[extropy-chat] RFID smartcard passports and driver's licences

[Hal Finney]

Mike Lorrey writes:
> Virtually ANY customer loyalty program card today has an RFID in it. We
> need wallets made from steel mesh cloth to provide shielding for our
> cards from casual scanners. War-walking will be the new form of
> identity theft in the near future, walking past people on  a busy
> street with your card-scanner enabled PDA ripping peoples identities
> without their knowledge...
>
> Furthermore, most shoes sold today have an RFID in the heel. All NIKE
> sneakers do. More and more clothes have them in the seams, to comply
> with Walmart vendor requirements. Most stores already have the
> equipment (not the software) to scan everyone coming into the store to
> see what RFIDs they have on them to make a judgement as to whether that
> person is someone the store wants for a customer.

I did not think that RFID had progressed so far, so fast.  Do you have
any citations to prove any of this?  I only found references to one
loyalty program card at a German store that was testing experimental
RFID technology.  And I couldn't find anything about Nikes having RFIDs,
or clothing.

www.spychips.com is a product of the consumer group CASPIAN which
opposes loyalty cards and other privacy-invasive programs.  They had a
lot of information on the Metro Future store loyalty cards, which were
discontinued after protest.  But nothing about shoes or clothes.  I'm sure
they'd go ballistic if these practices were actually as widespread as
you say.

Hal