A new tracking system called Auto-ID uses highly miniaturized
computers to track products, even when they're being used
and worn. Every physical item, from a can of Coke to clothes
to toothpaste, will have its own unique information in the
form of an embedded chip. The chip sends out a signal that
allows it to communicate with reader devices. Auto-ID will
eventually replace bar codes, because it not only identifies
the kind of object?it identifies each object separately. You
and your friend may have bought the same sweater at the
same store, but you'll each be wearing a different Auto-ID.
This number is transmitted by a radio frequency ID tag (RFID)
in or on the product. These tiny tags will cost less than 1
cent each and are "somewhere between the size of a grain of
sand and a speck of dust."
The Auto-ID will not only be read when you purchase a
product. It will also be read in airports, seaports, highways,
distribution centers, warehouses and retail stores. Companies
will be able to find out where their products are at all times.
One Auto-ID official says, "Theft will be drastically reduced
because items will report when they are stolen, their smart
tags also serving as a homing device toward their exact
location."
The European Central Bank will embed these tags in the fibers
of Euro bank notes by 2005, so they can trace where each
one has been, meaning that the anonymity of using cash will
be eliminated.
Health surveillance is another way Auto-ID can be sued.
Prescription bottles be tagged with devices that allow
doctors to remotely monitor patient compliance with
prescriptions. If the pill bottle is given to another person, who
does not have a prescription for the medication, it can be
traced.
One of the first clothing manufacturers to embed microchip
transmitters in its clothes is Benetton, which is surprising
considering its left wing advertising. The Italian retailer will be
able to track its garments from their point of manufacture to
the moment they're sold in any of its 5,000 shops worldwide.
Other manufacturers, including luxury retailer Prada, plan to
use the inventory tags. Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart and
British retailer Tesco are researching the smart tags for
restocking, anti-theft and anti-counterfeit purposes.
An Auto-ID tag could be programmed to store information
about the person who bought a garment, allowing salespeople
to make suggestions to the shopper the next time he or she
enters the store. These "spy clothes" make Wayne Madsen,
of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, nervous. He
says, "There really needs to be legislation if companies are
doing this. They say it's for internal use. But what would
prevent them from sharing it with third parties, with the
government or criminal investigators?"
The Bush administration is planning to require Internet service
providers to be part of a centralized system that will allow
broad monitoring of the Internet and surveillance of all its
users. The proposal is part of a report called "The National
Strategy to Secure Cyberspace." Besides intercepting
terrorist communications, the monitoring system would
attempt to prevent the infiltration of new computer viruses.
A central monitoring system would be a technical challenge
because the internet has thousands of independent service
providers, from tiny operations to giant corporations like AOL.
Stewart Baker, a lawyer who represents several large internet
providers, says, "Internet service providers are concerned
about the privacy implications of this as well as liability,"
since providing access to live feeds could be interpreted as
an illegal wiretap.
Tiffany Olson, of the President's Critical Infrastructure
Protection Board, says the proposal does not necessarily
require monitoring at an individual user level. "We don't have
anybody that is able to look at the entire picture," she
says. "When something is happening, we don't know it's
happening until it's too late."
An early draft of the proposal suggested the monitoring would
be controlled by private industry, but the new proposal wants
the government to be in control. An official of a major data
services company says monitoring capabilities can?t be
provided to the government without real-time monitoring of
individuals, and compares the new proposal to Carnivore, the
internet wiretap system set up by the FBI. He says, "Part of
monitoring the internet and doing real-time analysis is to be
able to track incidents while they are occurring?Am I
analogizing this to Carnivore? Absolutely. But in fact, it's 10
times worse. Carnivore was working on much smaller feeds
and could not scale. This is looking at the whole internet."
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