EC brain storms over RFID privacy issues

RFID related privacy concerns seems to be the important thing on the agenda of EU commissioner Viviane Reding. While the European Commission (EC) is determined to ensure that the use of radio frequency identification devices (RFID) boosts the competitiveness of the Europe's economy and improves the quality of life of its citizens, it is aware of the need to safeguard their basic rights, and in particular their privacy.

And what better way to get a whole lot of ideas than to get users from the world ver into a sort of a web based Brain Storming session. Reding has invited user on to the "Your Voice in Europe" web site (http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice) and urged them to contribute what they feel must be the important considerations while implementing RFID for a better tomorrow.

It was at a trade fair in March 2006 that the EU began looking at the need to harness the technology in a manner ensuring right oppurtunities for its growth were provided. That the RFID is gaining popularity in practically every field is an undenyable fact. With a view to come to a conclusion on the "way ahead" a few workshops have need conducted during which issues pertaining to interoperability, international compatibility, radio spectrum allocation, and the future of RFID technologywere discussed.

The idea of the excercise is ensure the entire EC stays on the same grid while discussing and arriving at solutions for their common advantage. It is intended this way to avoid a fragmented approach to RFID in Europe.

Another fair is scheduled in October. It is expected that by then the EU would have consolidated all feedback received from the Online workshops and seminars. The findings will be presented to an audience of experts and decision makers, who will assist the EU arrive at an assessment which will then be presented to the European Parliament and Council. Considering the fact that RFID is here to stay this move seems to be logical one in the correct direction and surely the findings will set standards for the RFID of the future.

RFID in Pubs and Bars?

Need a free drink? If your friend was the barman chances are he would pass you one friendly drink absolutely FREE. Did you know that acts like these lead to losses estimated close to $7 billion every year in sales of liquor alone.

Until now there was no effective way of checking this. Lets face it you don’t expect the owners of a five star hotel to come sit at the bar each night and watch how many free drinks the barman was passing to his buddies. But all that is going to change thanks to RFID technology. A San Francisco based company called Capton has developed Beverage Tracker software.

How does it work?

The beverage tracker has a active RFID enabled tag on the liquor spout and an RFID reader. Whenever drink is poured, the tipping of the bottle turns on both the tag and the measuring device, allowing the spout to measure the volume of liquor poured before the bottle is tipped back up. The information is transmitted to the interrogator's antenna.

It possible to track the details of every drink poured or spilt at the counter. This can be used to ensure you collect for every drop dispensed if the system is configured appropriately. The unique tag on each bottle will transmit its code to the RFID reader which can then decide how much the customer has to pay based on a pre decided rate card stored in the software.

Although setting up such a system - presently on a trial basis - costs approximately over $20,000 many would agree its a drop in the liquor ocean compared to the $7 billion that’s lost in annual sales.

So the next time you want to be extra sweet talking that lady bar tender into passing you a free drink, remember the only thing you need to ensure is that she doesn't spill any enamored by your charm. For sure you will pay for every drop dispensed. After all like lunches, its getting to a stage where we can say THERE ARE NO FREE DRINKS too.

Does RFID ensure you eat safer food?

Any outbreak of animal borne disease and the first reaction is to stay away from the affected product be it meat or eggs until it get a clean chit once again. Given the deadly nature of these diseases, its not surprising that none of us want to take a chance and rightfully so.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has plans to use RFID amongst other methods to track all livestock with the hopes of quickly identifying and localizing affected animals in the event of future epidemics. This would result in quicker identification and quarantining and in containing the wide spread trouble.

Using passive RFID tags (i.e. tags without a battery within) that are attached to a particular lot of hens or cattle, the RFID readers will quickly be able to scan from a distance all details pertaining to that particular shipment. Perhaps the biggest advantage of using RFID in this case instead of the conventional bar code system is that in the event of requiring a re-check to confirm which shipment has been loaded on the truck, there isn't a need to unload the truck to scan each bar code.

