Retail radio tags should have an off switch

ONE OF THE hottest topics among the fearmongering press lately is RFID tags, or Radio Frequency ID tags. These come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, capabilities and costs, but generally do one thing, identify an object uniquely. How uniquely? If they have a 128-bit code in them, they can identify billions and billions of items for every person on earth. More than enough to put one on everything you ever buy, look at, or touch without overlap. In essence, they are a little silicon chip that has a number in it, which is readable remotely, usually at short range, say a few feet, and they are passive, so they don't need a battery. All they do is respond to a signal, and give back a number.

How is this useful? The most immediate way is to replace barcodes, making sales better, faster and more accurate. Imagine going into a supermarket, and when you check out, you don't put anything on the conveyer belt. You simply push your stuff through a device that resembles a metal detector, or security device, and everything is added up right there, in all of 5 seconds. Other than the obvious problem of still having to take the stuff out to put it in a bag, it will save lots of time and effort. We at the INQUIRER think the bag problem is technologically solvable with a large enough DARPA grant. If someone wants to send me a check for anything over $50 million, I will get to work tomorrow morning. Honest.

The big players in the retail world are drooling over this technology. It will save them so much money it is almost laughable. Imagine not having to pay all those people minimum wage, plus benefits, for scanning in bar codes all day. That alone is enough impetus to make them jump at the technology. Add in things like instant inventory levels, supply chain automation, and theft protection, and you have a winner. Every time you buy a box of Acme Kelp Crunchies, extra salty of course, it notifies Acme to deliver another box. No human involvement to mess things up, the system works magic, and you never end up with anything you don't need or want. This is all theory, and we all know how well theory translates to reality, but in this case, most of the promised benefits should happen.

Wow, this is perfect, right? Well, there are a few little problems. The most notable one is that old issue, cost. Current optimistic scenarios indicate that the cost of these little silicon nuggets will hopefully drop to 5 cents or so when volume ramps up. Will volume ramp up? Yes, without a doubt. Walmart, probably the largest retail company anywhere is hot for them, really hot. So hot that they have set, and just recently backed off a bit, rules that specify any company doing business with them must have RFID tags in all the stuff that Walmart buys. The implementation dates are in the future, but not that far, think 2005 time frame. If you think Walmart can't force this kind of change on just about every supplier of anything in the US, think again. They did it with bar codes years ago, and are going to do it again. The main reason that bar codes are on everything is that Walmart was heavy handed decades ago, and did force everyone to play ball. They are bigger now.

With everyone using it, and cost optimistically dropping to five cents per tag, it still isn't economical to put everywhere. Would you think that a 5 cent tracking device on a 50 cent candy bar makes sense? Probably not. How about on a 10 cent piece of gum? Again, not going to happen soon. Even at 1 cent, a manufacturer of low margin consumer goods is going to balk at eating that 1% on a dollar bottle of shampoo. When you start getting into things that cost several dollars, the money equation starts to make sense. Unfortunately, it is the little, inexpensive things that sell a lot, not the big bulky slow movers that are the hardest to track. So, for DVDs, it will happen quickly, gum, no. If you don't have it on everything though, the whole system falls apart. I personally don't have a problem with an automated checkout system that only gets half of my purchases, but I suspect Walmart does.

For this reason, the initial uses for RFID tags will be on crates and palates, and in general large chunks of supplies. The five cents that does not make sense on a 10 cent piece of individually wrapped licorice does make sense on the box of 500 of them that goes by the checkout lane. It makes more sense to have on the palate with 100 boxes, all of which you can drive down the isle of a warehouse and inventory without getting out of your forklift. This is where the Walmarts of the world are going to start, and move it out as soon as is economically feasible. It is still a chicken and egg situation.

The other problem is a little harder to deal with, but the industry already has a solution in mind. The problem is that the tags themselves are passive devices, they never turn off, or on for that matter, they just are. With the proper device, you can read them now, or in 5 years. Think bar codes, they just sit there until you go out of your way to read them with a laser. No big deal, right? Wrong.

This problem lead Benetton, the maker of controversial ads, marginal F1 teams, and some say clothing, to kill a plan to RFID tag all the clothing they sell. Massive public outcry shelved that idea because they couldn't promise a way to turn the tags off. So what you say, who cares if the next time I walk into a Benetton store, they know that I bought something there 3 months ago, if they even keep the records. I am not going to stick the back of my neck into a scanner anyway. Well, the problem is much worse than you think, and it all has to do with a technology called data mining.

