Actually, there's a good reason NOT to zap the tags at purchase. If the tags remain live, then you can potentially return goods without needing receipts, since the store can recall all the needed info based on the tag. Also - if they restock the goods, then they need tags to be live in such merchandise.

Note that if they do store door monitoring, they need to do *something* to the tag to ensure that you can leave the store with your paid merchandise. They probably just don't want to kill the tag permanently.

As for the privacy concerns - although they can't drive by your house and see what goods you have, they may be able to read the tags on your clothes as you enter the store. This could potentially give them an interesting picture of your shopping habits for their chain, possibly even other chains - or even if you are wearing stolen merchandise. (Imagine getting a gift and later discovering that it is 'hot'.)

I think I'll just save the receipt, thanks.

Um, if they have to do something to the tag to let you out the door, how can they read stuff from it when you reenter the store? I suppose they could just reprogram it to not set off the alarms but remain active, but that sounds too complicated at the moment, no?

Edited by author 03-12-2003 02:08 PM
The range of the tags is dependent on the range of the reader -- essentially the reader sends a signal to the tag and gets a reply. The readers in stores used for checkout would be of limited range. But there is nothing to stop the making of a stronger reader. The analogy I used before (not a perfect one, mind you) is CB radio, which was designed to operate over a short distance (maybe 20 miles) by keeping it low-watt. But there was nothing preventing people from putting powerful amplified antennae on CB radios, and by doing so, CB entusiasts got them up to about a 1000 mile range. So spying on consumers through RFID tags is a definite possibility.

One problem with tags that aren't properly turned off is that if you have an automatic checkout they could set it off when you returned to the store, charging you again and again for that shirt. OTOH, an auto checkout would be good, reducing theft and making it easier to buy something. RFID also will help in the manufacture and shipping end of things, cause much more info can be kept on the tags than on bar codes, and that should lower costs too. So it's yet another technology with some very good points and some extremely worrying potential problems. One obvious problem is that you, the consumer, would have no way to tell if the tag had actually been turned off or not.

The tags are just read at checkout; there is no reason to turn them off other than customer privacy. But I'm sure if it comes down to a choice between your privacy and a store wanting more info from you, your privacy would win out, right? I mean, they are all honorable men.

DaveW, they could just program the door detection alarm system to ignore that particular tag number after purchase. No need to zap the tag.

Ah. I keep forgetting the tag can be just a switch for a database somewhere else. So you could be walking down the street, go past a sensor which would identify the shirt, and match it to a database containing the purchaser's name, address, phone, credit card no., credit rating, blablabla. Same as they get when you give any info to anybody with access.

OTOH, once the tech was out, how hard would it be for the dedicated to make their own tags and place them on persons and places as they deem appropriate?

Edited by author 03-12-2003 07:25 PM
It looks pretty simple, especially as the readers are usually referred to as "reader/writers". I assume that means you can write what you want onto the tag; that is how they're supposed to work for tracking products during manufacture and shipping, after all. And they hold about 2K worth of info.

Edit: oh yes, and they are really small -- sesame seed size. Easy to hide, if that's what one has in mind.

Yes, connecting the readouts from RFIDs to databases (TIA anyone) raises all sorts of scary little possibilities.

For more information about radio-frequency identification tags, or RFIDs, you can check these two columns, "Bye-Bye Bar Codes?" and "The Eerie Possibilities of RFID Tags". The first one contains illustrations about how RFID tags are tested at McDonalds or Prada.

Would ten seconds in the microwave oven solve the problem?

Possibly useful on clothes, although some fabrics and microwave ovens don't mix, not to mention zippers and such. But what about the RFIDs (soon to come) in your new car (on many of the parts, for instance). Or in your personal stereo, etc.? "You say this is under warranty? The RFID tag seems to have suffered damage, so it has been abused. Besides, we can no longer see when you bought it without the RFID tag in working order."

Hey there is nothing wrong with tagging your digs as long as you follow the law and you will not be a beacon. So no worries mate. Anyway whay I read in RFID news and ZombieWire ther is a tool called tagzapper that kills the rfid chip incase you want your privacy. Please donot chip my shampoo