Using today networking possibilities, such shipments can also be quickly tracked down even after it has crossed international borders into a foreign country. Quarantining such affected shipment coming in from many sources from across the world can be a Herculean task if each shipment had to be opened and checked. However with use of a suitable RFID scanner in the shape of a wand or a stationary object (say, the gate on a cattle pen), scanning and isolating the shipment can be achieved very quickly.

Its not surprising then that big retailing Giants like Walmart and Target have been quick to see the benefits and insist that their suppliers ship with RFID tags. For now it may seem like only the big players utilizing the RFID way of tracking. However, with a few more Bird Flu’s and not to mention demands of government-mandated animal tracking by 2009, more will follow quickly.

RFID to Foil Shop Lifts

Surely at some stage in our lives we have all seen the electronic article surveillance (EAS) alarm getting triggered at some mall when some one tried to walk past with goods he had lifted.

Starting from June 2006, RFID will be integrated with existing EAS measures to form a more effective surveillance system to curb and check shop lifting. This new system from Vue Technology and Tag Co. will provide up to item-level visibility of high-end items in the store, and possibly catch a theft in action, before the product leaves the store. It will also give the store keeper trace where products are moved within the store which will not only help stop fraud but also improve in locating it location and in logistic upkeep.

This means that if a new employee at the shop decided to shift a large quantity of a certain item fro its original shelf to elsewhere, this change would be picked up and be seen as tantamount to shop lifting and would lead to setting off alarms. Alarms need not always be audible to let the person know his act has been noticed. According to Tim von Kaenel, Vue's senior vice president of product management and business development the alarm could be a message appearing on the store's computer screens to convey shift of certain items has taken place giving full details of the exact location too.

Since these RFID tags cannot be read at distance more than 12 inches they will be ineffective at the doorways. Therefore it is felt that the combination of the two methods EAS (with a 9 foot range) and RFID will give the fool proof solution to check fraud both at the shelf level and at the door way.
Finally the new system with its advantages has one BIG plus point in its favor - there is no need to chuck away your existing EAS readers but merely need to upgrade it to a better solution provider. This along with the new tracking software called IntelliManager will be provided and integrated by Vue Technology at a reasonable price.

World Cup Security - RFID way

Come 9 June 2006 and the world will see such huge concentration of use of RFID tags in one place than ever before. Yeah you guessed it - It must be in Germany and it must be Football season.

This years world cup foot ball tickets all have an embedded RFID tag. A rough calculation taking into consideration sixty four matches and the seating capacity of twelve stadiums, it works out to approximately 3.5 million tickets. This is undoubtedly the first ever use of RFID in such a large scale and the organisers are aware of the sort of hassles they are going to encounter. There are going to have a large number of scanners installed to read that many tickets and also to validate them.

Enhanced Surity Measures:
The RFID tag will contain the name, address,nationality, and ID card or passport number of the person who bought the tickets.On family tickets, the name will read the same on all the tickets purchased. This is a delibrate move to ensure your ticket cannot be sold or stolen.
The security plan being engineered by German police, Interpol, and other intelligence services will ensure that all are kept under constant surveillance. Camers with biometric facial recognition capabilities will also assist in spotting the known suspects easily.

While all this sounds very exciting and possible, it is interesting and perhaps to note how the security loopholes often pointed out by experts have been looked and the controversial technology is put to better the security management of the World Cup. I suppose thats where reasoning ends and Football mania begins.

Use of RFID set to grow in the health care industry

Fom Automobiles to Aviation and from Medical Industry to Shipping, the Buzz word one gets to hear is the same everywhere – RFID. With the advantages that RFID offers, it’s purely a matter of time before those small kinks viz. privacy issues, funding gets ironed out and reaches a stage of wider scale acceptance.

The Future for Healthcare:

The Healthcare Industry ,primarily thanks to the new tagging of drugs for anti-counterfeiting and real time location of staff, patients and assets for safety, security and cost control, is likely to show a growth in the use of RFID. RFID is poised to grow at a predicted 3% to 8% right across the globe stretching from USA and good part of Europe in the west to Taiwan, Japan, Korea and even tiny state of Singapore. The market for RFID tags and systems in healthcare will rise rapidly from $90 million in 2006 to $2.1 billion in 2016. Primarily, this will be because of item level tagging of drugs and Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) for staff, patients and assets to improve efficiency, safety and availability and to reduce losses.

