iRiver to use spy chips
p2p news / p2pnet:- One of the sites we check when we’re doing our regular scans for news items is the RFID Journal.
We do that because although RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) has plenty of benign uses, it’s also one of the most frightening technologies that exists today precisely because its potential for abuse is so wide.
A school in Northern California was using RFID to track students and, the US-VISIT border security program is full of problems and its fingerprint identification system has, “resulted in many cases of mistaken identity,” said EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) recently.
“The program will soon test using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to transmit identifiers to agents,” it said, but, “the small amount of time saved by using RFID is outweighed by the significant security risk of unauthorized parties accessing the data when it is transmitted wirelessly”.
A Johns Hopkins University hacker team cracked Texas Instruments RFID “immobilizer” systems used by millions of of Fords, Toyotas and Nissans and David Wagner, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, called it an “early warning for all radio frequency ID systems”.
More? Just do a search for RFID and/or spy chips from p2pnet, or on your favourite engine.
In other words, Radio Frequency IDentification could be used to violate your privacy in a big way.
Now mp3 player manufacturer iRiver is, “ready to rock and roll with RFID, starting with early compliance to the RFID mandate to be enforced by consumer electronics retailer Best Buy,” says the RFID Journal.
An RFID mandate to be “enforced by consumer electronics retailer Best Buy”? And, eventually, there’ll be spy chips on iRiver mp3 players? Think about it.
The RFID Journal quotes iriver senior manager of sales operations, Deepak Govil, as saying he believes the firm’s present RFID work will, “result in a competitive advantage, while also helping iriver roll out its plan to begin item-level tagging its MP3 players, likely commencing by the middle of 2006.
“In so doing, the company hopes to get a jumpstart on the market and reap a competitive advantage.”
And, “because the MP3 players have a high retail value (some as much as $500) but are small, they are especially susceptible to shrinkage. Govil believes retailers will use item-level tags to keep better tabs on the players within the retail environment.”
The company also plans to integrate its RFID data with its enterprise resource planning platform, which is Oracle-based.” Think about that too.
In his Boston Globe column today, Hiawatha Bray writes:
“It’s one of the cutest of those cute IBM Corp. TV commercials, the ones that feature the ever-present help desk. This time, the desk appears smack in the middle of a highway, blocking the path of a big rig. ‘’Why are you blocking the road?’ the driver asks. ‘Because you’re going the wrong way,’ replies the cheerful Help Desk lady. ‘Your cargo told me so.’ It seems the cartons inside the truck contained IBM technology that alerted the company when the driver made a wrong turn.
“It’s clever, all right – and creepy. Because the technology needn’t be applied only to cases of beer. The trackers could be attached to every can of beer in the case, and allow marketers to track the boozing habits of the purchasers. Or if the cargo is clothing, those little trackers could have been stitched inside every last sweater. Then some high-tech busybody could keep those wearing them under surveillance.
“If this sounds paranoid, take it up with IBM. The company filed a patent application in 2001 which contemplates using this wireless snooping technology to track people as they roam through ‘shopping malls, airports, train stations, bus stations, elevators, trains, airplanes, rest rooms, sports arenas, libraries, theaters, museums, etc.’ An IBM spokeswoman insisted the company isn’t really prepared to go this far. Patent applications are routinely written to include every possible use of a technology, even some the company doesn’t intend to pursue. Still, it’s clear somebody at IBM has a pretty creepy imagination.”
Meanwhile, as Bray points out, “Dozens of companies and government agencies are planning to use RFID to track nearly every move we make. And although many of the individual applications make sense, what would happen if they were all implemented, without oversight or restraint? We’d then live in a world in which everything we own gossips about us behind our backs.
“And it would be too late to call the IBM Help Desk to ask for our privacy back.”
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
track students – CA school drops spy-chip ID, February 17, 2005
unauthorized parties – US-VISIT ‘full of tech problems’, July 10, 2005
hacker team – Vehicle security chips cracked, January 31, 2005
RFID Journal – Iriver Pushes Play With RFID, October 7, 2005, issue
Boston Globe – You need not be paranoid to fear RFID, October 10, 2005
October 10th, 2005 at 4:34 pm
Is the RFID device going to be in the package or inside the mp3 player? If it’s in the packaging that’s one thing, but if it’s inside the player that would keep me from buying it.
Note: If you carry many (not all) models of newer cell phones “they” can track you right now…
October 10th, 2005 at 4:37 pm
Are manufacturers, retailers, and other possible users of RFID devices required to inform people of the inclusion of “spi chips” in their products?
October 10th, 2005 at 5:11 pm
Interesting, I had a discussion this past weekend with someone looking to buy a portable player. The units in question happen to be the iRiver, Creative, Archos and the iPod.
If iRiver is putting spy chips in their players, this will help to narrow down the list.
October 10th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
Just how big are RFIDs? As far as clothing goes, if they can be seen it should not be too difficult to remove them and introduce them to Mr. Hammer. If anyone thinks the government or courts are going to protect them from this they are kidding themselves, I have no doubt that big corporations are dumping a lot of money into the politicians pockets to prevent any real regulation. The only real defense is information, hopefully people will come out with web sites identifying which products have RFIDs and instructions on how to remove them if that is possible(Clothing should be easy, an electronics device could have them imbedded into it’s circuitry, making removal difficult) It would also not surprise me if the politicians passed some kind of regulation to make removal, tampering with them illegal.
October 10th, 2005 at 9:56 pm
Cell phones can only track you when they are turned on. I leave mine turned off unless I’m using it.
October 10th, 2005 at 10:45 pm
Take comfort in that quaint notion.
October 10th, 2005 at 10:49 pm
RFID devices can be TINY.
“RFID tags can be very small – the size of a large rice grain.”
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-Article.asp?ArtNum=50
October 11th, 2005 at 3:48 am
yea, but honestly you have nothing to worry about until they figure out how to make nano sized rfids. hand me a shirt with a grain of rice in it, and i’ll be able to find it in less than a minute. They’ll never be able to tag clothing with it that effectively, that is unless you wear some odd styled clothing where you can’t find a lump in it.
besides, if the chips are all activated wirelessly, that means that there has to be a way to screw them up wirelessly. so wait about 6 months to a year after they come out, and there will be some guy somewhere who’ll come up with an effective RFID killer that works by waving an antenna over it. if not that, the good old extension cord with the plug removed exposing 2 bare wires will work just fine.
Your worst off with electronics, but the electronics can already track you. so what’s an extra chip or two going to do for you.
all in all, not a big deal. hell, if people were gonna go that far out of their way to watch people they would do it as is, linking UPC codes with credit cards or checking accounts. oh wait…looks like we missed stopping it at the source by about 10 years
October 11th, 2005 at 4:00 am
Probably not, but i’m sure you’d be able to buy rfid readers in electronics retailers sooner or later and check them out yourself. The plans for readers will probably pop up on the net sooner or later too.
Yep, that means ANYONE will be able to aquire readers and see what the rfid chips in everything that’s got one has to say. Then imagine what would happen if the retailers started using “writable” rfid chips, and someone got hold of a rfid “writer”?
Yep, time to start a sale in walmart! Without their knowledge or permission LOL ;o) Just hope noone uses a writer to change your details to theirs and accuse you of stealing all “their” stuff…
October 11th, 2005 at 9:31 am
God who wrote this shit! Compulsory RFID is for PACKAGING, not for the end product. Best Buy wants to incorporate it in all items to minimize product theft. Remember those things that beep at you when you steal something. That is RFID at work….God I am so not impressed with the writers of this site right now.