CASPIAN Newsletter
August 18, 2005 "The
Catch-up Edition"
A Note from Katherine
Albrecht
There hasn't been a newsletter in several
months, but for a very good reason. I've been working with my co-author Liz
McIntyre to finish our upcoming book Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government
Plan to Track Your Every Move With RFID (Nelson Current/2005). It's an explosive
expose that tells everything we know about RFID and offers up some new, never-before-published
information that will prove in the companies' own words their unsavory plans
to monitor everything on earth and all of humanity. It's due out in the major
bookstores October 4, 2005. We'll send out an email reminder when it's available
so you can buy this must-have book.
Many thanks to Sunni Maravillosa for all her help in producing the newsletter over the past year while I've been working on the book. She will be refocusing her energy on her very successful website, Sunni's Salon, at www.endervidualism.com/salon/ and her blog at www.sunnimaravillosa.com. Starting with this "catch-up" edition, CASPIAN's Communications Director Liz McIntyre and I will bring you the latest in supermarket surveillance news and RFID misdeeds.
Catch-Up News:
Older News:
CASPIAN Activists Update:
Consumers using the CVS ExtraCare cards to buy health-related items could have been offering up their purchase details to co-workers, family members and even their mechanics and valets. Anybody with access to the ExtraCare loyalty card number dangling from someone's keychain, the first three letters of the person's last name, and their zip code could peer into over a year's worth of CVS purchases.
CASPIAN revealed the security hole by asking volunteer reporters to sign up for a CVS ExtraCare card and purchase health-related items. Then we asked only for the reporters' card numbers and zip codes. Armed with that information we accessed the CVS website and had a list of their purchases sent to a temporary email account we had set up for the purchase.
In each case, CVS responded within 24 hours, sending us lists detailing purchases of sensitive items like Trojan Twisted Pleasure condoms, a home pregnancy test kit, and enema kits. Information in the emails included products purchased, date of purchase, price paid, and UPC numbers. An example email is posted at our website at http://www.nocards.org/press/images/cvs-email.jpg.
CVS was offering the purchase histories so consumers could prove their over-the-counter medical product purchases qualified for a federal tax program. Qualifying purchases can be reimbursed through a so-called flexible spending account, or FSA. However, CVS made the information available on every ExtraCare cardholder, whether they requested the service or not. The demonstration not only pointed out CVS's lax security, but showed how the pharmacy chain is collecting massive amounts of information on people through it's ExtraCare card.
CVS shut down its email program for several days
so it could improve its security, but not before reporters had a field day.
The story was covered in over 100 media outlets, including CNN, the Boston Globe,
the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.
Levi-Strauss quietly started an item-level RFID pilot at one of its stores outside of Mexico City this spring with an evaluation planned for this past July. When we caught wind of the scheme, we faxed an open letter to senior management requesting details, but so far there has been no response. We'll keep you posted on this development so you'll know if it's time to say adios to your Dockers!
Source: Frontline Solutions, June 1, 2005
http://www.frontlinetoday.com/frontline/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=164014
American Express says don't leave home without it -- your spychipped credit card, that is. They've started shipping out their new see-through "Blue Card" that features a visible RFID tag inside. Already, CVS and 7-Eleven have begun installing contactless credit card readers at checkouts in hopes customers will pay for even very small purchases by waving their wallets or spychipped AMEX key fobs. Credit card companies Visa and Mastercard are planning spychipped cards, too, and other merchants, including McDonalds, Walgreens, KFC, and Regal Cinemas have reportedly signed on to the RFID payment agenda.
We were dismayed to learn that card-free Meijer supermarkets (one of our favorite retailers) announced Monday they will roll out contactless RFID credit card readers to all 171 Meijers locations. Their gas pumps will be spychip-ready early this fall. If you are a Meijer shopper, please register your concern with the company through http://www.meijer.com/contact/pcaform.asp or call (616) 453-6711. (Remember to block your phone number by dialing *67 first.)
Source: Chicago Sun-Times, August 8, 2005
http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-fin-card08.html
and Progressive Grocer, August 16, 2005
http://www.progressivegrocer.com/progressivegrocer/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001015352
Not long after former Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson joined the board of VeriChip Corporation (makers of the human RFID implant), he began touting implants for all sorts of applications. In a July television interview, the former Wisconsin governor told CBS MarketWatch the implant was "a giant step forward to getting what we call an electronic medical record for all Americans." Just what we need -- computer chips in our arms and federal oversight of our confidential medical information. Thompson went on to describe "so many uses," even suggesting the implant could "replace dog tags with the United States armed forces."
