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Cellular Networking Perspectives

David Crowe’s Network Cabling Magazine Articles

July 2004 Issue

RFID and Big Brother

Question

I’ve heard that strict controls may be placed on RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) because of ‘Big Brother’ concerns. Is this going to be a problem if we try to use these devices instead of bar codes for inventory and asset tracking?

Answer

RFID devices communicate their identification and possibly other information as a brief radio communication. The simplest (and most importantly, the under $1 priced) devices are known as ‘passive’. They are powered by electrical induction from a magnetic field in a reader. The electrical current powers a circuit that reads the identification number out of memory and transmits it.

One of the reasons that many ‘Big Brother’ scenarios are pure science fiction is because of the very short range of the readers – a few inches to a few feet (well, a few centimeters to a few meters). If people are funneled through a very small area, such as a checkout counter, some tracking could be done (e.g. identifying previously purchased products on someone when they checkout with new purchases), but extensive tracking would be outrageously expensive.

 

Furthermore, RFID devices can usually be removed, disabled or shielded from reading. And, as products are often given, sold or swapped, the identification number of a product will not be a reliable indicator of who is currently in possession anyway.

 

There certainly are privacy considerations, but many are more related to the networks and databases that are an integral part of RFID systems. More information can be obtained with these readers than with older technologies like bar codes, and it should be protected like any other personal information in databases.

 

Many RFID security concerns are similar to those with older technologies. If CSIS wants to examine my reading material for subversive tendencies, they could do so today by persuading the library to give them a list of titles I have recently read, which are connected to me by the bar codes and library card scanned when I check out. RFID may allow book identification to be combined with theft prevention, but is not going to dramatically increase security concerns.

 

Inside an enterprise, privacy concerns will be even less, particularly for items that are not associated with an individual. Probably the best antidote when RFID concerns are expressed is to be able to explain what the RFID devices are used for, what they are not used for and how their usage is in accordance with the corporate privacy policy.

David Crowe is a wireless standards and technology consultant based in Calgary. He published the newsletters Cellular Networking Perspectives and Wireless Security Perspectives. He can be reached at David.Crowe@cnp-wireless.com.