white glove treatment to the high-rollers.
RFID could also be used to infringe upon civil liberties. The technology could give government officials the ability to electronically frisk citizens without their knowledge and set up invisible checkpoints on roads and in pedestrian zones to monitor their movements.
While RFID proponents claim they would never use RFID to track people, the fact is that they are not only considering it, they've done it. The United States government has already controlled people with RFID-laced bracelets—and not just criminals. And now they're planning to embed spychips in U.S. passports so citizens can be tracked as they move about airport terminals and cross international borders.
Hitting the open road will no longer be the "get away from it all" experience many of us crave. You may already be under surveillance, courtesy of your RFID-enabled highway toll transponder. Some highways, like those in the Houston area, have set up readers that probe the tag's information every few miles. But that's child's play compared to what they've got planned. The Federal Highway Administration is joining with states and vehicle manufacturers to promote "intelligent vehicles" that can be monitored and tracked through built-in RFID devices (Minority Report-style).
RFID spychips in your shoes and car tires will make it possible for strangers to track you as you walk and drive through public and private spaces, betraying your habits and the deepest secrets even your own mother has no right knowing. Pair RFID devices with global positioning (GPS) technology, and you could literally be pinpointed on the globe in real time, creating a borderless tracking system that already has law enforcement, governments, stalkers, and voyeurs salivating.
There will be no more secret love letters in the RFID world, either—not if the U.S. Postal Service has its way. They would like to embed every postage stamp with an RFID chip that would enable point-to-point tracking. Even more disturbingly, RFID could remove the anonymity of cash. Already, the European Union has discussed chipping Euro banknotes, and the Bank of Japan is contemplating a similar program for high-value currency. Your every purchase could be under the microscope.
So could your trash. In the RFID world, garbage will become a snoop's and criminal's best friend. Today, it's a dirty job sifting through diapers and table scraps to get at tell-tale signs of a household's market value, habits, and purchases. In the RFID world, scanning trash could be a simple as driving down the street with a car-mounted reader on trash day.
How about the "smart" house? Researchers have developed prototype "homes of the future" to showcase RFID-enabled household gadgets like refrigerators that know what's in them (and can tattletale to marketers), medicine cabinets that talk (to your doctor, government, and HMO), and floors that keep track of where you are at each moment. The potential is staggering. Your insurance company could remotely monitor your food consumption and set rates accordingly, health officials could track the prescription drugs you're taking, and attorneys could subpoena your home activity records for use against you in court.
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Dec 5, 2007 6:12:07 GMT
Home RFID networks will allow family members to remotely track you during your "golden years," or times of incompetence, real or otherwise. Doors can remain bolted to keep you from wandering, toilets can monitor your bowel habits and transmit data to distant physicians, and databases can sense your state of mind. It's all under development and headed your way.
But chipping inanimate objects is just the start. The endpoint is a form of RFID that can be injected into flesh. Pets and livestock are already being chipped, and there are those who believe humans should be next. Incredibly, bars have begun implanting their patrons with glass-encapsulated RFID tags that can be used to pay for drinks. This application startles many Christians who have likened payment applications of RFID to biblical predictions about the Mark of the Beast, a number the book of Revelation says will be needed to buy or sell in the "end times."
While some of these applications are slated for our future, others are already here, right now—and they're spreading. Wal-Mart has mandated that its top one hundred suppliers affix RFID tags to crates and pallets being shipped to selected warehouses. Analysts estimate this one initiative alone has already driven close to $250 million worth of investment in the technology.4 Other retailers such as Albertsons, Target, and Best Buy have followed suit with mandates of their own. According to one industry analyst, there are now sixty thousand companies operating under RFID mandates and scrambling to get with the spychip program as quickly as possible.
Adding fuel to the fire, the Department of Defense is also requiring suppliers to use RFID. In fact, government cheerleaders can't fall over themselves fast enough to support the technology. The Department of Homeland Security is testing the use of RFID in visas, and the Social Security Administration is using spychips to track citizen files. Not to be outdone, the Food and Drug Administration wants RFID on all prescription drugs, and the makers of Oxycontin and Viagra have already begun to comply. The FDA has also approved the use of subcutaneous RFID implants for managing patient medical records—the same implants being used to track bar patrons.
