Big Brother Comes To Wal-mart

[Uncle Sparky]

http://www.newswithviews.com/Mary/starrett14.htm

BIG BROTHER COMES TO WAL-MART
By Mary Starrett

NewsWithViews.com

Starting this week, the nation's largest discount
retailer will quietly begin selling tracking-chipped
products to clueless shoppers. The first volley in
their war against our privacy is set to start at their
Brockton, Massachusetts store.

Wal-Mart will put Radio Frequency I.D. sensors on
shelves stocked with RFID-tagged Gillette products,
but they'd rather you didn't know about it, because,
hey, you might not like it, and then you might make
noise and then they'd have a big PR mess on their
hands.

You might even stop buying Gillette products or, say,
refuse to shop at Wal-Mart.

These chips, researched at M.I.T.'s Auto-ID Center are
about the size of a grain of sand. Chipsters say the
technology will only be used to help retailers keep
track of inventory - like bar codes. But
privacy-loving consumers question the very concept of
a device that sends out radio waves to "readers" that
not only identify the article, but where and with whom
it's going.

The Big Brother implications of this thing need little
hyping to get your skin crawling.

Wal-Mart's putting the pressure on its top 100
suppliers to make sure their inventory is all chipped
by the end of next year.

But why start this in Brockton, Mass?

Could it be because the store's customers are
typically lower income minorities who'd be less likely
to be aware of the tracking devices, and even less
likely to make a fuss about them?

Their thinking? Let's foist it on folks who're too
concerned about paying the electric bill to be aware
of these types of issues.

Retailers are SUPPOSED to alert their customers to the
tracking chips and offer to "kill" the tags at the
checkout counter.

Don't count on it, because what you don't know won't
hurt you, right? And to PROVE those RFID tags won't be
"killed" at the cash register one of the ways they're
planning on convincing you, the shopper that these
tags are A-OK is by touting how "hassle-free" returns
will be. Huh? If the tags are supposedly turned off at
purchase, how can they be read after the item's
brought back to the store? Just one of the myriad lies
you'll be told about this technology.

Are we to expect that in addition to being asked the
"paper or plastic" question we'll get an option on
whether the RFID tags are left on or turned off? Not
only will consumers be witnessing the death throes of
privacy, but it's going to cost them. Currently, the
chips cost about 60 cents each. Add that to the cost
of each and every item that uses this Orwellian
technology. Gillette and Wal-Mart are only the
pioneers here, the stated plan is to affix each item
produced on the planet with RFID tags. Each pack of
gum, each roll of film, each bottle of Merlot.

So what's a freedom-loving shopper to do?

Fortunately for us, there's a really smart lady
finishing up a Ph.D. at Harvard. She started a group
that's bellowing out the urgency of fighting this
technology; her name is Katherine Albrecht and she's
founder of CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket
Privacy Invasion And Numbering). Albrecht's CASPIAN
has proposed a piece of federal legislation called
"RFID RIGHT TO KNOW ACT OF 2003". It's a law that
would let consumers know which products had tracking
chips attached to them. In short, the proposed bill
would amend the Fair Packaging and Labeling Program by
adding language that requires manufacturers to state
(in a conspicuous location) that the package contains
a radio frequency identification tag that can transmit
unique identification information to a "reader" device
both before and AFTER it's purchased(!).

This is where you come in.

The bill needs a sponsor.

Maybe YOUR Congressional Representative would like to
go on record as having helped stop this assault on our
privacy. Forward this article to him/her and tell them
the entire text of the bill can been seen at
nocards.org.

Will you make it a point to email, call or fax your
representative today, before our Big Brother gets any
bigger? Do it NOW before the lobbyists and big money
special interests get to them and convince Congress
these RFID chips are consumer-friendly!

And while you're at it, why not tell the suits at
Wal-Mart and Gillette (and Home Depot, Proctor and
Gamble and Johnson & Johnson, too, by the way) that
from here on out you wouldn't go near their stores or
their products with a ten foot pole.

It works. Remember back a few months when I told you
how Italian clothing company Benetton had chipped
their Sisely line of clothes and was all set to roll
out the garments with RFID tracking devices? Well your
outrage and feedback caused them to put the scheme on
hold.

Let's make sure the behemoth Wal-Mart is similarly put
on notice. (By the way, IBM's planning to add RFID to
it's products; so if Wal-Mart manages to sneak this
past us, all bets are off and then every corporate
giant will be able to inflict this chilling,
tracking/monitoring horror on us.)

If RFID gets off the ground as planned, that would
make George Orwells' predictions off by just 20 years.

Sounds like fun, eh?

[Spiffor]

The answer : don't shop at Wal-mart anymore. hIt them where it hurt : at the wallet.

[FrustratedPoet]

Sounds like fun, eh?

Doesn't sounds any worse than the "loyalty cards" major chain stores use to get detailed demographic and purchasing information on consumers.

