Radio Frequency, Garage Doors and Privacy

Filed in archive Privacy and Security on February 19, 2004

This morning we woke up, went out to pick up the morning newspapers, and found the garage door open.

We knew we hadn't left the door open. We'd like to think one of the neighbors has a similar radio frequency code punched into their own garage door openers. (Yes, garage door openers run on radio frequency technology.). In opening or closing their own garage door, it had probably triggered ours.

A more sinister possibility is that someone deliberately scanned the codes in order to open the door.

That got me to thinking about RFID privacy again. Here someone driving down the street had opened a door that we had thought was closed, without our permission. It felt like an invasion of privacy, even if no one actually entered the garage.

Which brings me to this post by Anders about RFID hacks, linking to a post by Ross Mayfield. What if someone driving down the street had a $150 RFID reader and could just drive around and read information from product tags in your home? Is it that much different from having your garage door opened without your permission? It seems to be only a matter of degree....