Passports and RFIDs

[Guest guest]

Y'all do know that they are planning on chipping (RFID) all passports

beginning January 1?

 

Here's more on the RFID horizon.

 

Lynda

- >

> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

> October 26, 2005

>

> RFID PROMOTER SHAMED INTO REMOVING MISLEADING CLAIM FROM WEBSITE

> Medical Products Company PDC Slammed by Revelations in " Spychips "

>

> In the first of what will likely be many reverberations from a new

> book about RFID, a global RFID applications company has been shamed into

> removing a misleading claim from its website. California-based

> Precision Dynamics Corporation (PDC) advertised that its RFID-enabled

> hospital

> wristband could help remedy the leading cause of medical errors,

> which it claimed was " patient misidentification. "

>

> The PDC website featured a page titled " Why RFID is Critical " with a

> bold heading purporting to explain " Why hospitals need to be on board

> with RFID. " There the company wrote, " The leading cause of death due

> to medical errors is caused by patient misidentification, and specimen

> or medication misidentification. " The quote was attributed to a report

> by noted medical researchers Dr. Mark Chassin and Dr. Lucian Leape.

>

> There was only one problem: The claim was not true.

>

> While researching their new book, " SPYCHIPS: How Major Corporations

> and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID, " authors

> Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre contacted Dr. Leape to investigate

> PDC's

> claims. In a scathing written response, Dr. Leape called PDC's

> statement a " complete misrepresentation. " Dr. Leape went on to say that

> " one

> might even say [PDC's claim is] a lie, in that it clearly is intended to

> deceive. "

>

> PDC's misleading claim was exposed when " Spychips " hit the bookstores

> earlier this month. Ziff Davis Retail Center Editor Evan Schuman

> picked up the story from there, launching a mini investigation of his own.

> He reported his findings in a recent CIOInsight article where he wrote,

> " When Ziff Davis contacted PDC, the claim was still on their Web site

> and they promised to get back to us with an explanation. No one ever

> did but the claim has magically vanished from their site. "

>

> The book has set off a firestorm in the RFID community. Not only is

> PDC scrambling to cover its tracks, companies like NCR are attempting to

> distance themselves from their own promotional materials exposed in

> " Spychips. " In a recent interview with Wired News, NCR executive

> Richard Beaver downplayed the company's plans for price changing shelves

> that

> discriminate against bargain shoppers, calling them " concept

> documents " designed to merely provide " thought leadership " in the RFID

> sphere.

>

> " This is just the start of the corporate distress, " predicts

> McIntyre. " PDC and NCR aren't the only privacy bad boys whose embarrassing

> statements are brought to light in our book. Other companies like

> IBM, Procter & Gamble, Bank of America, BellSouth, and Philips will also

> have some explaining to do when people read about their patent pending

> ways to use RFID to track people through the things they wear, carry and

> throw away. Consumers will realize these companies have an RFID

> agenda that should concern us all. "

>

> Ziff Davis' Schuman apparently concurs. He called Spychips " a

> stunningly powerful argument against plans for RFID being mapped out by

> government agencies, retail and manufacturing companies, " since it

> " effectively

> debunks many of the top arguments about why RFID is not a privacy

> worry. " He added, " The authors Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre

> use vendors' own patent filings to show their thinking, such as an IBM

> filing titled 'Identification and Tracking of Persons Using RFID-

> Tagged Items.' " He also chided Philips for a patent application that talks

> about placing RFID tags in shoes so they can be detected by RFID

> scanners embedded in floors.

>

> Schuman gave this advice to companies caught red-handed by the authors:

> " A little subtlety is probably not a bad idea when trying to patent

> ideas that your PR people are denying you're thinking about. "

>

> It may be a bit too late for that.

>

> Evan Schuman's complete review of Spychips can be read at CIOInsight:

> http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,1875343,00.asp

>

> To see the archived PDC web page with the medical misstatement visit:

> http://web.archive.org/web/20041130083736/http://www.pdcorp.com/rfid/

> hc_why_rfid.html

>

> To see the " page not found " message at the original location of the

> misstatement visit:

> http://www.pdcorp.com/rfid/hc_why_rfid.html

> =========================================

>

> ABOUT THE BOOK

>

> Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track your

> Every Move with RFID is the winner of the Lysander Spooner Award for

> Advancing the Literature of Liberty. Authored by Harvard doctoral

> researcher

> Katherine Albrecht and former bank examiner Liz McIntyre, the book is

> meticulously researched, drawing on patent documents, corporate

> source materials, conference proceedings, and firsthand interviews to

> paint

> a convincing -- and frightening -- picture of the threat posed by RFID.

>

> Despite its hundreds of footnotes and academic-level accuracy, the book

> remains lively and readable, according to critics, who have called it a

> " techno-thriller " and " a masterpiece of technocriticism. "

>

> =========================================

>

> FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

>

> Katherine Albrecht (kma) 877-287-5854

> or

> Liz McIntyre (liz) 877-287-5854

>

> CASPIAN Consumer Privacy

> www.spychips.com // www.nocards.org

> =========================================

>

>> 98.5% of comments were negative, but Bush is going ahead with it,

> anyway.

>>

>> Passports to get RFID chip implants