You may have already brought a spychip home with you. If you own a toll transponder or a Mobil Speedpass, you're interacting with RFID every time you use it. And if you bought Procter & Gamble's Lipfinity lipstick at a Wal-Mart in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, between March and June of 2003, you could have brought home a live RFID chip in the product packaging and unknowingly starred in a video, too!
P&G is not the only company that's tested spychips on unwitting consumers. Gillette was also caught tagging packages of Mach3 razor blades with some of the 500 million (that's half a billion!) RFID chips it put on order in early 2003. There's also evidence to suggest that other everyday products like Pantene Shampoo, Purina Dog Chow, and Huggies baby wipes may have been tagged with RFID chips and sold to unsuspecting consumers.
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Dec 5, 2007 6:13:01 GMT
Why would anyone want to keep such close track on everyday objects? The answer is simple. Businesses want the technology to give them complete visibility of their products at all times. Having this real-time knowledge would allow them to keep products on store shelves and know precisely what's in their warehouses. They also believe it could help them fight theft and counterfeiting. Theoretically, it could even eliminate the checkstand, since doorways could scan your purchases automatically when you leave the store and charge them to an RFID-based account.
While some of these goals may sound appealing, the problem is what happens when spychipped products leave the store with us and find their way into other areas of our lives.
The seamy details that have been discovered make the spychipped future look more like the ending scene of a gut-wrenching Outer Limits episode.
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Dec 5, 2007 6:13:49 GMT
One of the consumer privacy nightmares is for those little anti-theft tags (known in the industry as "EAS" tags) to someday be combined with individually trackable RFID chips and slipped into consumer products. An article in Friday's RFID Journal (posted below), reveals that Checkpoint Systems has actually developed a product tag that combines anti-theft and RFID tracking capabilities. The tags will debut this week at the RFID Journal Live! Conference in Orlando, Florida. What's more, Sensormatic, Checkpoint's only serious competitor, is running a whole conference session to describe the benefits of using this combined tracking technology. This is beyond a doubt one of the most important and dangerous developments in the consumer privacy arena today. It means consumers may soon be buying, wearing, and carrying products tagged with RFID at the item level, because Checkpoint and Sensormatic specialize in hiding anti-theft tags deep inside of products, then distributing those products to nearly a million retail locations worldwide. Now they want to do the same thing with RFID spychips. If they are not stopped, Checkpoint and Sensormatic will soon be hiding these dual-use tracking devices in your belongings, where they will be able to silently and secretly transmit information about you to marketers, criminals, and Big Brother. This will be a consumer privacy nightmare and no one will even know it's happening. That's because industry lobbyists have prevented RFID labeling legislation from passing anywhere in the nation. There is no requirement that retailers or manufacturers tell us when they're hiding RFID tags in our clothes, shoes, books, or anything else. Our only protection against this threat is the strength of our voices and the power of our protests. Here is a list of the companies that have joined the RFID journal conferences: Academy Sports & Outdoors Albertsons The ALDO Group Anheuser-Busch Best Buy Blockbuster Blommer Chocolate Brass Eagle CDW Corp. Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream Electrolux Energizer Battery Fuji Photo Film USA The Gap General Mills Gillette Company Hampton Products Hasbro Hershey Foods Hewlett Packard (HP) Hunter Fan Hy-Vee, Inc. Jockey International Johnson & Johnson Johnsonville Sausage Kellogg Co. Kimberly-Clark Limited Brands L'Oreal USA Loblaws Louisville Bedding Lowe's Companies Luxottica Retail Maidenform Worldwide Mars Marubeni America Masterfoods USA McIlhenny Co. Meyer Corp. Nestle USA Newell Rubbermaid OfficeMax Pacific Cycle Payless Shoe Source Pharmavite Procter & Gamble S. C. Johnson SAKS Inc. Sara Lee Foods Schick Scott Paper Limited Sears Sears Canada Sherwin-Williams Storekraft Stride Rite Corp. Tanimura & Antle Target Corp. The Valvoline Co. Unilever Wal-Mart Walgreens Wm Wrigley Jr Co Wegmans To learn more about the conference, and to see a video on it, see: www.rfidjournalevents.com/live/
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Dec 5, 2007 6:14:52 GMT
Write to as many of these companies as you can. Let them know how strongly you oppose RFID spychips. When you're done writing an email, call their customer service lines for good measure. Send a fax, write snail mail, send a singing telegram. But whatever you do, don't take this lying down. We need everyone we can to put a stop to this.