Data mining is a fancy term for looking things up in a big database of stuff and pulling out relationships. When you call up a company for technical support, they mine info on you, and your product, the store where you bought it, the lot it came from and all sorts of other goodies to assure they can help you. Sometimes it even works, unless you buy Dell, but that is another story. How does it affect you?

First, let me assure you that any modern company, unless they explicitly tell you that they don't, and even then, keep for data essentially forever. Most will even sell it to anyone who hands them money? Think spammers are the only ones who do this? Where do you think all that junk snail mail with your name on it comes from, elves? How about phone calls during dinner time? Ditto. Your name is everywhere. How do you avoid this? You pay cash for everything, and never give your name out unless you have to. Few people do this simply to avoid mostly innocuous tracking. RFID adds an inescapable dimension to this.

Lets assume that in the not too distant future, one RFID standard emerges, and, like bar codes, is used everywhere. Life is good, no lines at the supermarket, no chit chat with a semi-literate clerk, the sun shines, and birds sing. Products are always in stock and cost less. Lets narrow the discussion down to two things most people use, and few people share, socks and underwear. Assume that both of these things are uniquely identifiable, globally. Wow, the mind does boggle at the thought, but still, it is coming. Also, assume that, as with bar codes, there are handy ‘self pricing' stations at many large chain stores. The Target store I was just at has them for bar codes now, so it is not much of a stretch to assume they will be there for RFID. Another not to distant stretch is to tie it into the anti-shoplifting system. If it was paid for, it doesn't set off alarms when you walk out the door. No more false alarms, life again is good.

All of these things are to your benefit individually, but not together. So, imagine if your spouse buys you underpants, and pays with a credit card. All those global identifiers are put into a database with her name on it, not yours. When you go to a large store to buy a watch, when you walk in the door, it knows that the person who owns underpants #3294-23184-2294 just walked in. When you walk by the self pricing station, it knows that 12 minutes later, you went to hardware. At T+17, you went by DVDs. When you check out, it knows you bought DVDs, toothpaste, toilet paper, shoes and a watch. When you walk out through those security scanners on the way out, the store knows when you came in, roughly where you went in the store, what you bought, and how long it took.

Again so what? The store can then tie it in to your underpants and socks. With a little cross referencing, and they do this all the time, they can tie it into your wife's credit card. If you paid with a credit card, they have you. Now, from then on, they can cross-reference all the things you own simply by checking every time you walk through a security scanner in any store. They know what you do, what you buy, when you buy it, and how you use it. Airports will tie into this, and anything that needs security will also. All of the tunnels, bridges and subways in New York have radiation sensors in them now, how much more would it take to put RFID scanners in them? Not much. If a government wanted to get traffic data, simply put one sensor on every highway overpass. It would not only tell them how many cars were going over a road, but who was in them, what color underpants they were wearing, and if their socks matched. If they went a little further, they could often figure out where the person ended up going.

This type of data is a boon for any company. It allows them to tailor their business to you, and make your life better. Governments can fund new roads more accurately, time traffic lights, and find criminals with ease. Oh, that one makes you a little nervous? Well think about this. Imagine if someone does a psychological profile on child molesters. Now imagine they did it by taking known child molesters and looked back at the data they generated over the past few years. Now, if you happen to buy children's books, and some snack foods and an item or 3 in your next shopping trip that matched up with a profile, you suddenly and unknowingly got on a lot of watch lists you don't want to be anywhere near. After 9/11, this happened to a lot of people who wanted to take plane flights. Stories of them trying to find out what lists they were on, much less get removed are legendary.

Overall, there is huge potential for abuse here, and economic fruit dangling low will make it almost impossible for companies to resist. There is only one solution to this problem, put an off switch in all the tags, and use them for their intended purpose, and no more. Luckily for freedom loving people everywhere, the trade group that oversees the tags has a plan to deal with this issue. Yes, years before they devices get into mainstream use, they have a consumer oriented ad campaign to make you less fearful, starting with calling the RFID tags "Green Tags". Awww, isn't that cute! If people aren't afraid of the tags, and they get out ahead of the naysayers, there will be so much less FUD to spin around.

No, don't re-read the last paragraph, I didn't say anywhere that they were not going to make a global repository to track everything you buy, do or visit, they just are trying to turn you into sheep. Yes, don't be afraid, just consume. We know what is best for you, and we won't abuse our power, honest. We have never done so in the past, and all you have read about companies getting caught with their pants down is a lie. Have a nice day citizen, we are off to spend our profits on mind reading devices, also for your own good. Really.

There is only one way to deal with the problems that will come about from RFID tags, turn them off, and give you a way to verify that they are off. There is no other choice. Everything else is subject to greed. If they do this, it will become a useful technology that benefits us all. Prepare for a fight. µ