After espousing the benefits of human chipping, Thompson claimed RFID technology could help prevent infant abductions from hospitals -- feeding overblown fears about an extremely rare occurrence. Statistics show that, on average, out of more than 4 million births per year in the United States, 0 to 12 babies are kidnapped from U.S. hospitals annually, and 95 percent are returned safely.
Ironically, just a few days after that interview, a well-publicized baby "abduction" at a hospital in North Carolina was reportedly averted by VeriChip's RFID infant protection system ankle bracelet. However, the publicist failed to mention that the abductors were the baby's own parents who were fearful that the hospital might take their infant from them.
Source: Yahoo Finance, July 18, 2005
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050718/185344.html?.v=1
and Information Week, July 19, 2005
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=166400496
Note: the Tommy Thompson video is no longer posted,
but we have the footage. We also made a transcript that is posted at our website:
www.spychips.com.
Sleepwear manufacturer Lauren Scott must be dreaming if she thinks spychipping pajamas will keep kids safer. Her company is planning to market PJs with RFID tags sewn into the hems on the premise they could avert child abductions. The scheme has parents buying a SmartWear RFID system (about $500) and installing the RFID readers in key areas of the home, like a child's bedroom, so an alarm can sound when the spychip laden jammies pass the reader. Target Corp. has reportedly placed an order for the pajamas which are due out next spring.
Of course, there are predictable issues with the system, like false alarms triggered by midnight trips to the bathroom. But that's not stopping SmartWear. The company is also working to develop other applications for long-range child tracking, like active RFID tags sewn into children's outerwear.
Given how easy it would be for an abductor to simply remove the tagged clothing items, we're wondering how long before someone suggests tagging the kids themselves with implants.
Source: Information Week, July 18, 2005
http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=1DIYRQZX1LUI4QSNDBCCKHSCJUMEKJVN?articleID=165702816
Freshmen entering Texas A & M's military Corps of Cadets this fall will find spies in their uniforms. University workers are sewing RFID tags into the cadets' pants, skirts, shirts and jackets to uniquely identify each piece and register it to the student. The project and database loaded with details of cadet garments will be overseen by the school's RFiD2 Lab, an arm of the university's engineering department.
Source: RFID Journal, July 21, 2005
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/1752/1/1/
Don't tag us! says one of the UK's largest trade unions, GMB. The Union is demanding the European Commission ban RFID and GPS tracking of workers, pointing to how the practice can "seriously invade [workers'] right to privacy." A GMB study shows companies are not only monitoring work activities, but also recording worker breaks and bathroom visits. The union charged retailers Sainsbury, Marks & Spencer, and Tesco with "dehumanizing their workforce" through these surveillance practices.
Source: Baseline, August 4, 2005
http://www.baselinemag.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=157578,00.asp
The UK is planning to embed active (battery-powered) RFID tags in vehicle license plates later this year as a way to monitor vehicle compliance. The plate manufacturer, Hills Numberplates, claims "A single reader can identify dozens of vehicles fitted with an e-Plate moving at any speed at a distance of up to 100 metres."
Highway authorities here in the States are reportedly excited about the possibilities. One Texas highway bureaucrat, Jerry Dike, was quoted as enthusing, "We see tremendous advantages to the (e-Plate) for everything from verifying registration and insurance to Amber (missing child) Alerts."
No doubt they could find other uses for the remotely trackable plates, as well. Once the government can identify and track individual cars, they can track the people driving them and learn a great deal about their habits. For example, using mobile readers, government agents could monitor cars entering the parking lot of a political rally, identifying those opposed to the party in power.
Sources: The Washington Times, August 12, 2005
http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20050812-082018-4885r.htm
and Wired News, August 9, 2005
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68429,00.html
and e-Plate website
http://www.e-plate.com/
The U.S. Government has begun issuing spychipped documents to visitors crossing into the United States at five checkpoints on the Mexican and Canadian borders. That's quite a leap for a technology we were promised would never be used to track people.
Source: News.com, August 8, 2005
http://news.com.com/Feds+test+RFID+controls+at+U.S.+borders/2100-7348_3-5823958.html?tag=nefd.top
Selected United Airlines pilots and cabin crew are participating in a three-month trial of the new spychipped U.S. passports. The test, which started in mid-June, includes 300 employees who make international flights between the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. The goal is to evaluate the readability and durability of the chips so systems can be tweaked before being unleashed on the general public in early 2006. Time's running out to get a privacy friendly passport!
