RFID: Tear On the Dotted Line

Sometimes brute force beats the pants off hi-tech. That's certainly appears to be the case with RFID clipped tag technology, also know as "privacy enhancing RFID tag."

Clipped tag technology lets you literally tear off a section of an RFID tag (essentially a tiny radio transmitter), thereby reducing the tag's read range to just a few inches with the ultimate goal of protecting your privacy in retail envirnoments while still maintaining the benefits of RFID technology. The tags may still be used after modification for returning items.

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of privacy-enhancing RFID tag (Clipped Tag). (Courtesy IBM.)

Developed at IBM's Watson Research Center, clipped tags have moved out of the lab and onto the manufacturing line at Marnlen RFiD where the high-speed RFID label converting equipment produces labels containing RFID.

Clipped tag technology is one of several approaches to addressing RFID privacy concerns in regards to item-level tagging. Another approach, proposed by RSA Labs, is the use of "Blocker Tags" that tags interfere with the reading of other RFID tags. See "RFID Blocker Tags" by Burt Kaliski for more information. For a description of how RFID is being used in some retail environments, listen to "RFID Means 'Smart Stores'".

For the most part, RFID tagging has been limited to warehouses and manufacturing sites, some companies are starting to use the technology on single items in the retail marketplace. An example of this is in the pharmaceutical industry--an industry which is known for its undying concern for consumer welfare (please note sarcasm here)--which says that it is RFID tags to help protect consumers from counterfeit drugs. Right.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 09:01 AM  Permalink