[R-G] US military throws weight behind RFID

[Tim Murphy]

ZDNet UK
October 24, 2003, 16:15 BST

This story was printed from ZDNet UK, located at http://news.zdnet.co.uk/

Story URL:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/wireless/0,39020348,39117374,00.htm

US military throws weight behind RFID

by

Matthew Broersma


The US Department of Defense (DoD) will give radio frequency identification
(RFID) technology a massive boost with a new policy requiring suppliers to
use RFID chips.

The RFID Policy, announced on Thursday, is the latest step towards wider
adoption of the controversial technology, which civil-liberties groups fear
could lead to unprecedented surveillance of consumers. Advocates say RFID
chips will revolutionise supply-chain systems by making it far easier to
identify and process inventory.

RFID chips contain identification information that can be wirelessly passed
on to a reader, allowing, for example, the contents of a case to be
identified without opening it. This promises huge improvements in
supply-chain efficiency, but also raises the prospect of remote tracking of
consumers via RFID chips embedded in their clothes or the cards in their
wallets.

The DoD's policy requires that, by January 2005, all suppliers embed passive
RFID chips in each individual product if possible, or otherwise at the level
of cases or pallets. The policy applies to everything except bulk
commodities such as sand, gravel or liquids. The department said the policy
would allow it to streamline its supply chain and business processes.

The department is hosting a summit for industry discussing the RFID plans in
February, and finalise its strategy for implementing the programme by June.

Earlier this year Wal-Mart, Gillette and other companies began attaching
RFID chips to merchandise sold in stores, sparking intense criticism from
consumer-privacy advocates. Wal-Mart is pressing ahead with RFID plans but
has said it will not embed the chips into items that come into contact with
consumers.

One of the most outspoken critics of the Auto-ID Center has been privacy
activist Katherine Albrecht, the head of US pressure group Consumers Against
Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering. She called for worldwide
boycotts of clothing retailer Benetton and Gillette after each discussed
plans to put RFID chips or "tags" on their products. Albrecht also
criticised MIT's Auto-ID Center for trying to downplay the privacy concerns
over the technology after finding documents on the group's Web site that
contained public relations advice on how to "neutralise opposition" to RFID
systems.

Despite the controversy, major companies are moving ahead with plans to use
RFID systems in stores and in warehouses. Wal-Mart, for instance, has a big
RFID project under way involving hundreds of its suppliers. Marks & Spencer
began an RFID trial in one of its London-area stores this month.

CNET News.com's Alorie Gilbert contributed to this report.

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