Is Big Brother is chillin' in your next DVD disk package?

September 18, 2003

In the latest technological "advance" to further whittle away our right of privacy, Tesco has unveiled a scheme to embed a radio tag in of all things, DVD packaging at a supermarket in Sandhurst. This marketing tool gone 007 (Austin powers would never approve, these things were taboo in the 70's) will be used to track the movement of products as they are lifted from the shelves, beeping happily all the way to the home. I don't know about you but I don't like paying to be surveiled.

The designers of the RFID tags, based at the MIT Auto-ID centre, is the collaberative work between more than 100 global companies and six leading halls of knowledge. Some of which, to name but a few are the venerable Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge in the UK, the University of Adelaide in Australia, Keio University in Japan, and the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Together, they are creating the standards and assembling the building blocks needed to create an "Internet of Things".

I don't know what is more frightening, these tags or this "collaberation" of effort. Plus, why DVDs? Seems a bit strange to target a market that includes the tech savvy, or is it the perfect testbed to see just who will roll over and play dead?

Yesterday they unveiled the first platform of the Electronic Product Code (EPC) Network in Chicago, which allows computers to track any product from the production line to the shelf, and into the purchaser's home.

Tesco is reassuring customers that it would never compromise their privacy while using the network to track their products, but privacy campaigners are not so sure.

KEEPING TRACK: With RFID, the family fridge will tell you when the milk is spoiled or you're out of butter. In the store, your grocer will know all. A tag will help you find Fluffy too (from the Time Online story.)

"Imagine a world where you could be tracked because what you are wearing, buying or carrying has a small chip inside dedicated to informing others of your movements and consumer habits," warn the notags.uk website.

The consumer organization also points out that a similar trial on Gillette products at a Tesco store in Cambridge was recently abandoned after protests over the privacy

Whew! Thanks Tesco for the "reassurance", I was a bit worried there for a minute! For those interested, there is more information to be read around the 'Net. Here is a website to inform the public about RFID tags at notags.uk. This story from Time Online i s also informative. There is a web page for your perusal from the cuddly Auto-ID centre. Give us your thoughts on this controversial subject that is using our products and our bodies as a pilot program for the retailers of the world.

Source: dvd-recordable.org