Subject: [NEXTEL-1] RFID Privacy Jammer -Essential tools for the truly paranoid

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2003 21:36:33 -0400

Don't laugh there just might be a market for this...........
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RFID Privacy Jammer -Essential tools for the truly paranoid
(+9, -1)  [vote for,
against]

RFID tags are tiny radio responders that can be attached to anything for
inventory, theft prevention and other purposes. They work in the same manner as
devices like “EZPass” and "SpeedPass" that allow you pay tolls and buy gasoline
without any interaction. A radio signal transmitted nearby provides the energy,
and the transponder responds by echoing out a serial number in a radio response.
The miniature tag versions are just now starting to work their way into the
economy. Recently Michelin announced that soon every tire they make will have an
RFID tag, and Gillette signed a contract to buy millions of the tags.
Many people fear that with little automated inventory tags on everything, our
privacy could be invaded in new and insidious ways. The theory is that you could
be surreptitiously scanned in many public places, and the RFID codes from your
clothing and personal belongings could be used to track you. Some stores have
promised to erase the tags somehow at the checkout so they cannot be used that
way, but how can we be sure?

Regardless of whether this fear is valid, its very existence creates a market for
mitigation products. I propose a dual function handheld device that can attack
this source of paranoia on two fronts.

First, it will be a radio transmitter that knows how to emulate the output
produced by the major brands of tags, but does so in a constant stream of
gibberish. The idea is to overload any reader that is near you with hail of false
data so it will be unable to read any tags on your person. I imagine that because
of different vendor tag formats it will probably have to support a range of
frequencies to cover them all. You might want to turn this feature off when in the
checkout aisle ten years from now, or the clerk (if there is one) will get very
confused.

Second, you can switch the transmitter into a high power mode, to blast any tags
you can’t remove from the products in a way that makes them non-functional. This
is exactly like the tag erasers that the vendors claim they will install at the
checkout, but controlled by you of course.

Marketing for this product will naturally occur in UFO magazines, tabloids, and
other publications known to cater to the paranoid.

(Topic suggestions welcome, I couldn't find one that really fit well).
 krelnik, Mar 07 2003

http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/RFID_20Privacy_20Jammer

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