Source: Wired News, August 9, 2005
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68451,00.html
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is trying to justify the TSA's plan to collect even more information about airline passengers by pointing to CVS ExtraCare cards. Said Chertoff, "The average American gives information up to get a CVS (drugstore discount) card that is far more in-depth than TSA's going to be looking at."
We agree that the CVS cards are invasive, Mr. Chertoff, but that doesn't give the federal government the green light to get nosy, too.
Source: USA TODAY, August 10, 2005
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-08-10-chertoff-interview_x.htm
The Cleveland Museum of Art plans to deploy RFID tracking technology this October to closely observe visitors in order to better understand how they use the museum. This move won't surprise anyone who has reviewed the list of museum benefactors that includes notorious spychippers like IBM, Accenture, and the Cintas uniform company.
Source: CIO Asia Magazine, August 2005
http://cio-asia.com/ShowPage.aspx?pagetype=2&articleid=2308&pubid=5&issueid=60
A recent federal government report identifies RFID privacy issues that include "tracking an individual's movements; profiling an individual's habits, tastes, or predilections; and allowing for secondary uses of information." But agencies deploying RFID are apparently not too concerned. While three of the 24 agencies surveyed acknowledged the technology would allow for tracking employee movements, only one agency identified "protecting an individual's right to privacy" as a concern. This is particularly troubling since more than half of the agencies surveyed are either using or planning to use RFID.
Report: INFORMATION SECURITY: Radio Frequency Identification Technology
in the Federal Government available at
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05551.pdf
Government vehicles equipped with license-plate snapping camera systems are rolling through cities like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Toronto, looking for scofflaws. The AutoFind License Plate Recognition system reportedly feeds license plate information to a central database to monitor not only the presence of vehicles, but how long they remain parked and whether the drivers are "persons of interest."
RFID could make such invasive spy systems even more powerful. Imagine if an RFID counterpart to the camera system could roam the streets sniffing out RFID-enabled license plates and vehicle registration stickers? It would work in the dark, in the rain, or at 65 miles per hour. Worse, such a system could be turned to scan the spychipped drivers licenses tucked in the purses and wallets of passersby.
Source: Boston Herald, May 28, 2005
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=86797&format=text
If you want to use a library computer in Naperville, Illinois you'll have to provide a fingerprint scan to verify your identity. While investigating a lewd conduct report on a library patron, officials discovered that other users were swapping library cards and using passwords of friends and relatives to get online. (The nerve of those brazen criminals!) To prevent such unauthorized anonymous or pseudonymous web surfing, the three-library system is installing fingerprint scanners on 130 computers, at a cost to taxpayers of over $40,000. This will create an audit trail of computer users that can later be accessed by law enforcement.
Here's to the 99% of other libraries across the nation that value free access to information and encourage patrons to access the Internet anonymously.
Source: Chicago Tribune, May 20, 2005
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/abstract/842275931.html?did=842275931&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=May+20%2C+2005
&author=James+Kimberly%2C+Tribune+staff+reporter&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=Library+card%3F+Check.+Fingerprint%3F+Really%
3F+%3B+Citing+security%2C+Naperville+libraries+will+make+patrons+prove+their+identities+before+using+computers.+Privacy+
advocates+fear+misuse+of+ the+data.
Source: LibraryJournal.com, July 15, 2005
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA622707.html
Hey Seattle residents! Want to be spammed with personalized marketing and advertising as you stroll around downtown? To be properly barraged, you must rent or buy a special active RFID tag from Awarea Corp. Then, whenever you walk within 100 feet of one of the city's six new RFID zones, your Awarea tag will trigger overhead speakers to serve up the kind of information most of us desperately want to escape. As a bonus, the system also tracks your movements, giving Awarea another way to cash in: They plan to mine information about participating consumers and sell it to retailers.
Source: Computerworld, May 23, 2005
http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/technology/story
/0,10801,101951,00.html?source=NLT_PM&nid=101951
"Tuesday May 10th 2005 is the day that future historians will note as The Day America Changed. On this date, the Senate of the United States of America [unanimously] passed legislation that will bring about a national ID card."
