By silicon.com, 21 July 2003 14:44
COMMENT The news that Tesco in the UK and WalMart in the US are experimenting with RFID tags linked to CCTV surveillance won't just get some consumers hot under the collar - it will drive them to disobedience. Caspian - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering - is up in arms about 'smart shelf' technology which is being used in a Tesco's in Cambridge in the UK, and in a Massachusetts WalMart. Tags determine when a pack of Gillette Mach3 razors - a high-value item - leave a shelf, alerting a camera to record the aisle in question. Another camera can then be alerted when the earlier pack of razors is checked out, meaning that - in theory - there can be a shoplifting alert whenever the second incident doesn't follow the first. In an unrelated story today, about use of smart card technology at Heathrow airport possibly being used as a modern day punch card one software vendor urged end users to 'get used to it' and urged bosses to educate staff about the benefits, rather than let them dwell on 'Big Brother' stereotypes. After all, it seems monitoring is likely to get more common, mainly in the name of security. However, if retailers think consumers will put up with this kind of tag and track technology they are mistaken. The very least that will be necessary is a system that means a store manager or security guard knows when a pack of Mach3s (extra blade and all) is put down next to the canned goods aisle and not 'lifted'. Otherwise the likely outcome is disobedience of the type that even Sam Walton and the family at WalMart can't deal with.
Comments
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1. anonymous
NO WAY! that's a invation of our lives. I would not be able to take a bath or get dressed and that would make for a smelly world!
2. Debbie Brooks
As much as i hate to say it, but this kind of invasion will infiltrate our lives so unnoticable that we wont even care until its too late!
3. anonymous
I purchased a bottle of shampoo the other day and while taking a shower I looked at the packaging of the bottle and wondered to myself why the lid had the extra plastic layers on it. I just thought it was a waste of plastic, not particularly attractive and just more packaging to go into our landfills. After hearing about the CASPIAN website and reading some of the articles about RFID chips imbedded in the packaging of consumer products it all suddenly made more sense! it does seem Orwellian/1984 times are closer than we'd like to think!
4. Jacki Hopkins
When Gillett think they have the natural right to spy on any consumer which is apparently now. Then as a consumer I can say take your little spy cameras and chips and shove them up yours. Nobody has the right to spy on anyone. Get your damn morals straightened out.
5. David
If gillette didnt charge that ludicrous price then they wouldnt be attractive to steal by skag heads needing a fix. People will buy hooky blades all day long coz there a con.