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Dec 17, 2007 2:41:09 GMT
The Department of Homeland Security is planning on the national ID cards with the RFID technology that INCLUDES a bar code. WOW-- that is just the icing on the cake. The barcode was certainly the precursor to the "Mark of the Beast" because we ALREADY can't buy or sell anything without 6 -6 -6 in it.
Look on a bar code for anything that you bought today. For every numerical value there is a pattern of lines. For 6 -- the pattern of lines are two thin lines close together.
If you look at the beginning, the middle and at the end of the barcode you will see two small lines together. So... the computer reads 6 (then numbers) 6 (then numbers) and then 6.
So.... if the RFID and National ID cards have a bar code, and this technology is eventually made into an implantable microchip that we are forced to have inserted in us.... then PLEASE DO NOT TAKE IT!!!
I truly believe this to be a huge step towards the "Mark of the Beast" or the coming implant.
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Dec 17, 2007 2:42:51 GMT
By allowing an ID card like this to be forced on you, you are setting yourselves up for a fall. Nazi Germany, remember them? No ID? no excuse, concentration camp. Organized crime will just add another industry to their web. Boy, when mass paranoia hits, reason goes out the window.
Certain corrupt parts of our government have been trying to force this issue for many years, well before 9/11, and so far we have resisted. We already have enough forms of ID.
Once your freedom is gone it is gone for good in many cases. Unless you are "saved" by an outside source. Or unless there is a rebellion within. And if America isn't free, than there's little hope for the rest of the World.
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Dec 17, 2007 2:44:38 GMT
When you take this to these extremes everything our Forefathers fought and died for is lost.
They have used 9/11 to gain everthing they wanted in this area, and have fed us all on a diet of b/s ever since. What is the final agenda once total control in the "free world" has been achieved? A modern form of slavery from birth to death in the service of the state. Will they sort out the weaker members of our society for "special" treatment? You bet they will. It will be a case of if you can't be productive than you are of little use, and with all our rights now being taken away we will have little chance of challenging anything.
In America the powers that be already have more than enough information on each of us, so anything on top is just tightening the reigns and rubbing our noses in it. An orderly society is one thing, an oppressed one is another.
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Dec 17, 2007 2:46:22 GMT
Remember, you get what you wish for, our liberties have gone so far it ignores the dangers we face. The corrupt politicians/controllers with their system of checks and balances are blurring the foundation of the intent of our constitution, and are slowly trying to replace it with a quasi living breathing document that never existed. This is what they are hoping for anyways.
The law makers in the past until present, from the lawyers who present cases that broaden the essence of the intent of the rights of an individual, and the judge who turns a blind eye, allows the term right to mean what ever the case may be. Hence people get sued, companies get sued, and anyone else that stepped on this new found right that was created by our court system, by our law makers etc etc..
The supreme court is not an elected branch of government, they are appointed.. When they rule on an issue for what ever reason in the minds of the people, congress, the media, etc etc becomes the standard and will challenge the constitutions intent. Given enough time over and over again the changing of the intent of the constitution it will render its intent meaningless..
Roe Vs Wade is not Law, its a decision. But for what ever reason we accept it as law, for it to be a true right it must be part of our constitution, ie constitutional amendment. This is just an example of political manipulation to obtain a social outcome apart from the Law. This is what is happening all the time today as we sit in front of our computer screens, because our freedoms are being destroyed in the name of freedom.
Be carefull who you vote for, because what seems harmless at first can turn into in the catalyst of our undoing, and people will fight for these so called rights and take us all down with them, and all the while never seeing their true dangers until it is too late.
Satan comes as a roaring lion seeking those he can destroy, he comes as an Angel of light making him self look like the desired thing even if in reality its the most evil of all, for after all, he is the master deceiver and a master at the slight of hand luring all into the subtle false intention. He comes as an Angel of light which means he looks as beautiful as the real thing, and for many its easy to follow him because it's just so appealing.
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Dec 25, 2007 1:49:41 GMT
The Real ID Act, which is a law signed by President Bush in May 2005, and, if it is accepted by and carried out by the states, would turn state drivers licenses into a genuine national identity card and impose numerous new burdens on taxpayers, citizens, immigrants, and state governments.