Unreal ID: The site that generated 20,000+ faxes
http://www.unrealid.com/
"Stay angry about Real ID," a message
of resistance
http://www.clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/00001399.html
Now that both the US and Britain have plans to impose national ID cards on their citizens, the countries are working together to ensure that their systems are compatible. Michael Chertoff, the newly appointed US Secretary for Homeland Security, said, "I certainly hope we have the same chip... It would be very bad if we all invested huge amounts of money in biometric systems and they didn't work with each other."
Source: The Independent, May 27, 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article223372.ece
TESCO, UK's biggest retailer (and target of a CASPIAN-led boycott), will be undercutting professional realtors by selling houses on its website for a fee of approximately $100 U.S. dollars. (UK realtors typically charge a standard commission of one to two percent.) Buyers register with a credit card, browse available houses online, tour homes virtually, and then contact the seller directly. While this may sound good, Tesco's tentacles are beginning to reach into a few too many areas of the British economy for our comfort.
"Shop 'til you drop" could take on new meaning at TESCO. Shoppers can now prepare for their ultimate demise by putting their loyalty card points towards funeral expenses at Dignity, TESCO's "death partner." Dignity, another mega corporation, owns hundreds of funeral homes and crematories across Great Britain. Sounds like the perfect partnership.
Source: Tesco Real Estate, BBC, May 17, 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4554717.stm
and The Guardian, June 25, 2005
http://money.guardian.co.uk/aforeyego/story/0,14036,1514112,00.html
Boycott site:
http://www.BoycottTesco.com
Now everyone can know how much you weigh! A new scale will allow medical professionals to monitor your weight remotely, Gerrye Stegall, a clinical specialist with American Healthways, Inc., told CIO Insight. "The devices are wireless and transmit to a phone hub. The patient stands on the scale, the scale [data] goes to the hub, then into the phone line, and then the nurses will look at the data." Wouldn't HMOs, food nannies, and bureaucrats love to have this tool in every home!
Source: Scales: CIO Insight, May 11, 2005
http://www.cioinsight.com/print_article2/0,2533,a=151484,00.asp
Now that London citizens have grown accustomed to surveillance cameras videotaping their every move, the watchers are upping the ante with microphone-based surveillance. Seven microphones have been installed in the Soho area of London to monitor sound. While government officials have promised that "the microphones only activate if noise levels reach above a certain threshold," this development is ripe for escalation. Today the government says it wants to hear a crowd, tomorrow we're betting they'll want to hear a whisper.
Check out the photo that goes with the story. Keep quiet if you see one of these.
Source: Vnunet, May 4, 2005
http://www.vnunet.com/news/1162852
The term "RFID" will be among 2,000 new
words added to the New Oxford American Dictionary this year. Drawn from U.S.
popular culture, technology, and news headlines, the new words "reflect
the preoccupations of American culture, the times we live in, and pluralism
of our nation," according to the publisher. RFID joins other newly recognized
words such as al Qaeda, frankenfood, hate crime, supersize, Amber alert, bluetooth,
barista and reality TV.
Source: Press Release from Oxford University Press
USA, May 16, 2005
http://www.prbop.com/archives/000474.shtml
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/05-16-2005/0003630257&EDATE=
via RFIDetail, May 31, 2005
http://go.rfidetail.com/
CASPIAN founder Katherine Albrecht has been busy talking with the media. She was interviewed by BBC radio and CBS Marketwatch to discuss the VeriChip, reached millions of Coast-to-Coast AM radio listeners with news about the RFID menace, and did a live one-hour program on Wisconsin Public Radio just this week.
She was also quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, and numerous other newspapers and trade publications. Her work was profiled in Women's Wall Street and she did an interview in Hustler magazine.
Chips track more people, products
Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel - Aug 12, 2005
http://www.jsonline.com/bym/news/aug05/348097.asp
Radio ID tags stir privacy concerns
Arkansas Democrat Gazette, AR - Aug 15, 2005
http://www.nwanews.com/story.php?paper=adg§ion=Business&storyid=125036
Tiny tags in chips to track gamblers
Seattle Times, WA - May 18, 2005
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002278760_pokerchips18.html
Chase introduces no-swipe plastic Cards work with
an embedded chip
San Francisco Chronicle, CA - May 19, 2005
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/05/20/CREDITCARD.TMP
You're the Shopper and the Cashier
New York Times, NY - May 3, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/technology/techspecial/04selingo.html
Holy bar code! Big Brother can watch you but he
promises he won't.
