RFID and Privacy

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Radio Frequency ID Devices

Technical and business background

RFID devices transmit identifying numbers on request from a compatible reader, similar to scanning a bar code but using radio frequencies rather than light. They are tiny and becoming inexpensive enough for manufacturers to include in consumer items such as clothing, cosmetics and car tyres. Unlike bar codes, which are identical for every unit of the same product, the RFID number transmitted is typically unique to each unit. Businesses aim to achieve cost reductions from better tracking of inventory through the supply chain. For technical and business background see for example http://www.rfidjournal.com/

Where privacy is threatened

If "live" unique RFID devices pass beyond the point of sale and are carried out into the consumer's world, they pose a strong threat to privacy. The unique ID in a garment or a car could be read silently by any organization and associated with an individual, allowing subsequent re-identification by that organization (or indeed by any other organization to which the data was sold). The organization doing the surveillance need not be the manufacturer or retailer. As readers cost as little as $20, a hobbyist snoop or private investigator could even set one up near a doorway to record people who revisit an area.

Junkbusters opposes the leakage of live RFIDs into the consumer world because such information would certainly be collected and used by marketers in ways that people would not want if they knew about it. To protect privacy, any business selling an articles to consumers containing an RFID device should permanently disable them at the point of sale. Alternatively, the device should be attached with an explanatory warning to a tag that the consumer would typically remove prior to use, such as a price tag on a garment. Businesses that allow RFID devices to escape live from their premises are recklessly endangering the privacy of their customers.

If common items such as clothing, wallets and car tyres become trackable, marketers will certainly start installing RFID readers in entrances to stores and car parks, to obtain more information about visitors. Once you have been identitifed with a bugged item you're carrying, that item can give you away anywhere. If you make a purchase with a credit or loyalty card, the seller could link your identity with the RFID number of any tagged articles you are carrying, and use it later or even sell that linking information to other organizations. Vast databases of records of people's movements would become available to telemarketers, government investigators and divorce lawyers. This scenario must be avoided, by ensuring that no RFID devices contaminate the consumer world.

Benetton

Benetton's plan to insert into its garments a type of washable RFID device that cannot be permanently disabled raised concerns in March 2003. The particular model of RFID device called I.CODE that Philips Electronics said in a press release it will ship to Benetton in the millions, can be "put to sleep" but can be awakened at any time. Benetton's consulting CIO has told us in the course of dialogs that

the release was erroneous,
they will not deploy an RFID device that cannot be disabled, and
they will disable every device no later than point of sale.

If they do these last two things consistently we believe the privacy threat from Benetton will be neutralized. However, Benetton's press office has repudiated other statements by their CIO, and issued a press release April 4, 2003, from its headquarters in Ponzano, Italy, the first three paragraphs of which are quoted below.

Benetton: No Microchips Present in Garments on Sale
No decision yet taken on industrial use

Benetton Group, with reference to articles recently published in the press, declares that no microchips (Smart Labels) are present in the more than 100 million garments produced and sold throughout the world under its brand names, including the Sisley brand.
Benetton, which has always been a leader in technological innovation in the clothing sector, is currently analyzing RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology to evaluate its technical characteristics and emphasizes that no feasibility studies have yet been undertaken with a view to the possible industrial introduction of this technology.
On completion of all studies on this matter, including careful analysis of potential implications relating to individual privacy, the company reserves the right to take the most appropriate decision to generate maximum value for its stakeholders and customers.

Junkbusters President Jason Catlett commented ``I don't care how much stakeholder value they might think they can create by implanting bugs into peoples' clothes. A socially responsible company shouldn't even be consider such an idea without a prior public committment that no tracking device will ever beam its ID off a customer's skin.''

The final paragraph of the release is somewhat cryptic.

Finally, Benetton states that no suppliers, direct or indirect, of the above-mentioned technology have any company or financial links with the Benetton Group and that any relations with these companies are exclusively of a commercial nature and for the supply of services.

This may refer to Philips, or to company called Lab ID which is acting as systems integrator for Benetton. RFID Journal says that ``the startup has close ties to Benetton. In fact, Mauro Benetton, the elder son of Benetton founder Luciano Benetton, is president of Lab ID. He is also director of marketing of the Benetton Group.''

A later article in RFID Journal quoted Mauro Benetton: "The confusion was probably caused by the fact that my name is Benetton... [Lab ID is] testing RFID with Benetton and with a lot of different partners. But the fact that my name is Benetton made Philips think that the technology was being used by Benetton, but it wasn't... ...we never stopped the test." He believes Benetton will go ahead with plans to tag the Sisley line if the tests are successful.

For more on Benetton see our news page.

The anti-grocery cards organization CASPIAN earlier called for a boycott of Benetton. Their site includes suggestions for consumer activism and a critique of MIT's AutoID project, which aims to establish technical standards for tracking devices and to engineer public acquiescence to RFID surveillance capabilities. Benetton says it has no involvement in the project.

An Associated Press article (2003/3/11) on Benetton's plans to place RFID devices into their Sisley brand of clothing quoted conflicting sources on how easy it would be to read the devices after they left the store. Their effective range is about three to five feet, making it easy to capture the ID reliably anywhere that a person walks through a doorway or a supermarket checkout. A sampling of other media stories: [Philips Press Release] [Seattle PI] [RFID Journal] [ZDnet]

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