Transcript Radio Frequency Identification

Radio Frequency Identification
Ethical Limits in the Technology World
Carla Meier October 17, 2007
Radio Frequency Identification
What is it?
What is it used for today?
What can it be used for?
Why is it controversial?
The Basics
Developed in the 1970s
More than 2 billion tags in use in the world
Circuit + Radio Transmitter
Integrated Circuit
Stores unique identifiers for objects (appx. 2KB)
Offers an easy way to transmit and track information
Radio Transmitter
Radio wave travel through most substances
Early Problems
Manufacturing Cost
Originally far more expensive than barcodes
Decreasing cost of circuit manufacturing
Practical Limits
Global economy - worldwide shipping
Application research
Better than Barcodes?
Barcode Limitations
Line-of-sight Technology
Fragile - Prone to tears and water damage
Not Unique - All barcodes for a given item are the
same
RFID Limitations
Implementation Cost
Only useful for “complex” systems
Current Uses
Supply Chain and Shipping
Inventory Tracking
Dow Chemical - Environmental Monitoring for
Products
Shipping Security - Narcotics, Medicines,
Dangerous Chemicals
EZ Pass
Current Uses
Medical
Hospital Bracelets - Patient ID and Medical
Information
Nurse/Doctor Identification
Drug Identification
Drug Security
Current Uses
Human/Animal Identification
IBM - Used in conference name tags to track those
in attendance.
Some company security badges.
Hospital nurses and patients
Pets
The Future and the Controversy
Widespread Inventory Use
Track expiration date of products.
Track environmental conditions and damage.
Prevent theft.
Running total of purchase price.
The Future and the Controversy
Running Total Controversy
Tracks shopping habits of customers. This can be
seen as an invasion of privacy.
More controversial - automatic payment systems.
The Future and the Controversy
Human Identification
IBM Conference
Tracked when participants ate meals.
Tracked which events and products each participant was
interested in.
Tracked room capacity/number of session attendees.
The Future and the Controversy
Conference attendees consented…BUT
Slippery slope - In the future, we may not be given
the choice.
IBM - direct marketing plans
The Future and the Controversy
California Legislation - October 2007
Struck down a proposed law requiring mandatory
RFID tags in humans.
"RFID technology is not in and of itself the issue...
But we cannot and should not condone forced
'tagging' of humans. It's the ultimate invasion of
privacy.”
-California Sen. Joe Simitian
The Future and the Controversy
RFID Journal
Admits that governments or organizations could
track people with the tags, but the signal can be
blocked.
Admits that criminals could use tag information to
plan robberies. (expensive jewelry, drugs, etc.)
The Future and the Controversy
RFID tagging is not inherently controversial.
For large companies, it is a good solution to
inventory tracking and security.
BUT, there are serious ethical concerns the
technology is used to track human begins.
The Future
For this technology to have a place in the
future...
Broader Inventory Applications and Research
Cheaper Manufacturing
Ethics Standards
Privacy Legislation