What's the worst they could find out with this tracking system? Your address?

[DanS]

This is just an ad for Albrecht. I'll form my own opinions about the technology, thanks.

[The Templar]

I already avoid WalMart like the plague (not that I have the opportunity to shop there since I moved to the East Village).

They are:

(1) Big time union busters.
(2) Sexual discriminators with a "macho" management structure.
(3) Force people to work off the clock
(4) Destroy small businesses and wreck economies in small towns.

If that isn't enough reason not to shop there on purely ethical grounds, having your privacy raped probably isn't going to stop you either.

"Sure they have tracking devices and **** over their labor force, but I just saved $5 on a DVD player!"

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by The Templar
(1) Big time union busters.
(2) Sexual discriminators with a "macho" management structure.
(3) Force people to work off the clock
(4) Destroy small businesses and wreck economies in small towns.

Have you ever worked there? I can say that I have and they are no worse than any other chain to work for. Point number 2 is just plain ingnorant because I dealt with the walmart management structure and trust me when I say there are plenty of women there giving out orders. Don't believe everything you hear.


BTW. I didn't even like it there but you describe is a gulag system or something.

[Velociryx]

Far worse than that, I fear, Master Stoo.

Consdier:

If a tracking device goes into everything made (except for stuff on the black market, obviously), then they could begin building a profile on you.

Worse, they could begin quietly molding society to see certain activities (as expressed by purchasing patterns) as subversive, corruptive, or traitorous.

Let's say some politician gets his panties in a wad about porn, and passes a law making it illegal to own, period.

How easy would it be to look up everybody who has (or has ever had) a subscription to Playboy?

Bad news, this move.

-=Vel=-

[Sava]

walmart is crap... this doesn't really concern me though, I hated that white-trash magnet store way before

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet

Quote:

Sounds like fun, eh?

Doesn't sounds any worse than the "loyalty cards" major chain stores use to get detailed demographic and purchasing information on consumers.

What's the worst they could find out with this tracking system? Your address?

The thing is "loyalty cards" are completely voluntary, but tracking bug is not. You don't have the option to opt out.

I remain optimistic though, as a counter device will be made to detect these bugs.

[FrustratedPoet]

Vel:

Fair point, but I would say that many of those things already exist. Whenever you buy something with your credit card, or visit a website, or make a phone call the information gets entered on some database somewhere.

Worse, they could begin quietly molding society to see certain activities (as expressed by purchasing patterns) as subversive, corruptive, or traitorous.

This doesn't happen already? It seems to me that governments, the media and advertisers are always trying to tell us what are Good Things and Bad Things to do.

How easy would it be to look up everybody who has (or has ever had) a subscription to Playboy?

erm ... I'm sure this is already possible. I assume that Playboy not only keep accurate records of all current subscribers, but lapsed subscribers too - that way they can bombard them with "Hey, why don't you renew your subscription to Playboy? - now with even bigger titties!" type junk mail.
If porn ever became illegal I'm sure the law enforcement services could happily lay their hands on these sources without the aid of fancy tagging devices.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
The thing is "loyalty cards" are completely voluntary, but tracking bug is not. You don't have the option to opt out.

You always have the option not to buy from a store that tags their products. Or to not vote for a government that makes such tagging compulsory.

I remain optimistic though, as a counter device will be made to detect these bugs.

That's true.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
Fair point, but I would say that many of those things already exist. Whenever you buy something with your credit card what you bought, or visit a website, or make a phone call the information gets entered on some database somewhere.

That's true, but I don't have to use credit cards, or break up my pattern with multiple cards (AmEx, Mastercard, Visa, and Discover). I can also reject cookies from websites, and use public phones to make calls.

[Elok]

Mmm-hmm. Let's not forget that bar codes will soon be planted in our foreheads and palms to Mark us for the Beast...

Let's think about what this is suggesting, okay? There are minute particles the size of a grain of sand. They are presumptively waterproof and securely attached, or they'd cave pretty quickly under regular wear and tear. Such devices would have to have batteries about *how* big to power them? Maybe a pinhead? And with all these size constraints they have to be able to broadcast a radio signal powerful enough to be read and tracked by....what? I don't think they could possibly get the range to tell a satellite. Are there going to be roving wal-mart unmarked tracker vans covering the country? And how precise a signal can you get? Are these things little sand-sized GPS devices?
These things will be mass-produced by the millions and placed in each package of certain wal-mart products. Say Gilette. Gilette makes all its products, regardless of destination, at a factory. Will there be guys in the Wal-mart stockroom frantically shoving sandgrainbots into every package? All at low, low Wal-Mart prices(TM)!!!
Even for a conspiracy theory this is downright silly.

[Velociryx]

Stoo: I quite agree...it happens already, and CAN already be done to a degree.

I'm just sayin' that we ought not make it any easier than it already is. The system proposed would allow macro-level tracking (eventually) of everything that every individual purchases.

