rfid, Index

ghlights of What's Inside... * RFID technology secures our privacy, prevents theft, and saves lives. * While there are some legitimate concerns about RFID technology, they are often exaggerated and addressable. * RFID uses authentication measures and encryption to protect the integrity of the system. * Premature legislation could hinder development of RFID technology. * The RFID industry has worked with policymakers and other interested parties, including consumer groups, in creating the highest security standards.

This CD based training is all about RFID (automatic identification technology), including Bar Code RFID.

The American Civil Liberties Union today urged Virginia not to become the first state in the nation to place radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in its driver's licenses. "Until now, the controversy over RFID tags has focused on Wal-Mart and other retail applications," said Chris Calabrese, Program Counsel of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Project. "But this is the first proposal we've seen to include RFIDs in driver's licenses. That brings the potential intrusion of this technology to a whole new level."

SkyeTek, Inc., the leading provider of embedded RFID reader technology, today unveiled the industry’s most advanced security technology for protecting the integrity and privacy of broad RFID implementations in both HF and UHF. The best cryptography implemented today is found in government, financial, and internet applications in the form of AES and SHA, both specified by NSA and FIPS as industry standards for encryption and hashing, respectively. SkyeTek brings that security to embedded RFID applications, such as Item-Level Inventory Management, ePedigree, and Contactless Payment, and also allows customers to use generic tags in those applications saving customers up to 70% versus proprietary, encrypted tags.

Supermarket cards and retail surveillance devices are merely the opening volley of the marketers' war against consumers. If consumers fail to oppose these practices now, our long-term prospects may look like something from a dystopian science fiction novel. A new consumer goods tracking system called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is poised to enter all of our lives, with profound implications for consumer privacy. RFID couples radio frequency (RF) identification technology with highly miniaturized computers that enable products to be identified and tracked at any point along the supply chain. 2

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is rapidly becoming ubiquitous as businesses seek to streamline supply chains and respond to mandates from key customers. But RFID and other new wireless ID technologies raise unprecedented privacy issues. RFID: Applications, Security, and Privacy covers these issues from every angle and viewpoint.

This is a very rich collection of articles contributed by people with diverse backgrounds, viewpoints, and stances. It was just published from Addison-Wesley this summer and includes a number of fresh topics that are highly relevant to the ongoing debates on RFID technology and its implications for all facets of our lives. There are overlaps and discrepancies between some chapters, which actually made my reading experience exciting and fun rather than confusing and frustrating. This book may not be for people who are looking for predigested information about how to build RFID applications, how to address RFID privacy issues, etc. However, anyone who actively thinks about the issues around RFID technology would find this book highly valuable: I believe this is the best book published so far for this reader population.

Saturday's Globe & Mail had an interesting article on RFID, which is now online in the Globe's technology section: globeandmail.com : Who's watching the watchers? I find these articles to be interesting, but often overstate the threat that RFID poses in Canada. Most of the concern is that item-level tagging of purchased items will lead to the ability to track individuals once they have left the store. While this might theoretically be possible, the advent of a new technology does not mean that Canadian laws go out the window.

Canadian Province's New RFID Privacy Guidelines Could Have The Wrong Effect. The commissioner for Information and Privacy in Ontario unveiled on June 19 a series of tips and guidelines for using RFID within her part of Canada. First of all, the fact that a major Canadian province even has an information and privacy commissioner makes me look longingly to the North. But I believe bacon should be served in long narrow strips and that a rectangle is a terrible shape for any food, so we're probably even.

Group Led by CDT Releases RFID Privacy Best Practices - A working group led by CDT and made up of some of the nation's largest companies, public interest and consumer advocates today unveiled a set of "best practices" designed to promote respect for consumer privacy in the growing use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. Released today at RFID Journal Live! in Las Vegas, the document offers guidance for companies that use RFID technology to collect data that can be linked to consumers' personally identifiable information. In addition to CDT, the American Library Association, aQuantive, Cisco Systems, Eli Lilly and Company, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, the National Consumers League, Procter & Gamble, VeriSign and Visa USA all worked for more than a year to develop the document, a first of its kind for RFID technology