Women's Wall Street - May 20, 2005
http://www.womenswallstreet.com/columns/Column.aspx?aid=869
CASPIAN's Communications Director and Spychips co-author Liz McIntyre has also been spreading the word, with recent radio appearances on the GCN network and WOOD radio 1300 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In addition, she has been quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times and a UPI/Washington Times story that was featured on the Drudge Report and at Newsmax. Catch Liz live August 24 on the American Freedom Network from 9 to 10 AM CST, and August 30 on the Republic Broadcasting Network from 11 PM to midnight CST.
It's getting easier to wave goodbye to your money
Chicago Sun-Times, IL - Aug 8, 2005
http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-fin-card08.html
Wireless world: chips track license plates
Washington Times, DC - Aug 12, 2005
http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20050812-082018-4885r.htm
I am a retired 30 year elem. teacher... I desire to be informed of all new technology surrounding us, especially when we don't even know it's going on!! Thanks so much.
- AnonymousExcellent site! I too have found that the cards provide no benefits, are incredibly annoying, and definitely a privacy concern as well.
- Mark in Kalispell, Montana
I find what and where the world is headed very scary, it is amazing how naive people are as to what is happening and what is happening to them....I truly believe that we are very close to major happenings in our world.
- Anonymous
The day is coming when everthing you do is documented and recorded....It's time for us to fight back while we still can!
- Kurt S. in Urbana, IL
Where does it stop? If each item is ID'ed by RF tags then the government can track where you are all the time, what you spend your money on, how much you spend and the list goes on and on and on.
- Norman in Brisbane, Australia
Just wanted to let you know that a local chain (Lowes Foods) will next month begin allowing customers to pay for groceries via fingerprint! (As if the card wasn't bad enough.)
- Anonymous in Kernersville, KY
I am very glad I found your site. I had wanted to start something like this for years. We have to voice our opinions.
- Brent in Hattisfield, MS
Great job! I don't want to become a tagged person. It just reminds me of the numbers tattooed on the arms of the concentration camp victims.
- Thomas B. in Paris, France
As of now, it looks like the [Real ID/national ID] bill(hr418) has passed through the senate and will become law... Now what choice does the general public have? I know what I want and this is not it, but what type of network is there out there for people, especially with families?
- Rebecca in Nampa, ID
Thanks for the information about these stores....I am sick of this card BS. What happened to us as people? Why do they need to know or care about what I'm doing or what clothes I'm in?
- Anonymous in Denver, CO
Our government; our leaders; our politicians are failing us, themselves, our forefathers, and our future. CASPIAN should be held high as national heroes of the same degree as our revolutionary political ancestry. Thank you for your efforts on the behalf of the millions of unknowing.
- Anonymous
I have now had a job at [the Kroger-owned, Seattle-area grocery chain] QFC for about a month, and I am beginning to understand it a lot more. QFC has forgotten that they have customers whom they sell food to....Their employees and customers simply don't matter to them, so why not take advantage.
- Anonymous
I walked out of Giant & Safeway over cards, years before I heard about CASPIAN. It's these cards and RFID chips and everything else that make people go off the grid, deal in cash and barter, and refuse to register to vote....I'll be emailing Giant & Safeway after this to remind them that I don't shop there anymore.
- Ahtnamas in Virginia
And finally, here's one that was just too funny to keep to ourselves.
Since card-imposing grocery stores promise to return shoppers' keys if they're lost, one enterprising protester decided to test the system and see if they'd return a HUGE keychain. Here's his story.
Dear Katherine Albrecht:
This is in regards to my idea of mailing Kroger keychains back and forth in order to protest.... I put a massive keychain in the mail April 1st, and just yesterday I received a call from my local Kroger saying, and I quote, "We have your rather large keychain here in the store, if you'd like to come pick it up." I dearly wish you could have heard the sound of this woman's voice on the phone, but when I went in to get it there were no questions asked, just "here's your keys."
I'm not sure how much that keychain weighed but
my best guess says over a pound. I have a picture of it you'd like to see it....
Let me know if you have heard anything on the legality of doing this, as I would
dearly love to be able to say I've contributed to the cause.
-
R.C., Wichita, KS
We've posted a picture of R.C.'s keychain at our
NoCards website here:
http://www.nocards.org/images/keychain-on-steroids.jpg
Of course we're not advocating that anyone else
do this, but we bet you'll get a laugh out of the photo. ;)
CASPIAN: Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering
Opposing supermarket "loyalty" cards and other retail surveillance schemes since 1999
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