Blog: William McKnight

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Ripping off the antenna

Are you tired of searching for those RFID tags on your clothing? According to this article, IBM has developed a chipped tag, adopted by Marnien Management Ltd., that allows you to remove the antenna from the tag easily. I note that the chip itself will remain on the item, so reading will still be possible, but the read range will be limited without the antenna.

Perhaps this is a workable middle ground in the emerging battle between industry and privacy. It does clearly expose the tag to the consumer, which should be more important to privacy advocates than the easy ability to "rip off" the antenna. After all, most consumers are unaware of the tag. This would be a blow to data collection since many would get ripped off and put the consumer in more control of when their tag is read although surreptitious reads are still possible without an antenna.

Technorati tags: rfid,

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