RFID Hacks

Recently Dan Gillmor and others raised the specter of privacy infringement with RFID and the law of unintended consequences.

If not, we wouldn't been aware of the issue, lawmakers wouldn't be holding hearings, Woz wouldn't get his buzz, and spinmiesters wouldn't have come up with such nonsense as RFID as a homeland defense technology.

Esther Dyson points out that RFID raises new questions because enables identity for products ("object identity") -- and that privacy concerns may be overstated:

...Despite the obsession with tags, both among investors and among self-styled consumer advocates, the real issue around data and RFID is more with the data it generates than with what’s on the tags. Most tags don’t carry much more than their own identity: what kind of thing they are, plus a unique serial number. The interesting data comes from the context: where the item travels, who purchases it, and so forth. The directory of what things are is public; it will be the EPC. But that’s like a domain name; it gives you the pointer, but it doesn’t necessarily give you access to the data. That is, I can find out what kind of product a certain number refers to, and I may have the unique serial number. It’s like a license plate… I know you are Fred Jones, but I don’t know anything else about you. What good is that? at least product categories are helpful…

So the problem is not with the tags themselves, but the systems that manage them. In whole, however, they represent a tracking technology which impells the need for political, industrial and social oversight.

Whenever a technology of control is created, it calls for oversight and oversight can be accelerated by empowering a broader base of developers. The more people hacking it, the more open it is, the more oversight is fostered.

Today it is the IBMs of the world developing RFID systems, mostly for large companies with large inventories and supply chains. But RFID can be an accessible technology. Active tags operate in the same band as Wifi. Syncan sells a $150 RFID reader for your laptop and the tags themselves are dirt cheap.

Ben Hammersley points out how people are hacking cognitive radios. If you didn't know already, air and what passes through it is terribly political, and object identities will be even more so. With every hack, there is the risk of regulatory intervention, such as with iTrip transmitters being banned in the UK. But the absence of hacks in a class of technology should concern consumers and lawmakers alike.

What Saffo called "Smartifacts" are components that support a larger model of social interaction (in the shift from Processing to Access to Interaction). Today most RFID development is in support tracking physical assets. But if we can reach resolution on privacy issues (without saying its a necessary invasion to fight terrorism), to embrace open use -- social sensors can support a variety of interaction models.

So the more people you have hacking this cheap and accessible technology, the lesser the risk of technology abuse and the quicker we reach the stage where we interact with our objects in ways we wish.

Comments

[Ralph Goossesn]

I think much more can be said on the issue of RFID. There isn't nearly enough knowledge and awareness around, and I think we need an organisation from the middle to pressure for standards, codes of conduct, and legistlation.

[Dawn Van Zant]

RFIDInvesting.com Presents its First Online Investor Forum for RFID Stocks and Industry

RFIDInvesting.com, a global investor and industry news portal for RFID stocks and industry, (a portal within the InvestorIdeas.com umbrella of investor portals), is pleased to announce its upcoming online investor forum, January 26th, 2005. InvestorIdeas.com has successfully hosted investor forums for homeland security stocks and the natural gas stocks sector. With RFID fast tracking to meet 2005 implementation deadlines, investors are looking at RFID as”the next big thing". With applications in retail, pharmaceutical, security and other leading industry sectors, analysts and investors are expecting RFID to dramatically change the way we do business in the future.
Disclaimer: www.investorideas.com/about/disclaimer
Full News: www.investorideas.com/Companies/ViewDocument.asp?ID=2375

[Dawn Van Zant]

RFIDInvesting.com Updates Online Investor Forum for RFID Stocks and Industry with Participating Analyst on Global Markets and Applications for Radio Frequency Identification
www.RFIDInvesting.com, a global investor and industry news portal for RFID stocks and industry, (a portal within the www.InvestorIdeas.com umbrella of investor portals), is pleased to update its upcoming online investor forum, January 26th, 2005. Mr. Michael J. Liard, Program Manager and Senior Analyst for Venture Development Corporation’s (VDC) AIDC and RF Technologies Practice will present an industry overview. Through our online forum, investors can hope to better understand the RFID industry, which is expected to grow to more than $4.2 Billion by 2008. The online forum/conference will feature industry experts and speakers from a cross section of small and large public companies that are positioned in the RFID sector. The format will be a ten to fifteen minute audio presentation and an accompanying PowerPoint presentation
Disclaimer: www.investorideas.com/about/disclaimer
Full News: www.investorideas.com/Companies/ViewDocument.asp?ID=2450

[Dawn Van Zant]

RFIDInvesting.com Online RFID Investor Forum to Feature Public RFID Companies and Analysts that Follow the Growing Sector Including Symbol Technologies, Inc. (SBL) and Senior Analyst for Venture Development Corporation (VDC)
RFID Journal Sponsors First Online RFID Investor Forum, January 26th, 2005

www.RFIDInvesting.com, a global investor and industry news portal for RFID stocks and industry, (a portal within the www.InvestorIdeas.com umbrella of investor portals), is pleased to update the itinerary for its upcoming online audio investor forum, January 26th, 2005.
Disclaimer: www.investorides.com/about/disclaimer
Full News: www.investorideas.com/Companies/ViewDocument.asp?ID=2477

[Dawn Van Zant]

RFIDInvesting.com Online RFID Investor Audio Conference, January 26th, 2005 Gives Insight into RFID Revolution
www.RFIDInvesting.com, a global investor and sector news portal for RFID stocks and industry, (a portal within the www.InvestorIdeas.com umbrella of investor portals), is pleased to update the itinerary for its upcoming online audio investor forum, January 26th, 2005. The online investor forum/conference will feature industry experts and speakers from a cross section of small and large public companies that are positioned within the RFID sector. The format will be a ten to fifteen minute audio presentation and an accompanying PowerPoint presentation. This one day informative event will also be archived online for interested investors and industry participants who follow the sector.
Disclaimer: www.investorideas.com/about/disclaimer
Full News: www.investorideas.com/Companies/ViewDocument.asp?ID=2513

[Bob Chiarito]

I am writing to inquire about possible media partnership opportunities with Ross Mayfield's weblog. I am a conference producer with the Advanced Learning Institute who is currently in the process of putting together “RFID for Pharmaceuticals” -- a conference scheduled for July 18-19 in Philadelphia. I was wondering if your organization would consider a partnership that consisted of us publicizing your publication on our website and giving hard copies to our conference attendees in exchange for your organization publicizing our conference on your website and/or in your publication.

The purpose of our event is to bring together pharmaceutical and biotech professionals to learn from leaders in their field who will present case studies detailing why and how they are benefiting from RFID as well as what type of obstacles you will face and how to overcome them.

I would like to discuss this in more detail at your earliest convenience.

Best regards,

Bob Chiarito

Conference Producer
Advanced Learning Institute
http://www.aliconferences.com/
Phone: 773.695.9400 ext.18