That's....more information than I'm willing to give out (not that I'm doing anything illicit, I just don't see that it's any of thier business).

The credit card thing can be easily circumvented by operating with cash (which I do habitually....only rarely do I charge things....usually impulse buys online).

Not so with the tracking devices.



-=Vel=-

[alva]

I remain optimistic though, as a counter device will be made to detect these bugs.

Ad-aware 7 ?
I try to pay as much as I can with cash, never liked being put and classified in databases, never will.

[The Templar]

Originally posted by Sprayber


Have you ever worked there? I can say that I have and they are no worse than any other chain to work for. Point number 2 is just plain ingnorant because I dealt with the walmart management structure and trust me when I say there are plenty of women there giving out orders. Don't believe everything you hear.


BTW. I didn't even like it there but you describe is a gulag system or something.

I have never worked at WalMart, but I did work at two grocery stores when I was a kid. One was unionized (Kroger), the other was not (Winn Dixie). The difference in employee dignity and pay scale and benefits (for full time workers) was readily apparent. Winn Dixie was very much like a gulag, Kroger was tolerable.

[David Floyd]

I already refuse to shop at Walmart, except in an emergency, and even then, I'll only go to Walmarts in high income areas.

[Ted Striker]

Wal-Mart hates us because of our freedom.

[mrmitchell]

This is a bad move for Wal-Mart. I like them just fine (partially because they are cheap and they're the only local economy around here anyways ) but this crosses the line. No no, bad Wal-Mart!

What's the worst they could find out with this tracking system? Your address?

I don't care about my ****in address! Did you read that the article said these things cost sixty cents? I don't want to pay for $hit like that! I just want to buy my product and get lost!

[Asher]

Whoever is worked up over this needs to get a reality check.

The tags are deactivated when you leave the store,

[JohnT]

Here's a link to a factual article, as opposed to some fear-mongering opinion piece.

http://www.business2.com/articles/ma...,39278,00.html

Dayum! A 101 terabyte inventory/sales database?

Betcha they don't run that on Linux.

[JohnT]

Ted, you win "The Most Bizarre and Inane" comment of the day award!

[mrmitchell]

The tags are deactivated when you leave the store,

I always found that reading the article would be helpful.

Retailers are SUPPOSED to alert their customers to the
tracking chips and offer to "kill" the tags at the
checkout counter.

Don't count on it, because what you don't know won't
hurt you, right? And to PROVE those RFID tags won't be
"killed" at the cash register one of the ways they're
planning on convincing you, the shopper that these
tags are A-OK is by touting how "hassle-free" returns
will be. Huh? If the tags are supposedly turned off at
purchase, how can they be read after the item's
brought back to the store? Just one of the myriad lies
you'll be told about this technology.

Best case, the Wal-Mart employees won't know or won't care about the RFIDs and they will be out of range when you leave the store. Worst case, we will not be told of this at all. :spooky:

[JohnT]

Some other facts about Brockton MA and the surrounding county:

White: 89.0% (for the state as a whole 84.5%)
Percentage of adults with HS degrees: 91.3% (84.8%)
Median Household income: $63,432 ($50,502)
Percentage below poverty level 4.6% (9.3%)

Yup... sounds just like your typical "uneducated, poor, minority" hellhole to me.

[JohnT]

Given that the things have a range of ~5 feet, how do you think they are going track you home to get your address?

[JohnT]

Originally posted by mrmitchell

I always found that reading the article would be helpful.

"Opinion piece", not "article." The beginning of knowledge is the proper definition of terms, mrmitchell.

[Oerdin]

I think I've been to Walmart maybe once in the last year.

[mrmitchell]

Given that the things have a range of ~5 feet, how do you think they are going track you home to get your address?

I don't. Yet. Part of the fear in this, I'm assuming, is that one day a grain-sized tracker with a range of, say, a mile will be developed. And then so on. Plus, "slippery slope" applies.

"Opinion piece", not "article." The beginning of knowledge is the proper definition of terms, mrmitchell.

The author apparently brands it as "news with a view". I find all three terms acceptable, although the story did get out of hand toward the end.

[darkgrendel]

Oh. My. God.

This is about the most paranoid article I've ever read. Oh no! Walmart will be able, theoretically, to track what you buy there! As if they'd have the manpower to actually keep profiles on every person who ever shopped there (especially considering that a chunk of those people pay in cash, thus only revealing their identity by way of security cameras- and think how much time and energy would need to go into figuring out who bought what that way!). Moreover, even if they did keep tabs on every Walmart shopper in this way... how does this hurt you, exactly?

And as to the "slippery slope" idea- load of crap, says I. Walmart tracking people's purchases leads to total monitoring of every person at all times, 1984-style? Give me a break.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
Wal-Mart hates us because of our freedom.

Most intelligent onr-liner on 'Poly in a long time