OT - You Need To Know This

  • Thread starter Thread starter Helen
  • Start date Start date
Why do I need to know? I live in Australia, you doofus.
Click to expand...

This could still come your way via an Australian store chain. If Wal-Mart
gets away with this then it won't be long before others are doing it too.
 
I might be wrong (but I'm sure I'm not ;-), but those RFID are quite
harmless. RFIDs have no battery or something, which would be required
for sending. They are scanned by sending the required energy to them and
waiting for a response. The energy transfer has a very short range (a
meter perhaps), so once the product has left the warehouse no one ever
has the chance to scan where it is going. No chance to get bad bad
thieves...

Best regards,

Uli
 
U. Krebs said:
I might be wrong (but I'm sure I'm not ;-), but those RFID are quite
harmless. RFIDs have no battery or something, which would be required
for sending. They are scanned by sending the required energy to them
and waiting for a response. The energy transfer has a very short
range (a meter perhaps), so once the product has left the warehouse
no one ever has the chance to scan where it is going. No chance to
get bad bad thieves...

Best regards,

Uli
Click to expand...

Beware of people wearing green outfits with product scanning wands following
your every move. :)
http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/much_ado/
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/6749/start.html
 
U. Krebs said:
I might be wrong (but I'm sure I'm not ;-), but those RFID are quite
harmless. RFIDs have no battery or something, which would be required
for sending. They are scanned by sending the required energy to them and
waiting for a response. The energy transfer has a very short range (a
meter perhaps), so once the product has left the warehouse no one ever
has the chance to scan where it is going. No chance to get bad bad
thieves...

Best regards,

Uli
Click to expand...
Your assurances do nothing to stop the privacy invasion though. If you pay
for something on a card, all items, not just what they are, but the
individual item can be tied back directly to you. For the most part this is
reasonably harmless, but in the overall scope of things, it really is scary
where this could go. Could you imagine that an insurance company could
cancel your medical insurance if it could track your grocery purchasing
habits, and then assume your are eating unhealthy, or cancel your life
insurance policy because you purchased a package of cigarettes. The overall
implication of this is greater than most everyone can imagine, and the tags
seem to me that there is just one more step towards a complete lack of
privacy.

I'm sure the stores themselves are, for the moment anyway, less interested
in tracking anything but their inventory, but imagine the price that could
be gotten for a customer profile list from a chain like
WallyWorld(Wal-Mart). Advertisers and marketers would pay dearly for such a
list I'm sure.

Personally I still use cash, I know it's outdated to use currency, but for
the most part, the trail ends when I walk out of the store. Don't get me
wrong, I don't lie awake at night worrying about it, I find it much more
convenient, and I can't buy anything I don't have enough cash for. I have
credit cards, I just don't use them much.

HK
 
Beware of people wearing green outfits with product scanning wands
following
your every move. :)
Click to expand...
But they told me that they were just harmless Amway salesmen.
 
The problem is, rather than the RFIDs, the credit cards. Just as you
mentioned, those cards are the key to a perfect customer profile. You're
right if you're still using cash. In Germany, this is not really a
problem, as credit cards are not that necessary. Be sure that I don't
want to make my shopping behaviour trackable. I was just saying, put
your eyes on something that's more suspicious (like credit cards).

Regards, Uli
 
ctrl-z said:
I can't imagine a magnet strong enough to knock out an IC chip. You'd
need an EMP blast from a nuclear device. Easier to just smack the
thing with a hammer (if they're in the packaging, obviously).

But RFID seems totally harmless to me. Even the active ones have very
limited range (inside the building), and their batteries will die
quickly. The passive ones won't work much farther away than when
you're passing through a doorframe.

It's simply for inventory control - lots easier than scanning
barcodes.
Click to expand...

Tell you what, pass a workshop magnet over your CPU and see how well
your computer runs after doing that.
 
John Corliss said:
Tell you what, pass a workshop magnet over your CPU and see how well
your computer runs after doing that.
Click to expand...

No matter what size magnet you try, it will NOT affect any chip. PERIOD.
That has been asked of me before about laptops & computers going through
customs, airports, their 5 yr olds (ultimate pc testers!), etc. I have
demonstrated that with a heavy duty bulk demagnetizer and no effects
whatsoever!!! Strong magnets ONLY affect diskettes & hard drives. NOTHING
else on your computer. BTW, X-rays affect camera films NOT computers.
 
ozzy said:
No matter what size magnet you try, it will NOT affect any chip. PERIOD.
That has been asked of me before about laptops & computers going through
customs, airports, their 5 yr olds (ultimate pc testers!), etc. I have
demonstrated that with a heavy duty bulk demagnetizer and no effects
whatsoever!!! Strong magnets ONLY affect diskettes & hard drives. NOTHING
else on your computer. BTW, X-rays affect camera films NOT computers.
Click to expand...

Well, I'll have to take your word for it because I sure ain't gonna
try it on my computer!
 
whatsoever!!! Strong magnets ONLY affect diskettes & hard drives. NOTHING
else on your computer. BTW, X-rays affect camera films NOT computers.
Click to expand...


Right. The reason a computer might fail this test is only because your
strong magnet on the CPU might wipe some data on the nearby hard
drive. But current RFID has no magnetic storage I can see.

Careful about the x-ray thing. The newest units will crank up their
power quite a bit in an attempt to see through 'dark' areas, and can
theoretically damage computer parts (from the higher mag field if
nothing else). These units are only used for checked baggage at some
airports.

Badly malfunctioning metal detectors can damage your computer also
(not the IC chips!).
 
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