From Pets to People - RFID Tracking

Filed in archive Privacy and Security on January 25, 2006

RFID tags are being used today to track pets, check out library books, and pay tolls without stopping your car. All these uses and more are summed up in an article in the Press Enterprise, a California newspaper. The article also highlights the efforts by a California state legislator to pass a bill to put a 3-year moratorium on placing RFID in consumer identification cards.

I am quoted in the story. My views about using RFID in identification cards can be summed up as: let's use common sense. Today, there are easier and cheaper ways for bad guys to steal your personal data, without needing to resort to RFID to do it.

Examples:

• buying cell phone records over the Internet;


• hacking into credit card databases and stealing your card number (this happened to us -- twice with the same credit card issuer!);


• stealing laptops with credit card databases on them;


• picking your pocket to steal your credit cards and driver's license;


• credit card companies sending out "checks" and "special offers" that can be stolen out of your mailbox (this also happened to us);


• GPS tracking in cell phones and Onstar systems;


• simple dumpster diving.

If I had criminal intent to steal someone's private data, I'd think I'd take one of these easier routes. After all, why invest time having to learn about RFID and investing money in readers and other equipment, when far easier ways exist?

I would much rather see the public's attention focused on addressing existing privacy leaks -- of which there seems to be far too little focus -- than singling out RFID.

Read the whole PE.com article (requires free registration). They also feature a Flash presentation explaining the basics of RFID.