Benefits therein:

(1) Tagging will allow us to ensure the correct medication is provided to the right patient. Errors can be expensive and some in the worst-case scenarios may even lead to death of patients. RFID with its ability to match the patient to the treatment will greatly improve that.
(2) RFID will help stop counterfeiting of drugs. This way you will have trace ability of the drug by establishing the Pedigree at all times.
(3) Use of RFID will also help address Privacy issues. Imagine a patient with a wrist tag that automatically talks to the Tablet PC with the doctor an populates his screen without you having to utter a word about your ailment history.

Conclusion:

There is no denying that Healthcare may never enjoy the biggest application of RFID ever; but its special requirements, un-quantifiable benefits and promise of better paybacks in the long run often make it seem very profitable and worthwhile business for suppliers.

Better Wardrobe Management - Thanks to RFID

Imagine hunting for a dress that you desperately want to wear for that Business dinner. As luck would have it you cant seem to remember where you put it after your last use. Is it drying on the line or has it been stacked away along with your clothes for dry cleaning or is it in a corner somewhere waiting for a wash? Tempers are going to flare up and you are worried sick you are going to be late.

Enter RFID to your Rescue! Fujitsu of Japan have developed a RFID tag that can now not only transmit and be used for identifying process but can also be washed, dried and ironed and pressed without affecting its performance. It only seems logical to have these tags attached to your clothes to assist you in quicker tracking. In the years to come surely every household will have RFID scanners located in various important places. With such tags embedded into your clothes tracking your wardrobe components will be a lot easier within the house.

At present these new RFID tags developed by Fujitsu are being used primarily at the launderers to track the sheets in a basket containing a whole pile of them. According to Midori Taniyama of Fujitsu’s RFID Systems Department, "Fujitsu will promote the system to any organization that handles a large amount of textile goods, such as hospitals, hotels, commercial laundry services or leisure facilities". These tags that close approximately a little over $1.80 is likely to come down in price once this becomes more popular in the market.

Predictably among the various uses that RFID tags are put to, this is one area where the acceptance of the technology will be complete and fastest owing to the fact that unlike other areas there isn't the fear of privacy being compromised in this case. If remote scanners are used to hack into these tags, I wonder what will be read from a distance - How sweat soaked the tag was before the wash? Now, what goes on under your clothes is surely something any deodorant manufacturers might be interested in knowing.

Introducing a RFID tag with privacy protecting features.

RFID is gaining popularity and more firms are moving towards setting up RFID technology to help better the functioning of their day-to-day activities. There is an ongoing debate questioning how secure ones private data would be on a RFID tag. The contention is that since RF readers read RFID tags, theoretically it should be possible to read the same tag from a distance. If that were true then a lot of personal data on the tag would be compromised.

Industry experts have been working overtime to com up with an answer to this privacy related issue which if not solved will greatly hamper the acceptance of this technology. Towards this end IBM has developed a prototype tag with an ability to disable its ability to broadcast item information.

The clipped Tags as they are called come with perforations like a sheet of postage stamps do. So when required the tag is torn along the perforations to rip off the antenna portion making the tag readable only from very close. The tags are planned for use at a department store to protect the privacy regarding the items bought. Typically, an item-level RFID tag stores a single Electronic Product Code (EPC). An EPC is a 96-bit identification number that indicates a manufacturer's code and product code, along with an unique serial number of an item. Using the EPC, it is possible to trace the full history of the item including where an item was shipped from, how long it sat on store shelves and price history.

To ensure a higher degree of privacy, the EPC standards body EPCglobal built a Kill command into the new Gen2 communications protocol for UHF tags. The Kill command will result in deactivating the tag permanently. While this will definitely assure a greater degree of privacy once a customer is past the till, it is going to create a huge problem when it comes to returning an item with a 30 day money back policy.

IBM has filed a patent application for the Clipped Tag but what future uses it will put it to and who all will it be licensed to remains to be seen