Database Reference
In-Depth Information
5. Privacy and Security Issues with RFID Data
One challenge with the use of RFID technology is that the tags on
the items can be tracked by sensor readers without the knowledge or
consent of people carrying them. For example, the items bought in a
store can be used in order to track people, as they move about in the
world. This is particularly true for items such as shoes or clothing.
This has lead to increasing privacy concerns about the large-scale use of
such technology [24, 43, 51, 57]. For example, the Consumers Against
Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN) protested
against apparel manufacturer Benetton for planning to attach RFID tags
to their products. This lead to a boycott of those products in 2003 [57,
82]. CASPIAN similarly criticized Tesco for conducting experimental
trials of tags on a variety of its products [83] in 2005.
An additional troubling aspect of the tags is that they contain no
information about their read-history. While tags can be scanned by
anyone without the consumer's knowledge, there is also no way for the
consumer to know that they have been scanned. The EPC contains a
serial number, which is unique to a particular instance of the product
item. Therefore, once a customer buys the product and carries it on their
person, the product EPC becomes a unique identifier for the customer,
which can be distinguished from a similar product bought by another
customer. This information can be misused in a variety of ways:
Individuals carrying tagged products can be tracked with the use
of covert readers placed at different locations.
Since the EPC also contains manufacturer information, it can be
used in order to order to obtain competitive information about
customer preferences without their knowledge.
When tagged items move from one individual to the other, the
transactions between different individuals can be tracked.
Associations are often built up between tagged items and individ-
uals in corporate information systems, as individuals move around
with tagged items over time. When these items are discarded,
such associations are typically not broken. If these items are then
used for malicious or illegal purposes, then this can expose the
individual to different kinds of liabilities with law enforcement.
In addition to the personal privacy threats, a number of threats are
possible with the use of RFID data at the corporate level. A partic-
ular area of concern is the tracking of RFID data for the purposes of
corporate espionage . Tagged objects in the supply chain make it easy
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