It's seldom a visible procedure when the spark flies. This is also true of RFID technology, which enables a cableless flow of information between an RFID tag, or transponder, and a designated receiver. This means that such tags can be used to control stock in an efficient way (cf. box). The retail group, Wal-Mart, for example, has plans after 2006 to accept only deliveries from its suppliers that are equipped with radio chips. Customers, however, are already increasingly confronted today with RFID technology. The new issuing counter of the City Library in Winterthur, for example, is based on this technology. According to the newspaper "Die Welt“ the European Central Bank is also using radio chips in its development of counterfeit-proof banknotes.

Big Brother technology?

Even though RFID technology has been around for a half a century it only now seems to be taking hold. Owing to the stealthy way in which it works, however, it is a source of misgiving. The talk is of "snooping chips" and the "glass customer", whose shopping habits can be spied on and analysed. In 2003 the German BigBrotherAward in the category of consumer protection was presented to the company Metro AG for its project "future store", which aimed at spreading RFID technology in Germany (1). In one of her articles, Katherine Albrecht, a US consumer activist, even went so far as to compare the risks attached to this technology with a nuclear weapon.

Is the human race really acutely in danger from this new technology? Marc Langheinrich shakes his head. For a long time now, the PhD student from the ETH Institute for Pervasive Computing (2)has devoted his research to data protection in the computerisation of everyday life. For him RFID technology does not represent any special risk. "Fears nearly always arise with the advent of new technologies," considers the researcher. When barcodes arrived on the scene there was much talk of "everyone becoming a number". In the meantime, this labelling system is everyday reality. It was astounding that customer loyalty cards, which make it easy to identify customers' shopping habits, were widely used without any great qualms, he adds.

Protection made easy

That "all-powerful" fantasies should come to pass with the introduction of radio chips is unlikely and according to Langheinrich–for technical reasons. "The electro-magnetic waves can easily be disturbed by water or metal." A simple aluminium bag, for example, would suffice to shield the goods shopped for in a supermarket from the scanner. A pile of banknotes would not be readable either. In addition, depending on the targeted direction and angle of the scanner on the goods, many of the tags used today cannot be read. This is why their current use in industry was mainly restricted to stores of goods, where the interaction between tags and scanners could be finely attuned to one another.

Creating connections

Despite these qualifications Langheinrich does not brush all the misgivings concerning RFID technology aside. The introduction of RFID technology made it easier to collect data, thus allowing for correlation studies. When masses of data on individual consumer behaviour is collected, it is simple to find connections that have remained unobservable up until now. Connections, for instance, as to whether a customer who buys nappies also buys a six-pack of beer (3). While such measures could lead to increased sales and so bring down prices in the short term, it was also possible that it would be easier to be manipulated as an individual customer by such profiles.

"It is of course also possible that RFID scanners will be employed just for the fun of it," thinks Langheinrich. Users that way inclined would perhaps try to find out what sort of underwear their counterpart wears–a possible source of annoyance, but hardly a grave danger for our future.

The consequences of RFID chips is being examined at ETH Zurich under the aspect of the protection of personal data.

The much talked about spying out of our homes by underhand thieves from a passing car is not likely to become reality–this overestimates, as so often, the possibilities of technology. In principle, says Langheinrich, it will simply be necessary to interpret existing laws governing privacy and data collection in order to cover the new technological possibilities. Naturally, it could happen, as with mobile phone photography, that certain things would have to be prohibited.

Watching Big Brother

But the new technology can not only be controlled legally but also technically. The Watchdog Tag, co-developed by researchers at ETH, makes it possible for interested parties to obtain information about the scanners via a mobile phone or a pocket PC. The scanners "declare" to the Watchdog Tag what data is being collected and for what purpose. "At the moment, we have simulated the entire protocol with Wireless LAN," says Langheinrich on the current stage of development situation, "but we are right now working on a complete hardware implementation package comprising a scanner and a PDA Watchdog“. He says his project has been met with a lot of interest at lectures. Representatives from industry are also interested, because industry had had enough of playing the scapegoat. This means there's a good chance that RFID scanners will be drawing more attention to themselves in future, thus providing both consumers and data protectionists with a clearer overview of the everdyday collection of data.

Langheinrich is convinced that RFID tags will replace barcodes on the majority of goods supplies over the next five years, i.e. on palettes and casks. Apart from this it was difficult to make any specific prognoses for RFID technology. "At any rate, the march of computerisation continues in all areas of our daily lives." An idea of how far it has already progressed will be provided by the symposium, "The Computer in the 21st Century: The computerization of our everyday life", which will take place at ETH Zurich on 21st/22nd March 2005. At the event, which is part of the ETH 150 Years Jubilee, there will be a panel discussion on the subject of "RFID in the supermarket: A return to the shop-on-the-corner?" (4).