Below is an article.... Read it or don't. It says that tracking chips will
randomly be placed on items sold from Wal*Mart, then all stores will have 'em
on merchandise. It will record your life...... in short. Tell them how you
live...what you buy...etc...etc. It's the size of a grain of sand, that you
won't notice. Send a complaint to wal*mart and congress, etc.
Ice
> NewsWithViews.com
> http://www.newswithviews.com/
>
> BIG BROTHER COMES TO WAL-MART
> http://www.newswithviews.com/Mary/starrett14.htm
>
> By Mary Starrett
>
> June 11, 2003
>
> 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. It's up to us.
>
> © 2003 Mary Starrett - All Rights Reserved
>
> Mary Starrett was on television for 21 years as a news anchor, morning
talk
> show host and medical reporter. For the last 5 years she hosted a radio
> program. Mary is a frequent guest on radio talk shows. E-Mail
> [email protected]
>
> Additional articles by Mary Starrett
> http://www.newswithviews.com/Mary/starrettA.htm
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