Blog: Dan E. Linstedt

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RFID Is Dead! Or Is It?

RFID (Radio Frequency Identifier Tags) have been stopped in terms of productions, usage, and mandates to be implemented from companies like Wal-Mart and others. Of course, you'll still see RFID on store shelves, particularly for larger and more expensive products - but this is a problem that has been stated as containing tons of problems ranging from ethical questions to simple data gathering questions. In case you're a follower of the RFID channel, you might be interested in some of these findings.

Quite a while back I wrote on RFID and what a Database manufacturer would have to do to support RFID. See my article here. Then, there is the notion of RFID as it pertains to privacy and security context (within VLDW). I wrote about that here. But Alas, RFID brings with it tons of problems and issues that haven't been resolved - and may not be. Wal-Mart has quietly pulled back on implementing the RFID across all its suppliers. GM, and Ford have also pulled back, Congress has raised all kinds of issues surrounding the privacy of RFID de-activation.

Here is a simple discussion of these issues: (this is a fictitious example to illustrate a point)

Wal-Mart wanted every item tagged from inception through completion. Suppose these items are "M" earrings. M earrings are tagged as a pair, the pair is put into a carton, their are 24 pair to a carton, then - each carton is tagged. There are 48 cartons put on a single shrink wrapped unit, the unit is then tagged. There are 15 units per palette. Each palette is tagged. Then finally there are thousands of pallets on the warehouse floor.

Now come the questions:
1. What if one of the tags on the earring boxes "dies", how do you locate the dead signal to replace the RFID tag? Furthermore, there are machines for packaging, but no machines for unpackaging. If you do manage to find the dead signal, you have to unwrap the entire palette and all subsequently wrapped sub-components to get to the tag.
2. What if some of the tags interfere with each other? Their signals get crossed, and you can no longer tell which product is which.
3. That many radio signals all require their own frequency - with thousands of palettes on the shipping floor, you have millions of signals - resulting in interference of cell phones, wireless networking, car-radio's, and other items not linked directly to copper wire. Bleed-over into other frequencies quickly becomes an issue.
4. How do you know (electronically) that you want to track the signal or activate only the signal on a palette once all have been wrapped in a unit? How do you shut-off or filter out all sub-signals within a palette? RFID transponders cannot do this, they send radio frequencies across the board, and all the RFID's in range respond - resulting in huge signal overload.

Now on to the ethics side of the questions:
1. As a consumer you probably don't want someone tracking you (the pants / jacket / shirt you're wearing) as you move around in the mall, or your home or car as you pass an RFID transponder sitting on top of a stop-light at major intersections. That is pure invasion of privacy, very similar to the invasion of privacy that the cameras on top of major intersections today also create.
2. Once you leave a store, how do you know that the store has in fact shut-down the RFID or removed the tag? Some of the tags were supposed to be sewn into the material directly - and it's not just clothing - it's coffee, tea, food items, toys, cars, bicycles, and so on.
3. What would happen if you accidentally drank an RFID? You can't see it, and if it gets in to the food item you're making and you ingest it, then what?

Ok, I'm not the only one bringing to light major concerns. Congress is asking tons of questions, as are the retailers. Below are some interesting press releases about RFID and concerns:

RFID Software a “Pandora’s Box”
Fake Products Can Bypass Quality, Safety
Item-Level RFID Tags Cost More than Expected
Report: Major RFID Hurdles Ahead
IPOs in RFID: If Not Alien, Then Who?
RFID & Individual Privacy
Ethical Problems and RFID
Doctor Tagged with RFID worries about privacy.

One problem? I searched and searched for RFID problems, ethics, issues, privacy, and so on - I found many voices speaking of these issues, but it seems as though the big-dogs are not publicly stating what they've found to be issues, nor are they openly discussing why they are backing down. I'll continue to look for this information, and as I find it - I'll post it here. If you can find quality articles from well-known journals that discuss the ethical implications of RFID, I'd love to hear from you.

RFID is not dead, it still will be utilized (good or bad), because it is a technological advancement, and has been proven to be effective at some levels of tracking. And as always, with new technology like this implementation leads the way long before the impacts are known, and legislation can take place.

Hope this was interesting for you,
Dan L
CTO, Myers-Holum, Inc
http://www.MyersHolum.com

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