[CWN-Summit] More Podcasts? and Privacy?

[David Young]

On Sat, Apr 15, 2006 at 08:41:58PM -0400, Dharma Dailey wrote:
> 
> 
> Ok, I've listened to the 3 podcasts at 
> http://commonsvcg.oar.net/LewisClark/... is there a hidden stash of 
> more files floating around? Listening reminds me:  You did an amazing 
> job getting some pretty far flung people together.  Really fascinating 
> crew of speakers.
> 
> One thing that wasn't remotely touched on in any of the speakers that 
> I've heard thus far is ubiquitous connectivity vs. privacy.  This is 
> huge and we really need to be thinking about it all the time.  
> Particularly with RFID or  any other bit of tech.  that allows users to 
> be uniquely tagged as they move through space.    Rick Dearborn gave a 
> very rosy picture of ubiquitous connectivity that sounded very similar 
> to one that I heard a few years back by the PR man for the RFID 
> industry.  While the RFID industry has been placing lots of PR the last 
> few years talking about supply chains and smart refrigerators, they 
> were busy courting fortune 100 companies like "the creme de la creme"  
> Wal-Mart-  and defense contractors. RFID is in identity tags for 
> boarders crossers and in Chinese identity cards.  Think of that!!! 
> Those RFID stinkers... selling the Chinese government on "smart" ids 
> that will interact with "smart" buildings- for a whole new generation 
> of cradle to grave spying on Chinese citizens.-- And if Mr. Chan or Ms. 
> Lee went to bring these concerns to a larger community such as the UN 
> sponsored World Summit on Information Society- they would have found 
> that Civil Society WSIS tags also had RFID tags-- though no one that I 
> know could find out why.  A choice between being on the wrong side of 
> the digital divide and being enveloped in  pervasive invasive 
> connectivity is no choice at all.  We need to do better in proactively 
> addressing this.

Dharma,

RFID isn't all.  WiFi adapters have unique serial numbers that are
transmitted over the air.  They become de facto personal identifiers
when a WiFi adapter accompanies you and your laptop/palmtop/handset.
Imagine figuring out who is in a room just by sniffing the WiFi serial
numbers.  The serial numbers may be embedded into your address on the
next-generation (IPv6) Internet, which makes it possible for somebody
to read your identity from an Internet host an ocean away.

The good news with WiFi is that the over-the-air serial number is not
indelible.  It is technically feasible to change it, and you can change
it fairly often, too.  Not so with over-the-air identifiers used by RFID,
by certain cellular phone systems, and by an enforcement system proposed
in the 3600MHz proceeding: the identifiers must be unique and immutable
or else the system breaks down.

I have only done very light reading on RFID.  Can anyone think of any
technical reason that RFID tags should not be clearly-labelled, and
easily removed or deactivated?  Also, is it feasible to read the RFID
tags inside a home from the street?

Dave

-- 
David Young             OJC Technologies
dyoung at ojctech.com      Urbana, IL * (217) 278-3933