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A Read Through Selected RFID Quotes Shows How Invasive This Technology is, as Well as How Dangerous it Will be to Freedom.

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“Technology. is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.”

– C.P. Snow, New York Times, 1971.

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“The consumer backlash against the hidden RFID chips in the Payback loyalty card sent a clear message to the rest of the world.

“We consumers have the power to stop RFID cold in its tracks, and we don’t have to put up with retailers’ nightmare vision for our future.”

–  Spychips, by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, (p. 83).

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“If you let them, companies like Gillette will monitor personal use of their products (in your home).

“Throw one of their razors in the trash, and another one would be on its way.”

– Charlie Schmidt, 2001.

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“… companies are developing eerie in-home people-watching systems.

“Plans are afoot to rig homes with cameras, microphones, breathing monitors, proximity sensors, and RFID devices a la 1984 that can sense not only where occupants are in homes, but even what they’re thinking and feeling.”

– Spychips, by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, (p. 89).

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“(Look at someone’s garbage) and you know what people eat, what they are drinking, if they smoke, if they have kids, animals. You can see the personality.”

– Pascal Rostain, celebrity garbage snoop/artist.

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“Your garbage can is like a trap door that opens on to your most intimate secrets; what you toss away is, in many ways, just as revealing as what you keep.”

– Chris Lydgate and Nick Budnick, journalists who made a protest rummage through the garbage of Portland government officials.

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“Once the exact identity or some demographics or other characteristics of the person have been determined, the person tracking unit relies on this information to track the person as the person moves through the roaming areas.

“The person tracking unit may assign a tracking number to each identified person and store the tracking number in association with the collection of RFID tagged product information.”

– IBM U.S. patent application #20020165758, Identification and Tracking of Persons Using RFID-Tagged Items.

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“Although the systems. of the present invention have been described in context of a retail store, it can be applied to other locations having roaming areas, such as shopping malls, airports, train stations, bus stations, elevators, trains, airplanes, restrooms, sports arenas, libraries, theaters, museums, etc.”

– IBM U.S. patent application #20020165758, Identification and Tracking of Persons Using RFID-Tagged Items.

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“The ability to surreptitiously collect a variety of data all related to the same person; track individuals as they walk in public places (airports, train stations, stores); enhance profiles through the monitoring of consumer behavior in stores; read the details of clothes and accessories worn and medicines carried by customers are all examples of uses of RFID technology that gave rise to privacy concerns.”

– EU working document on RFID, January 2005.

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“NCR must have done cartwheels when the REAL ID Act passed in the spring of 2005, federalizing control over driver’s licenses.

“The act gave the Department of Homeland Security the power to set technology standards for licenses including the potential to require them to carry RFID chips.

“Requiring spychips in licenses would mean consumers could not leave home without a tracking device, at least not if they’re driving.

“(This bill has been widely denounced by civil libertarians as creating a de facto national ID card).”

–  Spychips, by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, (p. 77).

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“(After a relatively short period of tracking a vehicle, it may be possible to predict) when someone is or is not at home; where they work, spend leisure time, go to church, and shop; what schools their children attend; where friends and associates live; whether they have been to see a doctor; and whether they attend political rallies.”

–  The Privacy Bulletin, 1990.

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“RFID will have a pervasive impact on every aspect of civilization, much the same way the printing press, the industrial revolution and the Internet and personal computers have transformed society…

“RFID is a big deal. Its impact will be pervasive, personal and profound. It will be the biggest deal since Edison gave us the light bulb.”

– Rick Duris, Frontline Solutions Magazine, 12/03.

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“RFID is, after all, inventory control technology, and it has a disquieting tendency to distort things to fit that worldview whether they are beloved family members struggling for life or newborn babies bursting onto the scene.

“The computer sees only numbers. Hang on, patients of the future.

“If you think today’s hospitals are impersonal, just wait until the RFID guys get through with them.”

–  Spychips, by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, (p. 112).

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“Thanks to RFID, they could literally follow reading material into the bathroom with you.”

–  Spychips, by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, (p. 108).

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“The privacy impact of letting manufacturers and stores put RFID chips in the clothes, groceries, and everything else you buy is enormous.”

– Debra Bowen, California State Senator.

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“The Auto-ID Center has a clear vision. to create a world where every object from jumbo jets to sewing needles is linked to the Internet.

Compelling as this vision is, it is only achievable if the center’s system is adopted by everyone everywhere.

“Success will be nothing less than global adoption.”

– Helen Duce, an Auto-ID Center associate director.

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“Government-sponsored RFID transportation initiatives are promoted as ways to make us all more efficient and keep us safer.

“But no matter how they hype the benefits, downshifting into surveillance gear, a state where every move will be subject to approval and monitoring by Big Brother, could have some unexpected consequences.”

–  Spychips, by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, (p. 143).

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“Power to Change the World. It’s hard to imagine that a tiny microchip attached to an antenna heralds such enormous change.”

– Auto-ID Center promotional brochure, circa 2002.

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