Real ID would force the states to standardize drivers licenses cards across the nation into a single national identity card and database. It does this by stipulating that state drivers licenses and state ID cards will not be accepted for federal purposes including boarding an aircraft or entering a federal facility unless they meet all of the laws numerous conditions, which include:
Standardized data elements and security features on the IDs.
A machine readable zone that will allow for the easy capture of all the data on the ID by stores or anyone else with a reader.
The construction of a 50-state, interlinked database making all the information in each persons file available to all the other states and to the federal government.
A requirement that states verify the issuance, validity and completeness of every document presented at motor vehicles agencies (usually called DMVs) as part of an application for a Real ID card.
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Dec 25, 2007 1:51:27 GMT
Whats Wrong With Real ID
Its a national identity system. The standardized national drivers licenses created by Real ID would become a key part of a system of identity papers, databases, status and identity checks and access control points an internal passport that will increasingly be used to track and control individuals movements and activities.
Will not be effective against terrorism. The fact is, identity-based security is not an effective way to stop terrorism. ID documents do not reveal anything about evil intent and even if they did, determined terrorists will always be able to obtain fraudulent documents (either counterfeit or real documents bought from corrupt officials).
Will be a nightmare for state governments. Real ID requires state governments to remake their drivers licenses, restructure many of their computer databases and other systems, create an extensive new document-storage system, and perhaps most difficult of all verify the issuance, validity and completeness of every document presented at DMVs. See Real Burdens.
Will mean higher fees, long lines, and bureaucratic nightmares for individuals. Because Congress ordered but did not pay for these mandates, which will cost states billions of dollars, fees on individuals applying for drivers licenses will inevitably rise, perhaps steeply. Individuals are also likely to confront slower service, longer lines, and frequent bureaucratic snafus in obtaining these ID cards. Many unlucky individuals will find themselves caught in a bureaucratic nightmare as they run up against the complexities of this law.
Increased security and ID-theft risks. The creation of a single interlinked database as well as the requirement that each DMV store copies of every birth certificate and other documents presented to it will create a one-stop shop for identity thieves.
Will be exploited by the private sector to invade privacy. Real ID would make it easy for anybody in private industry to snap up the data on these IDs. Already, bars often swipe licenses to collect personal data on customers but that will prove to be just the tip of the iceberg as every convenience store learns to grab that data and sell it to data companies for a dime.
Will expand over time. The Real ID database will inevitably, over time, become the repository for more and more data on individuals, and will be drawn on for an ever-wider set of purposes. Its standardized machine-readable interface will drive its integration into an ever-growing network of identity checks and access control points each of which will create new data trails that will in turn be linked to that central database or its private-sector shadow equivalent.
|
|
|
Post by magentacandle on Dec 25, 2007 4:24:32 GMT
The Real ID Act has been passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush. But its acceptance in the states is far from assured. And the states have just three years until 2008 after enactment to come into compliance, or their citizens drivers licenses will no longer be accepted for federal purposes. But the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must first complete work creating regulations that spell out in more detail exactly what the states must do to make compliant IDs. Those regulations are not expected until the summer of 2006 at the earliest leaving the states even less time to complete the complex and gargantuan overhauls the legislation requires.
The Act was not passed through a true democratic process. It was slipped through Congress in May 2005 in a must-pass Iraq War/Tsunami relief supplemental bill, as part of a deal reached between the powerful Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R, Wis.) and the Congressional leadership. There was no time for sufficient consideration of the Act and its sweeping implications; in the Senate, there was not even a single hearing held on the Act. The result is that Real ID lacks the legitimacy that comes from having been studied, debated, considered, and directly voted upon by Americans elected representatives.
The game is not over, it has just moved into the states. Although the Act was passed by Congress, Real ID cannot go into effect without a multitude of actions in the states. State legislatures must appropriate money and, in most cases, change state laws. State executives must remake or build anew all the administrative machinery required to comply with the Acts numerous mandates. And a lot of people at the state level do not like what they see.
Broad interest-group opposition. Opponents range from privacy and civil liberties organizations like the ACLU to conservative groups to immigration groups.
Its a bad Act. Most fundamentally, the Real ID Act has sparked opposition because it would not be good for our country.
The opposition to Real ID is broad and deep, and despite its passage by Congress, there remains an excellent chance that it will be reversed in part or in whole.
|
|